Natchez Trace Trail Run

The Natchez

Natchez Trace Trail Run Saturday, November 7, 2026 Garrison Creek · Franklin, Tennessee 50 Mile · Marathon · Half Marathon · 13 Mile Ruck Field capped at 180 · This race sells out every year Instagram · Facebook · hardwinadventures.com

The Race

The Race An Old Road That Still Asks Something Of You Two hundred years ago this was the loneliest highway in America. Boatmen walked home on it. The Army cut it wider. The forest took most of it back. On the first Saturday of November we run what is left. The Natchez Trace Trail Run is held on the Highland Rim section of the Natchez Trace National Scenic Trail, starting from the Garrison Creek trailhead south of Franklin, Tennessee. Roughly 25 miles of singletrack follows the ridges above the old road bed, with creek crossings, a handful of road crossings, and long uninterrupted stretches where you will not see another runner for an hour. It is not a mountain race. The climbs are honest rather than brutal, which is exactly what makes it dangerous. Runners go out too fast on the runnable early miles and pay for it in the last fifteen. Smart pacing, steady fueling, and respect for the second half are what get people to the finish. Peak fall color usually lands right on race weekend.

10,000 years+

10,000 Years of Footsteps Now add yours Animal Paths Mammoths and bison cut it first Native Nations Natchez, Chickasaw, Choctaw Kaintucks Walking home from Natchez Post Riders Nashville to Natchez mail Runners November 7. You

The Distances

Four Ways To Run It Distances Distance Start Format Entry 50 Mile 6:00 AM CST Out and back from Garrison Creek. Up to 8,000 feet of gain. $131.30 Marathon 7:00 AM bus One way. Bus to the far trailhead, run back. Bonus 2.5 mile loop available. $103.43 Half Marathon 9:00 AM bus One way, point to point on the same trail. $87.50 13 Mile Ruck 10:00 AM bus HardRuck division. Weigh in 30 minutes before start. $87.50 Pricing includes fees as listed and can change. Shirts are a separate add on.

Cutoffs and Rules

Cutoffs 1:00 PM · Mile 23 50 mile turnaround. Miss it and your day ends there. 7:00 PM · Mile 46 Last pass through the start area before the final 3.5 mile segment. Rules Of The Trace Hydration Carry your own. Cupless race Aid stations About every 5 miles Pacers Not allowed Outside aid Not allowed Crew Designated rest stops only Parking No Parkway roadside parking Course cutting or litter Disqualification

RD FKT

Race Director The Race Director Holds The FKT On The Natchez John Hardin holds the current supported speed record for the full 444 mile Natchez Trace Parkway, set in December 2024. It stands as the fastest known time on the route. 444 Miles, Natchez to Nashville 6d 23h 40m Supported, fastest known time, December 2024 The crew Keith, Koah and John. Seven days of rolling aid station and dog kisses

Course Records

Every Distance Course Records 50 Mile Men 1 Bob Adams 7:32:13 2023 2 James Ebert 7:57:09 2023 3 Anthony Groft 7:58:29 2022 Women 1 Jewly Hight 9:33:23 2023 2 Greta Conlon 9:55:28 2025 3 Sally Thompson 10:06:02 2018

Course Records: Marathon

Marathon Men 1 Kevin Mills 3:25:27 2020 2 Bruce Johnson 3:45:59 2021 3 Cody Case 3:48:35 2023 Women 1 Brooke Yowler 4:24:00 2024 2 Amy Macintire 4:34:07 2018 3 Francesca Muccini 4:34:22 2021

Course Records 13 Miles

13 Miles Men 1 Ryan Paxton 2:09:22 2025 2 Ryan Balch 2:09:46 2025 3 Dan Albert 2:12:36 2023 Women 1 Stephanie Dickson 2:20:45 2023 2 Annie Moore 2:30:51 2024 3 Jennifer Wenneker 2:34:36 2024 Fastest recorded times per UltraSignup and UltraRunning Magazine. UltraSignup reports the half marathon and the 13 mile ruck in a single 13 mile pool, so those two are listed together.

Hard Ruck Records

13 Mile Ruck Men 1 Bryon Cuthbert 2:52:18 2024 2 Adam Wood 2:56:04 2024 3 John Winborn 2:57:38 2025 Women 1 Sarah Mattson 3:23:42 2025 2 Amanda Tidwell 3:31:18 2022 3 Angela Bosma 3:36:03 2024 Fastest recorded times per UltraSignup and UltraRunning Magazine. HardRuck records compiled from the official ruck division results, 2022 to 2025.

Hard Ruck Division

HardRuck Division Carry The Weight Over 150 pounds bodyweight carries 20 pounds dry. Under 150 pounds carries 10 pounds dry. Use a steel ruck plate, weight vest blocks, bumper plates, or anything with the weight clearly stamped on it. Weigh in is 30 minutes before your start. Weight stays on the entire distance and random checks happen on course. A weighted vest division is offered for 2026 with the load distributed across the torso.

Awards

Awards Top 3 male and female overall in every distance Finisher award for everyone who gets it done Shirts are a separate purchase Logistics Start and finish at the Garrison Creek Rest Stop, Natchez Trace Parkway milepost 427.6 Buses depart for one way distances at the posted times. Arrive early Snacks and water at the finish No alcohol permitted at the park Expect frost at the 6:00 AM start and 60s by afternoon

The Old Road

Bonus Miles The Old Road, If You Want The Story The Park Service calls this corridor an avenue of travel, trade and conflict for more than 10,000 years. It began as bison paths to the salt licks of Middle Tennessee and became the road of three nations: the Natchez on the southern bluffs, the Choctaw in the middle, the Chickasaw up here. When de Soto's Spaniards demanded two hundred Chickasaw people as porters, Chickasaw warriors burned his camp to the ground in one night in March 1541, and Europeans did not try again for 150 years. The French built Fort Rosalie at Natchez in 1716, took Natchez land for tobacco, and after the 1729 revolt destroyed the Natchez nation and sold its survivors into slavery. The American road came by treaty with the Chickasaw and Choctaw in 1801. The Army widened the footpath to a wagon road, and the soldiers garrisoned south of Franklin gave Garrison Creek, your start line, its name. By 1810 roughly ten thousand Kaintuck boatmen a year were walking home on it, four hundred plus miles, because you cannot float a flatboat upstream. Travelers called it the Devil's Backbone for the remoteness and the highwaymen. The worst, Samuel Mason, signed his robberies "Done by Mason of the Woods" and was finally killed by two of his own men for the bounty on his head. Meriwether Lewis died on this road on October 11, 1809, at Grinder's Stand, seventy miles southwest of Nashville. Gunshots in the dark, no witness, suicide or murder never settled, a broken column over his grave at milepost 385.9. And not all the traffic chose to be there: enslaved people were marched south in coffles to the Natchez slave market until Federal troops tore it down in 1863. Steamboats killed the road, the forest took it back, and the ghost of it is what you race.

Last Part - SPLASH

Walk It, Run It, Carry Weight On It Ten thousand people a year once went north on this ground because they had no other way home. You get to choose it. November 7, 2026. Field capped at 180 and it sells out every year. Instagram · Facebook · hardwinadventures.com Presented by HardWin Adventures · Franklin, Tennessee