Southern Tour Ultra.
Ten times round the same loop, with almost none of it climbing: the Southern Tour Ultra in Wilmington, North Carolina, lays its 100 miles over a flat ten-mile course of packed sand and single-track. What makes the distance hard here is not the ground but the repetition through the night, and how evenly you can keep moving when nothing forces you to walk.
Southern Tour Ultra 2027: Course, Elevation & Route Profile
There is no separate 100-mile route. Every distance shares the ten-mile course and you run it ten times over, returning each time to where you began. The ascent arrives in small instalments: about 66 metres a lap, spread across gentle undulations with no steep ground anywhere. The 665 metres are really just the sum of many short changes of rhythm.
Underfoot it is packed sand paths and single-track. The sand holds you but gives slightly with every step, and on the narrow sections you need your eyes on the ground. The organiser calls the terrain primarily flat with natural rolling flows, and that is how it runs: never difficult, never quite uniform. An aid station sits on the loop, so you reach it once per lap.
Mid-January means long nights, and at finishing times of a day or more a good share of the laps falls in the dark. The familiar course then becomes a different one: you read the undulations and the single-track only inside the beam of a headlamp, and you run the last laps on legs that have already carried you over the same ground for more than 100 kilometres.
| Start | Length | Ø | Max. | Gain | Cat. |
|---|
Climb categories follow the road-cycling convention and rate the terrain itself (length and gradient) regardless of sport: Cat. 4 marks the easiest rated climbs, Cat. 1 the hardest, and HC (hors catégorie, “beyond categorization”) is reserved for the most brutal ascents. Short climbs below the Cat. 4 threshold stay unrated.
How to pace Southern Tour Ultra.
Start under control
With no steep ground, the usual rule of walking the climbs and taking time back on the descents disappears. You have to prescribe your own walk breaks, starting on the first lap while they still feel unnecessary. Set a fixed run-walk rhythm and plan ten laps of equal cost, not fast early ones and slow late ones.
Hold your rhythm
The race is decided from about the seventh lap, after some 100 kilometres on the same ground. Up to then no climb has shifted the load onto other muscles, so your legs have worked without variety. Anyone still holding the rhythm of the opening laps moves past those reduced to walking.
Spend what is left
The biggest trap stands at the aid station. Five minutes per lap sounds harmless but adds up to nearly an hour, and every long stop makes it harder to get going again. Decide what you need on the way in, and leave at a walk, food still in hand.
Training plan for Southern Tour Ultra: 12-week build
Build the base
Expect roughly 24 to 32 hours. This is an almost entirely aerobic effort without intensity spikes, limited not by strength on climbs but by how long your legs, posture and stomach can tolerate the same task.
Train race pace
Prepare for the late laps with two long sessions on consecutive days, the second on tired legs, on flat ground and in your race run-walk rhythm. Because the load barely changes on race day, monotony is itself the training stimulus: run some of your long sessions as repeats of one loop, with a single stop each time round. That rehearses the short stops and also the mind that, on lap eight, has to stop counting kilometres.
Rehearse the course
The ground needs its own preparation. Sand paths and single-track work feet and calves differently from tarmac, so move your long runs onto soft surfaces wherever you can find them, and test there the shoes you intend to wear for the whole distance.
Arrive fresh
At least two long runs belong in the dark, with your race headlamp and on narrow paths. This date makes that easy to arrange: your longest sessions fall in November and December, the weeks with the shortest days. Eat to a schedule on those runs even without appetite, because at night fuelling decides whether you keep running.
Courses
Download the Southern Tour Ultra course as a GPX file for your watch or bike computer.
Let YOUB adapt your plan for Southern Tour Ultra dynamically
Ben connects your goal, the course, current load, recovery, and calendar. Your plan stays pointed at race day even when real life is not perfectly plannable.
Everything about Southern Tour Ultra.
How long is Southern Tour Ultra?
Southern Tour Ultra is 160.93 km long. That distance shapes how much aerobic endurance, pace durability, and race-specific work belong in the training plan.
How much elevation gain does Southern Tour Ultra have?
Southern Tour Ultra has around 665 m of elevation gain over 160.93 km. That affects pacing, muscular load, and preparation for late-race sections.
What is the route profile of Southern Tour Ultra?
Southern Tour Ultra is classified as Flat, averaging 4.1 vertical metres per kilometre. 71% of the route is flat, 15% climbs moderately (2 to 6%) and 0% is steeper than 6%.
Is Southern Tour Ultra a loop course?
Yes, Southern Tour Ultra is laid out as a loop: start and finish are in the same place.
Is there a GPX file for the Southern Tour Ultra course?
Yes. The Southern Tour Ultra course is on this page as a free GPX download — ready to import into Garmin, Wahoo, Komoot, Strava or any other app that reads GPX.
How should I prepare for Southern Tour Ultra?
Preparation for Southern Tour Ultra should account for 160.93 km, 665 m of elevation gain, current training load, and available training time. An adaptive plan helps place key sessions without ignoring recovery and real life.
What pacing strategy works for Southern Tour Ultra?
The pacing strategy for Southern Tour Ultra should reflect 160.93 km, 665 m of elevation gain, and your current fitness. Start controlled and keep margin for sections where the profile or fatigue makes target pace harder.
When does Southern Tour Ultra take place?
Southern Tour Ultra takes place on January 15, 2027.
Where does Southern Tour Ultra take place?
Southern Tour Ultra takes place in Wilmington, United States.
Which distances does Southern Tour Ultra offer?
Southern Tour Ultra offers 3 distances — 100 Mile: 160.93 km; 50 Mile: 80.47 km; 50K: 50 km.
How do I register for Southern Tour Ultra?
Registration runs through the organiser: southerntourultra.com. YOUB shows you the course, elevation profile and training plan for your preparation.
