The Perfect Ten & Five Mile Road Race

Our 10th Annual Rail Trail 10K Race!

The Road Runners Club of America Eastern Region 10K Championship!

START TIME IS 8AM

THE COURSE

100% on the Rail Trail with no cars and no street crossings.

Flat and picturesque out-n-back running through Fall's natural beauty.

Venue: New Haven / Northampton

Railroad Canal Line Main Parking Lot

4340 Farmington Heritage Canal Trail

Hamden, CT. 06518

Plenty of parking in all Rail Trail lots plus on-street

Poland Spring Water & Gatorade Endurance at Mile 2.4 and 3.6

Course Map on Strava

THE ENTRANT STUFF

Men's & Women's Cut Short Sleeve Tech T-shirts for all entrants.

Gorgeous 3” Custom Finisher Medals! BEST 10K MEDAL IN CT! You will have a choice of Medal Color!

Poland Spring Water & Gatorade Endurance at the finish line for Finishers

Results are texted, emailed and live streaming.

Custom awards to the top 3 Men and Women overall and in all 5 year divisions (from 5 years old to 80+)

Porto-Lets at the venue

FREE Downloadable Race Photos and Finisher Certificate by EliteFeats

TIMING AND RESULTS

Transponder Timing and Results with “Gun” and “Net” time. Awards based on gun time.

Results will be live streaming and emailed and texted to you once you finish.

CUTOFFS AND EARLY STARTS

There are no time cutoffs and no early starts for this race.

THE HISTORY

2017: Our inaugural Rail Trail 10K Race debuted with a large field of runners. We are bringing the 10K back!

2020: The race was cancelled due to Covid19.

2021: We are back!

2023: We are the 10K State Championship for the Road Runners Club of America!

2024: We are once again the RRCA State Championship 10K.

2025: We are the RRCA State Championship for the 3rd year in a row!

2026: Our 10th Anniversary and the Road Runners Club of America Eastern Region Championship Race!

PRICING STRUCTURE

10/19/2025 - 12/31/2025: $55

1/1/2026 – 10/1/2026: $60

10/3/2025: $65 In-Person Registration

(Cash, Venmo, Checks made out to "CASH" only.

*No Cards on race day

TRANSFER & DEFERRAL INFO

You may TRANSFER your registration to another athlete until 9/3/2026 for $25.

This is done by you on-line through Active

THIS IS A HARD DEADLINE. NO EXCEPTIONS.

You may DEFER your entry to the 2026 Race until 9/3/2026 for $25, paid through our Venmo (ShorelineSharks) and email [email protected].

We will confirm the deferral and you will be manually removed from 2026 and manually entered into 2027.

THIS IS A HARD DEADLINE. NO EXCEPTIONS

*Active.com offers an insurance plan for a fee but we are not involved with that. Active will refund you, not us.

RACE DAY

Saturday 10/3/2026

Dawn is 6:23am, Sunrise is 6:51am

7:00am: Registration and Bib/Shirt Pickup Opens

7:45am: Registration and Bib/Shirt Pickup Closes

8:00am: Race Starts

8:35am: First Finishers

10:00am: Final Finishers & Venue Closed

New Haven / Northampton

Railroad Canal Line Main Parking Lot

4340 Farmington Heritage Canal Trail

Hamden, CT. 06518

Bring photo ID

PARKING

Plenty of parking at all of the Rail Trail lots and on the street (where legal)

No Parking at the Dunkin Donuts / Amity Liquors Lot

Google Map Link

Event details and schedule

TOWER TAG CHALLENGE!

Come run the Tower Tag Challenge in the iconic Sleeping Giant State Park. Known for its amazing views of the surrounding landscape, Sleeping Giant offers a variety of trails. Near the entrance to the park is the Tower Trail, a mostly smooth carriage road ascending 600'+ in 1.5 miles to the top of the park to the Observation Tower, where on a clear day you can see the Long Island Sound. The race will be solely up and down the tower trail with a short paved section at the start/end of each loop. 8 Hour/4 Hour options will give you a choice of how many times you think you can complete the out and back.

