One clock, one lap, and as many laps as you can manage. The loop is 0.69045 miles of crushed granite and concrete path around a pond, USATF certified, and it takes 145 laps to reach 100 miles. The race alternates the direction of travel at intervals through the 55 hours, so the same lap runs both ways. You can leave the course whenever you like, as long as you rejoin at the point you left. Only full laps completed inside the 55 hours count. Solo runners and relay teams of five to ten share the same start line and the same clock.
The course is flat: the measurement certificate records a high point of 21.6 metres and a low point of 20.7 metres, a range of about three feet, and no drop between start and finish. What the race asks for instead is two nights and a day on your feet. Several stretches of the loop are very dark after sunset and the footing there can be harder to read.
Snowdrop is 55 hours on a certified loop of 0.69045 miles around a pond in a Missouri City park, run across New Year. You enter solo or as a relay team of five to ten and cover as many laps as you can before the clock stops at 2 p.m. on New Year's Day. The loop is lined with photographs of the children the race raises money for, and most people camp in the tent city beside the course for the two nights. Solo runners take home a belt buckle at 100, 150, 200 and 250 miles.
The first Snowdrop ULTRA 55 was run over New Year 2013 at Sugar Land Memorial Park, and the race later moved to Buffalo Run Park in Missouri City, where the loop has been USATF certified since December 2017. The 55 hours are not arbitrary. They come from a 27-hour operation at Texas Children's Cancer Center, two surgeons who worked through all of it without a break, and one more hour for the patient: two times twenty-seven, plus one. The first edition drew 46 solo runners and 9 relay teams; the 2025 edition drew 159 and 15. The race has raised more than $1.3 million for the Snowdrop Foundation.
| Mile | Station | Cutoff | Crew access | Bag | Pacer | Med | To next |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.00 | Start/Finish | ? | ● | ● | · | ? | ? |
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