Is crew access allowed on the 100K course?

No, crew access is not allowed on the 100K course.

Are drop bags allowed on the 100K course?

Yes, drop bags are allowed on the 100K course. A drop bag is allowed at every aid station. Aid stations 1 and 5 are at the same location, so one bag serves both. Drop bags are left at the start line next to Pavilion 1 from 10:00pm Saturday, labeled with name, bib number and aid station. Large duffel bags, suitcases and coolers are not transported. Bags are picked up at the end of the event, and for two weeks afterward a runner can request one be mailed back at their own cost.

Are pacers allowed on the 100K course?

No, pacers are not allowed on the 100K course.

What is the cutoff time for the 100K course?

The overall time limit for the 100K course is 19 hours from the start.

Ultras · US · PA

Black Forest Ultra

Scheduled

Registration opens at 6pm on November 1, 2026, first come, first served. A waiting list opens once the 150 runner cap is reached.

Race dateOctober 3, 2027

Start12:00am

Whenin 352 days

Who's going to Black Forest Ultra?

I'm running itPlan your weeks and your aid station times I'm crewingWhen to leave, where to park, at every stop I'm pacing or cheeringAsk your runner for their Out Here link

Free. You can start with nothing.

Official website Aid stations Notify me if this race changes

Free, and always will be. NavRun makes money from race-day planning for runners who want it, never from this. Ultras change constantly, sometimes the morning of. Always confirm with the race director and the official website before you rely on anything here.

Distance 63.8 miles

Climb not checked yet

Descent not checked yet

High point not checked yet

Time limit 19:00:00

Aid stations 7

Started not checked yet

Finished not checked yet

Finish rate not checked yet

The course

Where it goes lollipop · 7 aid stations

A lollipop on the Black Forest Trail in Pennsylvania's Sproul State Forest. The first and last stretch is a stick of the Donut Hole and T-Squared trails, run in the dark going out and in daylight coming back, and the loop between is the Black Forest Trail. The course reverses each year, and it starts at midnight. No crews, pacers or spectators.

The course reverses direction each year. In odd years it runs clockwise, and the hardest climbing comes in the back half. Several climbs gain over 1,000 feet in under a mile. Runners follow orange blazes on the Black Forest Trail, with orange ribbon and reflective tags on the stick and through the early part of the loop.

The race

What this one is

A 100K trail ultra on the Black Forest Trail in the Pennsylvania Wilds, starting at midnight from Hyner Run State Park. The course is a lollipop that reverses direction every year, and runners have 19 hours. There are no crews, no pacers and no spectators. Entry is reviewed by the race directors against a trail-race qualifying standard.

Getting in

Getting in Entry, lottery and what the race asks of you before race day.

Lottery: No blackforestultra.com

Lottery opens: not checked yet

Lottery draw: not checked yet

Field cap: 150 blackforestultra.com

Registration: RunSignUp blackforestultra.com

Qualifying: At a minimum, all participants must have completed at least one 50k or longer trail race within the advertised cut-off time before signing up. This must be within 3 years of the registration date. Each potential participant is reviewed by the race directors after the completed registration is received. Timed races can not be used as a qualifying race. blackforestultra.com

Minimum age: not checked yet

Transfers: No blackforestultra.com

Deferrals: Yes blackforestultra.com

Running, crewing, pacing or still deciding

How NavRun helps with Black Forest Ultra Nineteen hours, and five stations with a clock on each.

You are running it

You reach Hill of Difficulty, mile 34.9, before its 10:30am cutoff, and you already knew that this morning.

An arrival time for all 5 stations, each next to its cutoff, worked out from your own training.

Start free →

You are deciding

You find out Black Forest Ultra is months of work away, not years, and you go and get the qualifier.

Put in a race you have already run. NavRun shows you where this one sits from where you are.

No account needed →

Crew access, pacers and drop bags

The rules that shape your day Anything marked "not checked yet" is a gap in what we hold, never a no from the race.

Crew allowed: No blackforestultra.com

Vehicles per runner: not checked yet

Pacers: No blackforestultra.com

Muling: not checked yet

Drop bags: Yes blackforestultra.com

Cupless: Yes blackforestultra.com

Course marking: Fully Marked blackforestultra.com

Night running: Yes blackforestultra.com

Dogs: Not allowed blackforestultra.com

Headphones: not checked yet

Crew rules: No crews, pacers, spectators, or any support of any kind is allowed at any aid station or along any part of the course. Friends and family are encouraged to volunteer at aid stations, sweep, help with on-course logistics, or serve food at the finish line. blackforestultra.com

