I believe that this is the toughest 50k I have every done. After talking to Bill Gardner about it he says I just can't remember the 50ks in California and Oregon from 2 years ago.

I found out that in order for them to take your drop bag it had to have the name of the aid station written on it. I had packed a permanent marker, so I found it in the bag and wrote it on the duck tape...crossroads...as I heard the start of the race.

We arrived a little late to get everything organized; we didn't start the race until everyone had already taken off and were out of site. Marissa and I started dead last. Oh well. We started kind of fast and passed as many people as we could before the main hill started to slow us down. We were just trying to get in the middle of the pack.

If you were not there the first hill was about ½ mile long and about a 300-400 ft climb...maybe longer. These hills in Bandera were covered with low hanging fog, which made them seem larger. The trails were mostly single track, with rocks, roots and low hanging saw cactus that cut your legs all the way up to your thighs. We were stuck behind a slow moving crowd for the first 5 miles.....just before the first water stop, I just could not stand it anymore and made a move to pass about 20 people. Several people, including Marissa were right behind me. We just could not hit our stride with the slower group in front. This was totally our fault because we started last.

So we went through the first 5 miles in about a 12-14 min pace. Woo hoo...we were cooking. The next 5 miles we started to crank out about 10 min miles and that felt much better.

But passing was still quite an ordeal. Some sections were very single trail.

We had a few water crossings but if you made the right steps your feet didn't even get wet. It was warming up so off with the shirt. My stomach started to churn ever so slightly...and since I did not get to perform my morning constitution I knew what was going to happen....and then like a mirage in the middle of nowhere there it was. Such a glorious thing, so lovely.....an empty portapotty. Four minutes later I was on the road again and really did feel like a new man. I was out of water all the time and was looking forward to getting to crossroads to pick up my second water bottle. After passing another water crossing and a group riding horses, crossroads aid station. Mile 17. I had run fast enough to make up the 4 minutes, so I caught up with marissa. We did the 4.7 mile loop together. This section was brutal but beautiful. You had to stop at the top of the hills just to look around. There were fields of that saw cactus that you just had to go through. Back at crossroads at mile 21.....10 to go. We felt strong and just kept pushing,

I believe this was the section where you had to go over a hill that was awesome. Straight up, sliding rocks....not much of a chance of ever running up this hill. But we soon found out that going down the other side was just as bad, straight down.....it was just a little scary. I kept seeing this guy with a yellow shirt at the top of the next hill, but could not catch him. It was really bugging me so I was determined to catch him before the end of the race.

At mile 25 last chance saloon we met lisa cuthiards(sp) and jennifer and had a few sips of beer. After all it did say saloon. 5-6 miles to go....no problemo....... Whoops! Some guy on a bike said that we had 2 large hills to go over. He was right, they were large....there is the guy with the yellow shirt....on top of the hill. As we topped the second hill I looked up and he was about 50 yards in front of us. I was so excited that I yelled "ahh haw", he turned around to see me pointing at him. Well that was a little too obvious. He took off and we finally caught him. He was running the 100k and was fast on the down hills, so we passed each other a few times. We did beat him into the finish.

We finished in 6:04. We were both happy with that time. The aid stations, start/finish, race director....all top notch. Free massage at the end of the race. The course was marked extremely well. Joe, the race director and his volunteers were just great. Bill, Karen, Steve, Jackie, Holly, Ernie, Jim, Jorge.... and all the others that were at the crossroads aid station before we came back thank you. The support was awesome.

It was a great race and will be on my list for next year. Oh yea this was 3 of 60. Palo Duro, Sunmart, Bandera.....maybe Tyler is next. We ran on Sunday...very few problems.