Hello URE Marathon Runners,
We hope you have been doing good and your training has been going well! Here is a quick race update to hopefully answer any questions you may have about the race.
The race will start at 8:00am on Saturday, March 9, 2019 at the Wood Run Trail Head located off of HWY 24/27 west of Troy, NC. GPS Coordinates are 35.310293, - 80.043726. Packet pickup for the race will begin at 6:00am at the start. We'll be limiting the race to 150 runners so lines shouldn't be an issue at packet pickup. Parking is a little limited at the start so if you can carpool it is greatly appreciated. We'll have parking attendants on hand directing traffic so please follow their instructions on where to park so we can get everyone as close as possible to the actual start.
There will be a limited amount of portable toilets at the Start/Finish. Runners can access these before the start, at mile 5.7 and at the finish. There are no other bathrooms on the course so please plan accordingly. If you have to use the wood line while out on the course, please practice Leave No Trace Principles to ensure that others are able to continue to enjoy the beautiful forest that our race is run in.
The course is 26.2 miles long and starts with a 5.7 mile out and back portion on one of the park's gravel forest service roads. Once runners are done with that, they will be back at the start and have access to aid before beginning the 20.5 mile single track trail portion of the course (Same course that Uwharrie 100 runners run). Runners begin the trail portion of the race by entering onto Dutchman's Creek Trail (Yellow Trail Blazes) and follow that north for 11.2 miles until it dead ends into Uwharrie Trail (White Trail Blazes). Runners then head north on Uwharrie Trail until they hit the aid station at mile 17.4 (Kelly's Kitchen) before they turn around and head back south on Uwharrie Trail for 8.8 miles until they are finished back at Wood Run Trail Head.
Manned aid stations are available at mile 5.7, 11.7, 17.4, 20.7, and 26.2. We'll keep them stocked with water and Gatorade. It would be great if you could bring some type of food/beverage to help offset the cost of putting on a free race. We'll consolidate all the donated food/beverages and then disperse it to all of our aid stations. Some suggestions on food/beverages to bring include fruit, canned potatoes, chips, cookies, candy, soda and most importantly, homemade baked goods :)
The course has 4,206 feet of elevation gain with a similar amount of descent. The trail portion is extremely challenging and is in a remote area. It is filled with roots and rocks and there is little to no flat ground. There are several stream crossings throughout the course. Some can be rock hopped but if the stream levels are high, you could be running with wet feet a decent amount of time. We are not trying to discourage anyone from running it, but we just want to make sure that you are fully aware how challenging the course is.
We still are in need of volunteers so if you have any friends or family who would like to be part of the race and help out, they can sign up online here. Volunteering would be a great way for them to see you on other parts of the course that normally wouldn't be accessible to for crew/spectators.
We have a bunch of other information on our website at https://www.uwharrie100.com/ure-marathon/. This includes course maps, elevation profile, crew and spectator information and much more. If you are coming form out of town and have never ran the course, feel free to check out some of our race videos so you can get an idea of the conditions you will encounter on race date at http://www.uwharrie100.com/videos/.
We will be sending out one final race update about a week before the race with bib#'s and any last minute race info. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask. We want to make certain that you have a great race and can't wait to see you out there on race day!
Take care,
Dan and Amanda Paige