Saturday, Aug 10, 2019 @ 12:00 PM

The Trident

1800 South US Highway 1

Jupiter, FL 1/2 Marathon

This Event Took Place Sat. Aug 10, 2019

Pick Your Poison!

The Trident Trail Races has become a carousel of different types of mini-games to offer something for everyone on race day! Whether you’re just in it for an EZ half marathon, or 24 hours and 80 miles of agony, and everything in between, you’ll find something that speaks to you as we change a few of the mini-games every year while keeping the fan favorites! The premise of The Trident is a simple one: hold a trail race on the sugar sand dunes of coastal southeast Florida during the hottest time of the year! This is truly a test of mental and physical endurance no matter which mini-game you pick!

The 6th Annual Trident Trail Race Series returns on Saturday, July 27, 2024 at HIGH NOON! For our sixth year, we are bringing you 5 races to choose from!

1. Our original Trident Trail Half Marathon that starts at high noon! Same misery, same 4 hour cutoff! It’s the OG race that so many of you love to hate and hate to love!

2. The Trident Twilight Half Marathon! The same version of the day Trident, but it starts at 7 p.m. with a 11 p.m. cutoff! This one is going to be a party! A festival of suffering, a party in the scrub! Wear your brightest and most outrageous running attire!

3. El Largo Día (The Long Day) - our newest offering! It is a marathon distance with only two rules: you must start at noon and finish before midnight! No eliminations or tight cutoffs for a more relaxed suffering experience!

4. The Ridge to Nowhere - the truly grueling 12 Hour, 40 mile elimination race! Our inaugural running of this race proved it is one of the toughest and most challenging races in Florida and beyond. With a dismal 35% finishers rate, this one’s not for the weekend warrior. No qualifying races required, but please be aware of what you’re signing up for. This isn’t so much a running race as it is a survival event.

5. IMMOLATION - a gargantuan challenge for only the most hardcore and badass endurance junkies and ultra runners! This is a 24 hour, 80 mile festival of suffering in the same elimination format as the Ridge to Nowhere: run one 3.3 mile Trident loop per hour for 24 hours. Sounds easy enough, right? There’ll be 6 elimination rounds beginning at midnight - the last runner on the course UNDER the one hour mark gets released from the race. However! A “second chance” phoenix coin issued to all runners making it past the 12 hour mark that they may redeem for a second chance if they are facing elimination. It’s a noon to noon party at the Ridge! Qualifying races/efforts required! See below!

Run the Ancient Sand Dunes!

Jupiter Ridge Natural Area is one of the last stands of Florida Coastal Scrub habitat in Palm Beach County. Only 2% of original Scrub in the county and less than one-third of the original Scrub in the state remain today! A gently rolling landscape of prickly, dense thickets spotted with bare patches of sparkling white sand, these 271 acres are protected by Palm Beach County as part of a countywide system of natural areas. Over 200 species of plants and animals call this home.

The Trident portion of Jupiter Ridge Natural Area is a sprawling collection of ancient sugar sand dunes - featuring the highest natural point in Palm Beach County! These dunes have remained unchanged since the last ice age over 2 million years ago and you’ll summit these “peaks” multiple times through your race! They aren’t particularly high with the highest being around 45 feet above sea level, but trudging through the softest sand is the only way up! It’s not as easy as you’d think!

The Trident was born with the intent to host a trail race in one of the most unforgettable and unforgiving environments in Florida and beyond at the most brutally hot and humid time of the year. It’s a celebration of suffering with friends in a social setting as the out-and-backs within an out-and-back loop will let you see your fellow competitors multiple times during your race. But please understand what you are signing up for; the dunes of Jupiter Ridge are a difficult venue for running. Add to the mix the unrelenting heat and humidity of southeast Florida in late July and you’re in for one of the toughest footraces in the US that has quickly become a cult classic bringing in runners from all over Florida and the US, Central America, and Europe to see what all the hype is about!

