The Dirty South Trail Races start at 8:30 AM on December 6, 2026, giving you a reasonable window to arrive and settle in before the gun. The event takes place at Meade's Quarry on Island Home Boulevard in Knoxville, Tennessee, and offers three distance options: a 1-mile race, 10K, and half marathon. Entry fees range from $7 to $70 depending on your chosen distance. If you're traveling to Knoxville for this trail running event, plan accommodation within reasonable driving distance of the quarry venue. The variety of distances means you can accommodate different training phases or bring along athletes at varying fitness levels. Book your lodging early, especially if other events are happening in the Knoxville area that December weekend.
From the Race Organizer
DIRTY SOUTH TRAIL HALF MARATHON, TRAIL 10K, and KIDS TRAIL MILE TIME & PLACE: Half Marathon and 10K start at 9:00 am. Kids Trail Mile race starts 8:30 am . Note, this kids mile is separate from the seven race series. Starts/finishes at Mead's Quarry, just south of Ijams Nature Center on Island Home Avenue, Knoxville TN 37920. Sustainability: Help us make less of an impact on the environment! There are a couple ways you can help us make this a more environmentally sustainable event… Option 1? Carpool! Link up with your friends and carpool if possible (our participant lists are public, take a look and see who you know that’s coming!). Option 2? Meads Quarry has a stop on the Knoxville Area Transit Line 40! Check out their site , download their app, or utilize their bike and ride option! COURSE DESCRIPTION: 13.1 mile course traverses the Forks of the River Wildlife Area, William Hastie Park, Marie Myers Park, Ross Marble Quarry, Ijams Nature Center, and other haunts of the beautiful Urban Wilderness of South Knoxville. A mix of rocky, technical single track and buffed out, flowing mountain bike trail. Course has a 4 hour time limit. 10k course will utilize some of the main nature center trails as well as those in Meads Quarry. Kids will run their own trail mile in the woods and are guaranteed to have a splendid time. LOCATION: Mead's Quarry near Ijams Nature Center. REGISTRATION FEES (NO REFUNDS AND NO BIB TRANSFERS): Registration fees above. KTC member discount accepted. Not a KTC member? Sign up here . T-SHIRTS: This year we'll print a special tech shirt (different from the series shirts) -- you're guaranteed to love it! SPECIAL NOTE ABOUT SHIRTS: Anyone registering after November 12 will receive a shirt only while supplies last. The shirt order will be placed on November 12, and when the inventory runs out in the Runsignup system, no more shirts will be available; there will be no re-orders. Shirts not picked up will be donated. Shirts will not be held or mailed to participants. TTT SERIES AWARDS: At the end of the 2025 trail race season, we will be awarding the top 3 in each division free race entries. We will announce the winners at the KTC Holiday Party in December. To qualify for series awards, you'll need to be a member of KTC and you will need to have volunteered two times during the course of the trail race season. RESULTS: Results will be available on the Knoxville Track Club website: www.ktc.org, and on Runsignup.com. COURSE ETIQUETTE: We reserve the right to disqualify anyone who exhibits unsportsmanlike conduct or is abusive to volunteers. Due to insurance regulations, no headsets, earphones, bicycles, baby strollers, roller blades or pets on the course. SAFETY: Aid and water stations will be provided, but in an effort to be greener, we urge all runners to carry their own water. There will be only very small cups at aid stations. If you don't own a handheld, buy one. We also strongly recommend that anyone sensitive to insect stings or bites carry their own medication. Finally, we urge that everyone do some pre-race training offroad, as there is no substitute for experience. We want you to have a good time. SAFETY POLICY CLARIFICATION: Our primary goal is to keep everybody safe out there in the woods. We've had some interest by younger folks in running the longer races, and we're all over that idea, but we are also concerned about their safety. For the remainder of the season (and moving forward), if a runner is under 12 years old, he or she will need to be accompanied by an adult in order to run the adult race (i.e. not the kids mile).Also, and this is less of a safety concern and more of a concern for the welfare of our volunteers: We'll need to start enforcing the 18:00/mile minimum pace. This has been our policy all along but we've gotten a little lax and this keeps our volunteers in the woods far longer than they should have to be. Moving forward, each race will have a sweeper, and runners will need to be moving at greater than an 18:00/mile pace to stay in the race. Don't get caught by the sweep! DON'T TAKE A BIB IF YOU'RE NOT RUNNING. This is safety-related - we want to make sure that everybody who starts the race stays safe. If you take a bib, we think you're running the race. Then when you don't show up at the finish, we have to try and track you down and make sure you're not lost in the woods or hurt. So please -- if you're not running the race, don't take a bib. Also, if you have to drop out of the race, please let one of the race officials know so you are accounted for. Also, don't crunch or fold the bib, or tear off the bottom. We need an unspoiled bib to record your time and finish place. INFO FOR RUNNING OR VOLUNTEERING: Contact race director Tim Hill at timh160@gmail.com or call 865.548.4718 for more information. Volunteer info also available on Runsignup.com. We value volunteerism highly. Runners can take their participation in the KTC TTT series to the next level by volunteering!
