Join us this spring at Devil’s Den State Park, an Arkansas icon nestled in the Lee Creek Valley, for the Styx & Stones Trail Races. Both the Full and Half Marathon race distances will explore the beautiful new Monument Trail system, Butterfield Hiking Trail, Devil’s Den’s unique rock formations and …
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Join us this spring at Devil’s Den State Park, an Arkansas icon nestled in the Lee Creek Valley, for the Styx & Stones Trail Races. Both the Full and Half Marathon race distances will explore the beautiful new Monument Trail system, Butterfield Hiking Trail, Devil’s Den’s unique rock formations and rock gardens, and given the time of year you may experience running under a seasonal waterfall! The longer the distance, the greater the rewards including creek crossings, big climbs, and more remote technical running that Styx & Stones is so well known for. This year, the event will be free, but we ask that you make a minimum donation of $20 to cover our costs and support the benefiting groups. This is a graduate level trail marathon with significantly challenging and technical terrain. Please be prepared or consider the Half Marathon if you are not an experienced trail runner.
Event Background
From its inception with Mark Den Herder as RD, Styx & Stones has been about celebrating the trail community and giving back; donating 100% of any race proceeds to support the West Fork XC team. We will continue to honor and expand that tradition this year. With the help of our sponsors and your donations, our goal is that 100% will be donated to support the West Fork XC teams, Friends of Devil’s Den, and Ozark Offroad Cyclists, who build and maintain most of our Ozark trails.
Course Description
The route is the same as last year. It’s a challenging route with some good variety! Cut off for the full is 9 hours. You must finish the first loop (13.1 miles) in 4 hours to continue on in the full. If you plan to start early, make sure to let me know. You can expect 2,000+ feet of gain in the Half and 4,000+ feet of gain in the Full. The first few miles are about as technical as Ozark single track gets on the Butterfield Hiking Trail and Gorley King. You’ll have a little bit of double track and also a lot of fast and flowy single track, weaving in and out of epic rock formations and waterfalls and one creek crossing. This is one of the prettiest areas to run in the state and you’re in for a treat! While the course will be adequately marked (overmarked), I encourage you to download this GPX route to your device. If you get lost, it’s your fault. Oh, and if you feel an intersection needs to be marked differently than you would have marked it, please don’t “correct it”. Everyone behind you will get off course. There are so many trails in this network, so again, I highly encourage having the GPX on a device.
Half Marathon – 1 loop
Full Marathon – 2 loops (same direction)
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