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Leatherwood Marathons

🌲 LEATHERWOOD ULTRA
APRIL 11, 2026 – FERGUSON, NC
HOSTED BY DIRTY WOLF RACING
🐺 THE TRAIL TAKES WHAT IT WANTS

This is not a race. It’s a ritual.
A trial by mountain. A slow unmaking.

Set deep in the ancient folds of the Leatherwood Mountains — on private trails where few humans go, and fewer return unchanged — this course does not welcome you. It tolerates you, for a time.

Each loop is a reckoning.
Each climb is a question.
And if you’re lucky, by the end, you’ll have an answer worth bleeding for.

🩸 DISTANCES TO UNDO YOU

Each race is built on a 12-mile loop with 3,050 feet of elevation gain per loop — steep, rugged, and unrelenting. You’ll climb, descend, and climb again, with no flat reprieve. Only roots, rock, mud, and madness.

Choose your poison:

25K – One loop – 3,050 ft gain
A taste of the mountain’s edge — just enough to scar you.

50K – Two loops + an out-and-back – 6,050 ft gain
It starts as a run. It ends as a reckoning.

50-Miler – Four full loops – 12,200 ft gain
Up. Down. Up again. And again. You’ll start forgetting what level ground feels like.

100-Miler – Eight loops – 24,400 ft of gain
That’s more than Everest from sea level. Except here, it’s slick, dark, and personal.

🌘 THE FOREST DOESN’T SLEEP

The trail is marked — technically. Orange ribbons and yellow arrows guide the way. But after a few loops, the signs start to blur.
The switchbacks feel longer.
The air feels heavier.
And somewhere between Alpha and Omega, you’ll start to wonder if you’re being watched.

Maybe it’s just the hunger.
Or maybe the trail remembers everyone who’s ever quit here.

🕗 RACE DAY – APRIL 11

Gates open: 7:00 AM

Bib Pickup: 7:10–7:50 AM

Race Start: 8:00 AM SHARP

Course closes: 5:30 PM

100-Miler Cutoff: 36 hours — no exceptions, no mercy

Early packet pickup available Friday — in case you want to walk the starting line before it takes you.

🔥 AID STATIONS — WHERE THE LIVING GATHER

Three per loop:

Alpha – Crew access

Wolf Fang – No crew, just your demons

Omega – Where hope flickers dim

Stocked with:

Water, Tailwind, soda

Candy, bacon, fruit, pickles

Salt. You’ll need it.

Basic first aid — but the real wounds run deeper

🎖️ FOR THOSE WHO FINISH

Handmade pottery medal — no plastic, no mass production. Just mud, fire, and form.

Race swag for all

Results posted on UltraSignup

Photos released one week after (assuming the cameras survived)

Tag your moments of madness:
@dirty_wolf_racing
#leatherwoodultra #dirtywolfracing

🐾 RULES OF THE RITUAL

No dogs. No strollers. No ghosts.

No refunds. If the weather turns, so do the odds — but the race goes on

No unregistered runners. You face this alone

Deferments available by request — but only before the forest has your name

Requirements

We have one requirement that if you sign up for the 100 Miler that at dusk you have a pacer with you due to safety to help you along the way.

Accomodations

🏕️ SLEEP CLOSE TO THE SHADOWS

Cabins

Leatherwood Mountains Cabins – 45+ rustic hideaways

Some have hot tubs… though water won’t wash away what this trail will do to you

Book direct: leatherwoodmountains.com
| 336-973-4142

Camping

Creekside Campground – Tent & RV sites with water, power, and flickering lights

Call 336-973-5044 to reserve

Sleep lightly. The woods never do.

🩻 REGISTER IF YOU DARE

Leatherwood doesn’t care about your pace, your crew, or your polished training plan.
It only wants to know one thing:

What are you willing to leave behind to finish?

Sign up. Show up. Suffer.
And maybe — if it lets you — come back changed.
https://www.leatherwoodmountains.com/