The course has a bit of everything, from smooth singletrack, technical singletrack, grassy double track, gravel, and a short bit of pavement. It starts and ends at the field across from Davidson River Campground off FS 5069 near the Pisgah Ranger Station, and passes through several ecosystems on the way round, from acid and rich cove hardwood forest, to thick boreal balsam woods found in more northern climates, to high-elevation mountain balds with long-range views. It also passes multiple waterfalls and moss-covered streams, some of which have to be crossed. Aid stations sit roughly every 4.5 to 8.6 miles and carry at a minimum water and Skratch Labs electrolyte drink, with bananas, orange slices, potato chips, pretzels, PB&J, pickles, Snickers and M&Ms, and most carry hot and cold food that varies by station.
The climbing runs to about 10,500 feet over 62 miles, with several summits above 6,000 feet including Black Balsam Knob and Tennent Mountain. Some of the moss-covered streams the course passes have to be crossed. Weather on the mountain changes fast, which is why every runner and every pacer carries a seam-sealed jacket, an insulating layer, a warm hat, gloves and an emergency bivy the whole way round. If the Blue Ridge Parkway is closed and the course is otherwise in good condition, the race runs an alternate course that does not cross the parkway.
The Looking Glass 100k is one large loop through Pisgah, around Looking Glass Rock, starting and finishing at the field across from Davidson River Campground near the Pisgah Ranger Station. It is about 62 miles with roughly 10,500 feet of climbing and the same again down, over several summits above 6,000 feet including Black Balsam Knob and Tennent Mountain. Underfoot is smooth singletrack, technical singletrack, grassy double track, gravel and a short bit of pavement, past waterfalls and moss-covered streams that runners cross. The gun goes at 4:00 AM and the day is 20 hours long.
Pisgah Forest hosted the first Looking Glass 100k in November 2023. The race was run before that as a 50 mile event, most recently in 2019, and Tanawha Adventures brought it back after a few years of absence.
6 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.
NavRun builds your pacing from your own training, then turns it into a plan your crew can follow: when to leave and where to park.
Start free
