A trail runner on a grassy ridge above a sea of clouds

Silver Rush 50 Run

The Silver Rush 50 Run is held in the historic mining district east of Leadville, one of the highest towns in the United States.

Prepare for Silver Rush 50 Run

A plan built from your answers and your race date.

trail training plan

The Silver Rush 50 Run is held in the historic mining district east of Leadville, one of the highest towns in the United States. The course follows mining roads, old haul routes and mountain trail, passing industrial remnants and forested slopes with open views of the surrounding peaks. Altitude is a factor from start to finish.

The race is part of the Leadville Race Series. 1 km distance. A companion format, the Silver Rush Challenge, pairs the 50-mile run with the 50-mile mountain bike race.

The formats

2 formats on the program.

Format	Distance	Vertical gain
50 Mile	50 mi	2,438 m
15 Mile	15 mi	—

Organizer information, checked on September 21, 2026 · leadvilleraceseries.com

When to start

A build for this distance usually runs 12 to 24 weeks. Counted back from race day, that puts the start somewhere between January 18, 2027 and April 12, 2027.

These ranges are working conventions, not a research finding — no trial has compared plan lengths against each other. What matters more is that the plan was built for the weeks you actually have, rather than shrunk down from a longer one.

How to choose your start date

When to start

January 18, 2027

→ April 12, 2027

Worth reading before you enter

Races and distances Trail distances: what changes off the road Distance stops being the useful number. What decides a trail race is how long you are out, how much you climb, and how much the descents have wrecked your legs by the end. Read Training Eating and drinking: what’s proven, what isn’t This is where confident advice most often runs ahead of the evidence. Some of it is well tested. Some is opinion wearing a number. And one common habit can kill you. Read Races and distances When to start preparing your race Most plans fail before the first session, because the block started too late and everything had to be squeezed. Counting back from the date is the dullest and most useful thing you will do. Read

Questions

What is the date of Silver Rush 50 Run in 2027?

Silver Rush 50 Run is run on Saturday, July 10, 2027 in Leadville. Date published by the organizer, checked on September 21, 2026.

What distances does the Silver Rush 50 Run offer?

1 km. The Silver Rush Challenge also combines the 50-mile run and bike races.

Is the Silver Rush 50 hard because of the altitude?

Yes. The whole race sits at high elevation around Leadville, which slows pace even on runnable sections. Several days of acclimatization noticeably improve comfort and effort management on race day.

Other races

This list keeps growing; it draws no line. A race that is missing is prepared for in exactly the same way.

Honolulu · United StatesUltra HURT 100 Jan 16 Its five-loop, 20-mile-per-lap format carries a famously high drop-out rate. Bandera · United StatesUltra HOKA Bandera Endurance Trail Race January The HOKA Bandera Endurance Trail Race is a trail and ultra weekend held in Bandera, Texas, inside the Hil Moab · United StatesUltra Moab 240 Endurance Run January 7 km ultramarathon with 9,620 m of vertical gain, run as one continuous loop out of Moab, Utah. It is par Your race is not here? Tell us about your race You can prepare for it all the same. Any race, anywhere, and even a goal without a race.

Your race is on the calendar. Your plan should be too.

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