REGISTRATION

A portion of the proceeds will go to the Sleeping Giant Park Association. Refund Policy: There will no refunds and/or no transfers of your registration or bib to any other person. Entry fees collected are used to develop and produce the event, starting well in advance of the race date--including course preparation, race supplies, permits, and administration.

SWAG/AWARDS

We have some great swag/awards for the event. Finisher medals from Ragged Cuts plus plenty of goodies from our sponsors! Awards for Top 3 podium for Overall Male/Female in each distance. For further info, please see the event website.

THE COURSE

This is a pretty simple course...you go up, you come back down. Each "Tower Tag" attempt will start at the pavilion inside the park and in less than 0.2 miles, you'll be on the Tower Trail. Head up the winding crushed gravel path to the Observation Tower, counter clockwise around it and head back down the way you came. Each attempt will be 3.4 miles. How many can you challenge yourself to do?

POST RACE

You’ve just finished an epic run! Enjoy your accomplishment, sit back, relax, and don’t forget to cheer on all the runners coming in behind you! We will have plenty of food throughout the day for everyone plus some awesome beverages from Athletic Brewing Company as well as other non-alcoholic offerings.

ADDITONAL INFO

For more info and course maps, please go to https://steependurance.com/event/trail-running-race/tower-tag-challenge/

Event's current local time: 5:10 AM ET

SLEEPING GIANT TRAIL RUNS!

The Sleeping Giant Trail Runs will be one of the toughest, gnarliest races in the Northeast! Considered one of the more iconic parks and popular trail running/hiking spots in Connecticut for outdoor enthusiasts, it offers every kind of trail imaginable. There are 30+ miles in the park with everything from smooth carriage roads to the more technical, rocky, winding singletrack that Connecticut is famous for. This will be a beast of a course with 3K+ of vertical in the 25K loop. If you think you can handle two loops, then it's a 50K for you! In comparison to our difficult Macedonia Trail Race 25K/50K, this course will run even harder. With 250+ registered in both 2025/2026, this is one of our more popular events. Don't miss out on the adventure!

REGISTRATION

A portion of your registration will go to the Sleeping Giant Park Association.Refund Policy: There will no refunds and/or no transfers of your registration or bib to any other person. Entry fees collected are used to develop and produce the event, starting well in advance of the race date--including course preparation, race supplies, permits, and administration.

SWAG/AWARDS

Specially designed finisher medal from Ragged CutsAdditional swag from sponsors**Additional awards for Top 3 podium for Overall Male/Female in each event.

THE COURSE

Each loop will start at the Pavilion inside the park. The first 5 miles of loop are mostly runnable rolling singletrack except for a few technical small rock scrambles. Once you hit the 5 mile mark, that's when the fun starts!! You begin the head wall climb a lung busting rock scramble of 500'+ in just 0.3 miles towards the top of the park. A few more technical ups and downs await you before turning towards the southern end of the park. Moving to the east now on the Yellow Trail, runners experience less technical terrain with some rolling singletrack trails before arriving at the Chestnut Trailhead, the location of the 8 mile aid station. Now it's back through the center of the park with a 4 mile section of moderately to harder technical terrain of which you will run a portion of the infamous White Trail with some faster terrain before returning to the same trailhead to access the aid station a second time at mile 12. Now it's time to begin the trek up towards the highest part of the course with the ascent mostly on the Quinnipiac (Blue Trail). Runners reach the top at the Observation Tower and it's on to the Tower Path a 1.5 mile carriage road descent before the last 0.2 miles back up to the pavilion.

POST RACE

You’ve just finished an epic run! Enjoy your accomplishment, sit back, relax, and don’t forget to cheer on all the runners coming in behind you! We will have plenty of food throughout the day for everyone plus some awesome beverages from Athletic Brewing Company as well as other non-alcoholic offerings.

ADDITONAL INFO

For more info and course maps, please go to https://steependurance.com/event/trail-running-race/sleeping-giant-trail-runs/

Event's current local time: 5:26 AM ET