Hey Fire Tower peeps, we’re here with news about a small course change for 2025!
This post will dive deep into all the details, but we know a lot of you just want the TL;DR, so here it is:
We’re adding on a small bit of horse trail at the start so that we can remove some gravel road, simplify the Overlook intersection, and better space out the aid stations. The new distances between stations are listed below for the 100K/50K race, and you can check the website for more details on other distances. There is no change for 11K and a very minor change for 35K.
Aid Stations (100K/50K)
| Aid Station | Total Distance | Distance to Next AS | Drop Bags / Crew | Cut-off |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Start / Finish | 0 | 5.5 | ||
| Gate 31 | 5.5 | 5.7 | Drop bags | |
| Fire Tower | 11.2 | 6.1 | Drop bags | |
| Overlook | 17.3 | 5.2 | Drop bags, Crew (100K ONLY) | |
| Overlook | 22.5 | 6.3 | Drop bags, Crew (100K ONLY) | |
| Gate 31 | 28.8 | 3.5 | Drop bags | |
| Start / Finish (50K Finish) | 32.3 | 3.9 | Drop bags, Crew (100K ONLY), Pacers (100K ONLY) | 2:30pm for 100K starting 2nd loop |
| Gate 31 | 36.2 | 5.6 | Drop bags | |
| Fire Tower | 41.8 | 5.8 | Drop bags | 5:15pm |
| Overlook | 47.6 | 5.6 | Drop bags, Crew (100K ONLY), Pacers (100K ONLY) | 7:30pm |
| Overlook | 53.2 | 6.3 | Drop bags, Crew (100K ONLY) | 8:40pm |
| Gate 31 | 59.5 | 3.6 | Drop bags | 11:00pm |
| Start / Finish | 63.1 | All racers must finish by 11:59pm |
Time for a deep dive…
Ok, if you’re still reading you asked for it. Here’s a deep dive into the behind-the-scenes of how race directing works. One of the things that RD Jamison LOVES is designing courses. He can sit and stare at a map all day long and plot out new and interesting ways to get from point A to point B. However, when you finally want to put on that race you need to settle in on a course so that everyone knows what’s up. But that doesn’t mean you stop thinking, and stop tweaking.
That’s what we’ve done with this year’s course update. After a few years of holding Fire Tower we’ve learned more about what works, and what doesn’t, and we want to make sure we’re growing and improving every year. To that end we went into this planning season with a couple key ideas in mind:
- How can we simplify the intersection at Overlook? Our amazing team at the Overlook aid station has one of the most complex series of directions to manage for every different racer that comes to them. We want to make that easier by giving them a better route for where to send runners when they come in.
- How can we reduce gravel road time? Sure gravel roads are fast, but when you’re doing the 50K or 100K, a couple miles less of gravel probably sounds pretty appealing.
- Can we shorten the final horse trail section from Overlook to Gate 31 and reduce the amount of time on Kennedy Brook and Bear Creek Trail? We’ve heard loud and clear that this section is rough on people, and we get it. It’s a long distance between stations. As pretty as it is, we wanted to see if we could make some slight adjustments here.
What did we come up with? Simple, we’re going to send everyone out on a roughly 2 mile loop of horse trail to the north of Start/Finish before you head out on the main part of the course. By front-loading with a little bit of extra distance we can do a few things:
- Eliminate the out-and-back road section when you get to Overlook 2. Now, once you’ve completed the Two Rivers Trail you’ll be directed directly on to Kennedy Brook/Bear Creek trail to head back to Gate 31.
- We were able to knock off almost a mile between Overlook 2 and Gate 31 on your way back. This means that no aid station is more than roughly 6.3 miles apart.
- As an added bonus, your first station has moved to 5.5 miles from the start which is much better spacing. The original distance was just over 3 miles and it felt very quick to be coming across an aid station that early in a race. Note: Your distance back from Gate 31 to the Finish line is still just over 3 miles! We’re just padding the outbound side of things.
Full disclosure, this does make the 50K race closer to 52K. But don’t worry, we’re not going to charge you extra for those added K! We’re giving those to you for free!!! The 100K will NOT do the extra horse trail loop on their second time out and so should be darn close to 100K when you finish.
11K will NOT do the horse loop. The course will remain the same.
35K will do the horse loop but will still turn around at Overlook and simply head back the way they came, and we removed the road section around Overlook.
With these changes we feel like we’ve made the course even better for all of you. It gives you better spacing between aid stations, less gravel road, less Bear Creek Trail time, and a less confusing time at the Overlook aid station.
We’re hopeful that this will be a great change for all of you, and we can’t wait to see all of you soon in October!
Fire Tower Trail Races 