The Horrible Half(s)

Our original Trident race! “It’s just a half marathon”

The race itself, both the day and night version, is an out-and-back "loop" of 3.29 miles repeated 4 times for a distance of 13.1 miles. While it's not an ultra marathon, it is very much an endurance event! This race is held during the hottest, most humid time of the year, with a noon start time for the day Trident, and a 7 p.m. start time for the night Trident. Late July temperatures can peak in the 90's during the middle of the day, and humidity hovers around the 70-80% mark making for a ridiculous heat index topping 115+ degrees! The white sand temperatures blaze to a searing 130+ degrees! Heat management is crucial. This race is not for everyone! The course is made up entirely of ancient sand dunes, some of it very soft and fluffy, with some gentle rollers and some outright steep climbs. This is the only Half Marathon in south Florida that will give you 1,200+ feet of elevation gain over the entire distance! Combine the brutal terrain with the unrelenting heat and humidity, and you're running easily the most challenging trail half marathon in Florida.

There is a strict 4 hour cutoff time for both the day and night events! Day Trident runners must have completed all 4 loops by 4 p.m., or they will be listed as Did Not Finish in their results. Night Trident runners must be finished with all 4 loops by 11:00 p.m.! Race management reserves the right to remove anyone from the course who displays distress above and beyond "normal and expected" for this type of event. We will have a medical staff on hand who will be evaluating runners as they make their way through the race.

Same rules apply for the night version! Think the night version will be easier? Think unrelenting mosquitoes and 100% humidity!

Original noon Half Marathon starts at noon (duh) with a strict 4 hour cutoff! The Twilight Half Marathon starts at 7 p.m. with a strict 4 hour cutoff, with all runners off the course by 11:00 p.m. - the night half is great because you’ll get about an hour of dusk and then some good night running at Jupiter Ridge!

El Largo Día - The Trident Marathon

The newest offering for 2024 is a marathon distance race with none of the tight cutoffs or eliminations found in other Trident races. El Largo Día, “the long day” is a Trident marathon with only two rules: you must start at noon and you must be done by midnight. This is a more relaxed offering though still insanely challenging as you’ll complete 8 Trident loops in the same grotesquely oppressive conditions as the other mini-games, but at a much more leisurely pace if you wish. You can even run half, leave to refresh yourself, then return later to finish it! Of course this race will have premium, custom finishers awards like the other races. This might not be a great first marathon, but your finish will be a great conversation starter with which to bedazzle and confound your friends!

Ridge to Nowhere 12 Hour/40 Miler

You know we’re always pushing the envelope of what’s possible through physical and mental endurance, so we proudly offer for its third running - our 12 Hour Trident race, the Ridge to Nowhere! But this is no ordinary 12 Hour race!

Runners will run one 3.3 mile Trident loop every hour from noon to midnight beginning at the top of each hour. Sounds easy so far, right? All runners will have to be back at the starting line before the hour is up or you will be mercifully released from the race.

To make it even more interesting, beginning at 3 p.m., and again at 5 p.m., and 7 p.m., we will eliminate the last runner on the course who comes in UNDER the hour. (All runners coming in AFTER an hour will be automatically eliminated) You know the saying about “you don’t have to be faster than the bear to get away, just faster than the guy next to you” - that applies here. So at 3 p.m., 5 p.m., 7 p.m., we will eliminate the last runner on the Trident course while everyone else moves to the next hour.

The top male and female competitors will be crowned king and queen of The Ridge - final placements will be a result of the combined times of all 12 hours, so the faster you did your 12 loops, the higher your placement will be.

We will have finishers awards for all finishers of this devious challenge!

You will end up with approximately 40 miles and around 3,500 feet of elevation gain! This is a fully supported race with ice and goodies every 1.25 miles or less.

Sound too intense? Maybe dip a toe into the summertime madness that is the Trident with a “kinder” offering like our original High Noon Half Marathon, our Twilight Half Marathon, or our newest offering: El Largo Día - The Trident Marathon!

Immolation

You asked for it! Our first 24 hour race - Immolation!

