ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Sandwiched between the St. Luke’s Half Marathon and the new Bethlehem Running Festival is another new race guaranteed to get your heart rate up.
A new ultramarathon will take place inside Allentown’s Lehigh Parkway in September, organizers with Lehigh Valley Road Runners announced.
- A new ultramarathon foot race has been announced for Sept. 16 in Allentown's Lehigh Parkway
- The race will have contestants run 50k (a little more than 31 miles) around the crushed gravel surface that coats the majority of the parkway path
- Registration is online only through Pretzel City Sports and closes at midnight on Sept. 13.
The event, which will take place on Sept. 16, will be a 50k (a little more than 31 miles) around the crushed gravel surface that coats the majority of the parkway path.
The start and finish area will be in the meadow across from the LVRR clubhouse on Park Drive, race Director Loretta Dodson said.
Lehigh Parkway Ultramarathon will be “a physical challenge as well as a mental challenge.”Race Director Loretta Dodson
“There will be five loops to complete the 50k,” Dodson said, describing the Lehigh Parkway Ultra as “a physical challenge as well as a mental challenge.”
The event will be held rain or shine and there will be no planned roadway closures, according to both Dodson and Genesis Ortega, the city’s communications manager.
There will be a 10-hour time limit to finish the race.
The route and the rules
Once runners head out, they’ll go left to get onto the pathway. From there the course goes:
- Over the bridge on Lehigh Parkway North back into the parkway
- On the trail up the backside of Fish Hatchery Hill (to the right of the Fly Fish House)
- Down the hill, on the sidewalk on the bridge back onto the path
- On the path to the right through the parking lot near Bogart’s Bridge to complete the loop near the race start
The course is considered fast by ultrarunning standards, organizers say, with access to aid stations every few miles.
Runners not up for the 50k challenge can sign up for a relay team, though a minimum of three runners per team are required and a maximum of five runners per team are allowed.
Co-ed relays must have at least one person of the opposite gender on three- and four-person teams, and two members of the opposite gender on five-person teams.
Participants for the 50k must be 18 or older, while relay team members must be 15 or older.
Registration is online only through Pretzel City Sports and closes at midnight Sept. 13. The field size will require a minimum of 50 runners for the event to take place, and the field will be capped at 150 runners.
What is an ultra, anyway?
Ultra running is a race that covers any distance longer than a standard marathon (26.2 miles). A 50k is the shortest standard distance that is considered an ultra.
Other standard distances are the 50-mile, 100-mile, 100 km or other races that last for a specified time period.
While the Lehigh Parkway Ultra will cover 50k from the starting gun, there are ultramarathons in which the finish is days or even weeks away from the start.
The world’s longest certified road race is called the Self-Transcendence, a 3,100 mile race that begins at 6 a.m.
From then until midnight — continuously, for 52 days — participants are required to run the same route, or an average of 59.6 miles per day, with breaks as needed, until the course closes for the night.
In 2022, there were 11 participants. According to online results, only one runner topped 3,000 miles and grabbed the top spot in the race.
