Trail running and ultramarathoning in Louisiana has really taken off in the last year and a half, with the Forge Trail Series, the second running of the Q50 Ultra 50K trail race in Fontainebleau State Park, the Rouge Orleans 126.2 race down the levee between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, and the Cajun Coyote 100 Mile/100K/67K/35K trail race three hours away in Chicot State Park in Ville Platte.
The Spillway Classic Trail Run has become one of the biggest trail races in the country.
This is in addition to two trail races in northwest Louisiana - Big Dog Trail Runs in Ruston, and the Louisiana Trails 50K, Marathon, and Half Marathon in Shreveport.
There's also the Mississippi 50 mile/50K ultra in Laurel, Mississippi, two hours away.
What's missing is a series of small trail races around New Orleans - there just aren't a lot of trails in the area because of the terrain. You'll have to go to Baton Rouge to do the Forge Trail Series races.
You won't find any trail-race specific calendars for New Orleans, but one of the best race calendars is the NOLA.com running calendar - http://www.nola.com/running/
There also aren't any Louisiana specific trail running bloggers, but EnduranceBuzz does an excellent job of covering Louisiana trail running and ultramarathoning at http://www.endurancebuzz.com/ along with regional news from Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico.
Trail Races:
This is one of the largest trail runs in the country, with a short three mile run held on the spillway trails in Norco, Louisiana near New Orleans.
This is less of a trail race and more of a "mud run", with the idea being that you should get as muddy as possible. So no ultramarathon training here!
There's a great writeup of the race at EnduranceBuzz
Race Types:
Running race
5K
Trail Run
The Q50 Louisiana 50K and 10 mile fun run will be held in Fontainebleau State Park on the north shore in January 2011. The October 2010 date was postponed. The course is a mixture of trail, bike path on the Tammany Trace, and road surface in Mandeville.
Race Types:
Running race
10 Mile
50K Ultramarathon
Trail Run
Race Types:
Running race
20 Mile
40 Mile Ultramarathon
100K Ultramarathon
100 Mile Ultramarathon
Trail Run
The Mississippi Trail 50 is one of the older trail ultramarathons in the South - currently, it's also the state of Mississippi's only ultramarathon.
Race Types:
Running race
20K
50K Ultramarathon
50 Mile Ultramarathon
The Rouge Orleans Ultramarathon is a 126.2 mile ultramarathon and relay that starts in Baton Rouge and runs to New Orleans. The course is the top of the levee along the Mississippi river. The inaugural running of the race will be March 4, 2011. The race start will be in waves - the slowest participants will have 42 hours to complete the race - 2pm on Sunday.
Race Types:
Running race
Other Ultramarathon