For our 6th anniversary we wanted to bring back the now infamous and a little (a lot!) more extreme…so we proudly offer you the Immolation 24 Hour/80 Miler! Building on the success and format of our wildly popular Ridge to Nowhere, Immolation is twice the fun with a couple twists! It’s a 24 hour elimination match where runners traverse one 3.3 mile Trident loop in an hour or less for 24 consecutive hours starting at noon on Saturday, continuing until noon on Sunday. That’s 80 miles and around 7,000 feet of elevation gain/loss! In addition, there’ll be 6 elimination rounds beginning at midnight in which the last runner still on the course in UNDER an hour will be eliminated. ALL runners coming in OVER an hour will be eliminated. The name of the game here is finish your loop in an hour or less, and don’t be the last one in. Sounds easy, right?

Runners making it to the 12 hour mark will be rewarded with a phoenix coin. This is a coin the runner may redeem for a second chance if they are facing elimination.

* NOTE: the phoenix coin is only good for runners who are facing elimination from being the last runner on the course in under an hour. The phoenix coin can not be used if a runner is over the one hour mark, or chooses to not start a loop, or drops mid-loop. The phoenix coin may not be used in the final lap regardless of if the final lap is an elimination lap or not.

A runner may also donate their coin to another runner to keep them in the game at the risk of losing their own second chance. Or, they may keep it as a souvenir and take it home. In any case, it’s going to be interesting to see those who save themselves, or others!

A runner’s placement will be a combination of all 24 loops times, for example, if you run all 24 loops in 45 minutes each, that’s 1,080 minutes, or 18 hours. 18 hours would be your finishing time in this scenario.

All runners finishing will be awarded a buckle fit for a king or queen!

*QUALIFYING RACES

Because of the small entrants capacity and the extreme difficulty level of this race, we are requiring FINISHED qualifying races/efforts having occurred in the last 18 months, and are verifiable:

- any Florida (heat) race taking place from April 1st to September 30th, in the last 18 months, with a distance of 26.2 miles or longer
- any trail race in the US with a distance of 50k or longer
- any road race in the US with a distance of 50 miles or longer
- any sand race of 26.2 miles or longer
- any verifiable solo effort such as an FKT attempt or PR attempt of 50k or longer with any consecutive 50 kilometers occurring in 10 hours or less
- any 6 or 12 hour timed race in which you completed >26.2 miles in 6 hours, or >31.1 miles in 12 hours
- any 100k race in <18 hours
- any 100 mile race in <32 hours

If you have questions about qualifying races, reach out to us! Plead your case! Race management reserves the right to deny entry into Immolation if qualifying races are not satisfied. Your registration will be refunded and you’ll be removed from the roster.

Refund/Deferral Policy

We want you to register with confidence! You may request a full refund, minus the Ultrasignup fee, should you need to drop for any reason, until, Monday, April 1st, 2024. You may also request a full deferral up until Wednesday, July 24, 2024. After that, no deferrals will be issued under any circumstances. Or, if you’re feeling philanthropic, your registration refund can be converted into a donation to the Palm Beach County Natural Areas fund that helps to protect, maintain, and promote our beautiful Natural Areas!

If we have to postpone the race due to a hurricane, natural disaster, pandemic, site closure, etc…we will defer everyone to the new date once we’ve settled on one. No mass refunds will be issued. Your money over and above what we spend on the race goes toward the PBC Natural Areas Program which helps protect, enhance, and promote Palm Beach County’s hidden gems like Jupiter Ridge!

Schwag!

As this race is brought to you by the same folks who brought you the Sand Spur, you can expect the same level of goodies and bling, including amazing finishers medals, shirts, stickers, and other goodies! You'll also be escorted to and from the race site to a nearby public parking area in an air conditioned van. We'll also have custom top finishers awards for the top male and female winners from the magnificently talented Brie from Wicked Skins! Aid stations will be stocked with plenty of ice, water, liquid fuel, chilled fruit, and other goodies! The race will be professionally and accurately timed by our friends Justin and Jill at Trailhead Ultras and results will be posted to Ultrasignup immediately after the race!

Event's current local time: 7:40 AM ET

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