How much does custom course marking cost for an ultramarathon?

Per-flag pricing scales with quantity and substrate; a typical 100K course runs $740–$1,200 for a full Course Marker Set. Larger 240-mile builds are quoted per mile. Every quote is itemized — no surprise art fees.

What is the minimum lead time for a custom flag order?

Standard lead time is 4 weeks from approved artwork to pallet delivery. Rush jobs (down to 10 days) are accepted for an additional fee, subject to workshop capacity.

Do you handle the entire course — or just supply flags?

Both. Most race directors order a Course Marker Set (flags painted, packed and shipped with a placement map). Full Course Build adds on-site flag drops in select regions by our 7-runner pacer team.

Can we use our own race branding and sponsors on the flags?

Yes. Send a brand sheet plus your GPX or placement list and we mock up three flags within 5 business days. Sponsor logos, mile markers, arrows, and 'wrong way' tags are all in scope.

What happens if a flag gets torn or lost mid-race?

Every custom job carries our lifetime Never Lose a Flag replacement policy — we have honored 11,400+ replacements since 2019. Lost or damaged flags are repainted and shipped at no charge.

Custom Course Marking · Boulder, CO

We paint your course. You run the race.

A commissioning program for race directors who need every flag, ribbon and reflective marker laid down by people who've sweated through their own aid stations. Hand-painted in our Boulder workshop, shipped direct to your start line.

Request a Custom Marking Quote See how the program works ↓

38 partner races since 2019
4.2 g per standard reflective flag
72 h workshop-to-pallet turnaround

An ultrarunner holds a small reflective course flag on a high-alpine ridge at golden hour.

Leadville 100 · mile 62 · course-marker photo by Marco Reid, 2023.

For race directors & club organizers

The workshop that paints your course — not just the flag brand.

Weaselballs began in 2017 as a single hand-painted reflective flag pulled out of a Leadville crew tent. Eight years later we run a seven-painter workshop that commissions full course-marking kits for ultras in 41 countries. We work directly with race directors — no distributors, no minimum reseller orders, no mass-produced blanks shipped from a factory overseas. You send us your GPX, your aid-station list and your color spec; we send back a boxed, flagged and counted kit ready to drop in a course coordinator's truck.

The program is built for organizers who want their markings to look like the event itself: specific, considered, and hard to mistake for the year before. Every flag in a custom kit is hand-painted, serial-numbered against your course map, and packed in the order it goes on the trail. Most race directors come back two and three seasons running — when the kit arrives at the start-line hotel, they know it's been thought through.

By the program

Thirty-eight races. Forty-one countries. One workshop.

A selection of partner events that commission their marking kits directly from Boulder — from 50K club time trials to multi-loop 240-milers.

01 Cuyamaca 100K San Diego County, CA · partner since 2020
02 Mogollon Monster 240 Arizona High Country · partner since 2021
03 Barkley Fall Classic Frozen Head State Park, TN
04 Trans-Pecos Ultra West Texas · partner since 2022

Plus Bear Mountain, HURT 100, The Raptor, Cruel Jewel, Pine to Palm 100, Volcanic 50K, Kodiak 100M, and twenty-six other events on five continents.

The workflow

What happens after you hit "Request a Quote."

01
Course intake

Send the GPX, the aid-station list and your color or branding spec through the quote form. We reply within two working days with a flat kit estimate and a questions list — usually about sightlines at corners and reflective density at night sections.
02
Flag map & sample

We build a flag-by-flag map against your course, then ship you a three-flag sample pack with reflective test results before production starts. Most directors lock the spec inside a week.
03
Hand-paint & serial

Our seven painters work through your kit in numbered batches. Every flag is serialized to the kilometer post on your map so the course crew can lay it in trail order without sorting on race morning.
04
Pallet & deploy

Kits ship in stackable race-day crates, packed in deployment order — start, AS1, AS2, finish. Default turnaround is 14 working days; full-course builds over 600 flags run on a 21-day schedule. Carbon-neutral shipping included.

Commissioning tiers

Pick the scale of the build.

Three standard engagement shapes. Most clubs fit into one; we'll quote a custom build if your course doesn't.

Tier 01

Aid Station Pack

For 50K & marathon-distance races with a single loop and clear sightlines.

Flag count: 80 – 140
Lead time: 10 working days
Per-flag cost: $3.40
Includes: AS arrows, reflective markers, finish chute flags

Tier 02 · Most commissioned

Course Marker Set

For 100K and 100M events with multi-loop or out-and-back sections.

Flag count: 220 – 480
Lead time: 14 working days
Per-flag cost: $2.95
Includes: Full kilometer flags, turn markers, AS arrows, glow strips

Tier 03

Full Course Build

For 200M+ multi-stage events, 240-milers and mountain-loop series.

Flag count: 600 – 1,400
Lead time: 21 working days
Per-flag cost: $2.55
Includes: Serialized kits, deployment crates, on-site trainer add-on

All tiers ship with the lifetime "Never Lose a Flag" replacement guarantee — race directors can request up to 15% extra painted flags at no charge for lost-on-course replacements.

Field notes

Two events, two scales, one workshop.

Small hand-painted course flags tied to low branches along a dawn mountain single-track.

100K · Single loop

Cuyamaca 100K

A 100K in San Diego's backcountry that needed flags to read in chaparral dust at 5 a.m. and in coastal fog by the finish. We built a 340-flag kit with sand-tone reflective flags for early sections and a higher-visibility yellow pack for the last 12 miles.

Flags painted: 340
Course length: 102 km
Total kit weight: 1.42 kg
Director: Devon Albright

"Our crew had never opened a box where the flags were already in trail order. That's three hours we don't lose on Friday."

A long string of course flags stretching into canyon country at dusk in the Arizona high desert.

240 miler · Mountain loop

Mogollon Monster 240

A multi-loop monster across the Mogollon Rim that crosses two state-line wilderness sections. We commissioned a 1,180-flag serialized kit split into five deployment crates, with a denser night-section pack for the second loop.

Flags painted: 1,180
Course length: 386 km
Total kit weight: 5.04 kg
Director: Jules Tremaine

"The flags held up through a hailstorm on loop three. Every marker we dropped at mile 200 was still standing at the finish line."

Request a Custom Marking Quote

Tell us about your event. We reply within two working days with a flat estimate and a flag-sample plan.