Georgia Death Race

The Georgia Death Race runs from the Byron Herbert Reece Farm outside Blairsville to Amicalola Falls State Park, taking in the Duncan Ridge and the Benton MacKaye Trail on the way. The organiser calls it 74ish miles, states 16,000 feet of climbing and the same again in descent, and gives runners 25 hours. Every entrant carries a one-pound railroad spike from the start; finishers hand it in and get an engraved one back.

The gun is at 5:00 a.m. on the Saturday, with buses leaving Amicalola at 2:50 a.m. and packet pickup the night before, which is mandatory. No pacers are allowed anywhere on the course. A finish under 24 hours is a Western States 100 qualifier, which the race has been for more than a decade.

It has been run since 2013 and has grown twice: 60 miles for its first two years, 68 from 2015 to 2019, and the present course since 2020. Entry is straight sign-up on UltraSignup and it sells out fast.

Point to point from the Byron Herbert Reece Farm pavilion, near Blairsville, to Amicalola Falls State Park at Dawsonville, with twelve aid stations before the finish. The organiser states 16,000 feet of climbing and 16,000 of descent over 74ish miles, and publishes an aid chart whose cut-offs are the times a runner must have left each station by: White Oak at 7.5 miles by 7:50 a.m., Skeenah Gap at 21 by noon, Jake Bull at 51 by 10 p.m., the Visitors Center at 69.25 by 5:00 a.m., and the finish at 6:00 a.m., 25 hours out. The two course records the race publishes were both set in 2018, when the course was 68 miles rather than the present 74, and the note beside them saying they reflect the current course does not hold: neither time appears in any 74-mile edition.

Entry is first-come sign-up on UltraSignup, with no lottery, no application and no qualifying time. The organiser's own advice is to sign up the moment registration opens because it almost always sells out within 24 hours, and to join the waitlist afterwards. The 2027 window opened on April 6, 2026 and closes on March 26, 2027, at $265; by the end of August 2026 UltraSignup showed 426 entrants and one place left. Every 2027 entrant must also do six hours of volunteering at any trail race, or trail maintenance, or pay $20 to a trail association instead. The race publishes no field cap.