Pacer rules: No pacers are allowed. blackforestultra.com

Drop bag rules: A drop bag is allowed at every aid station. Aid stations 1 and 5 are at the same location, so one bag serves both. Drop bags are left at the start line next to Pavilion 1 from 10:00pm Saturday, labeled with name, bib number and aid station. Large duffel bags, suitcases and coolers are not transported. Bags are picked up at the end of the event, and for two weeks afterward a runner can request one be mailed back at their own cost. blackforestultra.com

Cutoff philosophy: not checked yet

Aid stations

Every stop, and what you get there ● yes ○ no ? nobody has checked – does not apply to this race

Mile	Station	Cutoff	Crew access	Bag	Pacer	Med	To next
0.00	Hyner Run State Park	?	?	?	?	?	7.90
7.90	By-Path Meadow	2:30am	○	●	○	?	12.20
20.10	Damn Hollow	6:00am	○	●	○	?	14.80
34.90	Hill of Difficulty	10:30am	○	●	○	?	9.80
44.70	Giant Despair	1:45pm	○	●	○	?	11.20
55.90	By-Path Meadow	5:00pm	○	●	○	?	7.90
63.80	Hyner Run State Park	7:00pm	?	?	?	?	?

Same race, other lines

Other distances and other years

Other years: 2026

What it looks like out there

Somebody has been out there with a camera the tables say the climb is long. these say what long feels like.

One person has been out there with a camera or a microphone.

Social account

Black Forest Ultra 100k on Instagram

Social account

These are other people's work and we link straight to them. Watching costs nothing and needs no account. More of them: every race we hold, on film.

Add to this page

What you know every one of these is read by a person before it changes anything

Ran this race? Tell the next runner what you know.

Nobody sees it until we have read it. No account, no sign-in.

Which distance? Leave blank if it applies to the whole race.

Which stop? Leave blank if it is not about one particular stop.

Give it a short title: Optional. Something like “Cal Street, mile 62 to 78”.

What do you wish someone had told you? Write it the way you would say it to someone at the start line.

Were you there? Optional, and it decides nothing. It only tells the next runner where this is coming from.

What year? Optional.

Your email: Optional, and never shown on the page. Only so we can ask you a question about this note.

Website: Leave this field blank.

See something wrong or out of date? Suggest an edit.

This changes nothing on the page on its own. Somebody checks it against the race first.

Which detail? Optional. Filled in for you when you start from a specific line on the page.

What does the page say now? Copy it as it appears, so we can find it.

What should it say? The corrected value.

How do you know? Required. Where it came from: the race email, the runner manual, what you saw on the day.

A link that shows it: Optional.

Or a photo of it: Optional. A screenshot or a photo of the sign works.

Were you there? Optional, and it decides nothing.

What year? Optional.

Your email: Optional, only so we can come back to you about this correction.

Which distance? Leave blank if it is about the whole race.

Which stop? Leave blank if it is not about one particular stop.

Website: Leave this field blank.

Seen a course preview or a film of this one? Send it over.

Somebody watches it before it goes anywhere near this page. What we are after is footage of this course, on the ground. If it would be just as true of any other race, it is not this.

What does it show that the page cannot? Required. A line is plenty. Where the climbs are, what the footing does, what the last twenty miles look like.

Were you there? Optional, and it decides nothing.

What year? Optional.

Your email: Optional, and never shown on the page. Only so we can ask you a question about this one.

Where is it? A YouTube link, a race report, a photo gallery, whatever it is.

What kind of thing is it?

Who made it? Optional, and we credit them on the page.

Website: Leave this field blank.

Have the GPX? Send us the link.

We want the address of the file the race publishes, not the file. We download it from there so the page can say where the line came from.

Are you the race director? Get in touch and we'll make it right.

We read every one of these and we write back. Every fact here carries the source it came from, and the way a wrong one gets fixed is a person checking it against what you tell us.

Where this came from. Every fact on this page records its source and when we last checked it: 92 sources for this race. Hover a source link to read the sentence it came from.

33% of what we track for a course is filled in. The rest says "not checked yet" rather than guessing.

See something wrong or out of date? Suggest an edit
Ran this race? Tell the next runner what you know
Got footage of this course? Send us the link
Are you the race director? Get in touch and we'll make it right.
Anything else: [email protected]

Ultras change. We will tell you when this one does.

Cutoffs move, races get postponed, lotteries open and close. We read the race's own sources and record where every fact came from. Put your email in and we will send you what changed, and where we read it.

No account, and nothing to cancel.

What happens to your email. Nothing else. I do not sell it, and I will not send you anything except this race changing. One click gets you out.

I keep this catalog because the information is scattered and hard to trust. Telling you when it moves is the same job.