Athens Big Fork Trail Marathon & 17 Mile Fun Run

Athens Big Fork Trail Marathon & 17 Mile Fun Run

Date: Saturday, January 3, 2026

Location: Mena, AR 71953 US

Description: Welcome to the 27th annual Athens Big Fork Trail Marathon and 17 Mile Blaylock Creek Fun Run. Both events are on an “out-and-back” well marked course beginning and ending at the Big Fork Community Center, utilizing the Athens-Big Fork trail. Full Marathon runners will climb eight mountains twice with ~7,000' of cumulative gain. The event is free/donation based. A minimum $25 donation is suggested to cover our costs. All proceeds over our cost will be donated to the Big Fork community Center and the Ouachita Amateur Radio Association, who help us keep our runners safe. We will have three fully stocked aid stations. All aid stations will be fully stocked with your typical aid station fare. In addition, each of our aid captains provide their own bougie concoctions for you to enjoy. This event is free but you wouldn't guess it based on the food offerings. Please bring your own cup or handheld because the race will be cupless this year. There will be an option to purchase a post-race meal ticket. The post race meal will be catered once again by Cheryl with the Big Fork Mall (details coming soon for race swag and meal tickets via email). Buy early because there will be no race-day meal ticket purchases and swag is pre-purchase only. We encourage you to bring a chair, blanket and other comfort items and plan to stick around to cheer in the finishers. The community experience at the finish is one of the many things that makes this race so unique and popular.

Awards: We will have awards for overall male and female in both the full and fun runs. We also offer unique awards to our 10 and 20 year finishers. We do not offer finish awards because this race experience is reward enough.

Aid Stations:

• MARATHON RUN:
  • Little Missouri Trailhead Mile 3.8 Outbound & Mile 22.4 Inbound 3:42PM Cutoff (Mile 22.4)
  • Blaylock Creek West Trailhead Mile 8.5 Outbound & Mile 17.7 Inbound 10:30AM Cutoff (mile 8.5) for marathon runners
  • Turn Around (Forest Rd B23F – Southern Trailhead) Mile 13.1 – the turn around
• 17 MILE FUN RUN:
  • Little Missouri Trailhead Mile 3.8 Outbound
  • Blaylock Creek West Trailhead – Turnaround Mile 8.5 Outbound – Turnaround for 17 mile fun run only

Safety/Required Gear: a hydration system (handheld or bladder) and a light source (handheld or headlamp). A windbreaker or space blanket is strongly suggested but not required.

NOTE: This event is NOT for trail-newbies.