Free. You can start with nothing.
From Natural Chimneys the 100K climbs Narrow Back Mtn, descends to the Wolf Ridge climb, connects to Timber Ridge, crests Sand Spring Mtn and descends Sand Spring Trail, reaches North River Gap and climbs the Wild Oak National Recreation Trail over Lookout and Hankey Mountains, descends Magic Moss to Camp Todd, climbs the Horse Trough Hollow and Little Bald Knob, crosses Chestnut Ridge to Grindstone Mtn and back to North River Gap, then retraces the Tillman Trail back over Narrow Back Mtn to the finish at Natural Chimneys.
A trail ultramarathon run through the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests west of Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, offering 100 Mile, 100K, 50K and 21K distances from a shared start/finish at Natural Chimneys Park. The 100 Mile starts at 6:00 PM Friday and carries a 36-hour cutoff, so every finisher is on the course for two nights. Part of the UTMB World Series since 2023; a dual qualifier for the UTMB World Series Finals in Chamonix and the Western States Endurance Run.
Founded in 2008 by Dr. Clark Zealand as an out-and-back 100-miler starting and finishing at Camp Shenandoah, a Boy Scout of America camp near Swoope, Virginia, climbing Elliott's Knob in both directions. It ran as the fourth race in Virginia's "Beast Series" (Holiday Lake 50k, Terrapin Mountain 50k, Promise Land 50k, Grindstone 100M, Mountain Masochist 50 Mile, Hellgate 100k). The race has started at 6:00 PM Friday since its first year in 2008. In 2023 it joined the UTMB World Series and was rebranded Grindstone Trail Running Festival by UTMB; the start/finish moved from Camp Shenandoah to Natural Chimneys Park & Campground in Mount Solon, Virginia (about 20 miles away, also in Augusta County) to accommodate a larger field, and 100K, 50K and 21K distances were added alongside the original 100 Mile. The night start has continued unchanged through both the rebrand and the venue move. Many third-party listings (Wikipedia, the American Trail Running Association's event database, and other race-aggregator sites) still describe the pre-2023 Camp Shenandoah course and Swoope address as current; they have not been updated for the relocation.
| Mile | Station | Cutoff | Crew access | Bag | Pacer | Med | To next |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.00 |
Natural Chimneys - Start
1,342 ft
|
? | ● | ● | ? | ? | 5.70 |
| 5.70 |
Lick Run 1
1,759 ft
|
? | ? | ? | ? | ? | 5.70 |
| 11.40 |
Wolf Ridge
1,814 ft
|
9:00am | ? | ? | ? | ? | 9.60 |
| 21.00 |
Sand Spring
1,936 ft
|
11:45am | ? | ? | ? | ? | 4.20 |
| 25.20 |
North River Gap 1
1,611 ft
|
1:00pm | ● | ● | ? | ? | 5.70 |
| 30.90 |
Lookout Mountain
2,595 ft
|
? | ? | ? | ? | ? | 7.20 |
| 38.10 |
Magic Moss
2,310 ft
|
4:30pm | ? | ? | ? | ? | 5.00 |
| 43.10 |
Camp Todd
2,359 ft
|
6:00pm | ● | ● | ? | ? | 9.70 |
| 52.80 |
North River Gap 2
1,611 ft
|
9:00pm | ● | ● | ? | ? | 7.70 |
| 60.50 |
Lick Run 2
1,759 ft
|
? | ? | ? | ? | ? | 4.50 |
| 65.00 |
Natural Chimneys - Finish
1,342 ft
|
12:00am | ● | ● | ? | ? | ? |
2 people have been out there with a camera or a microphone.
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.
Nobody sees it until we have read it. No account, no sign-in.
This changes nothing on the page on its own. Somebody checks it against the race first.
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.
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.
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.
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.
