The start for the 50k is on the road, but cuts onto single-track after about 1/4 mile. The first hill starts just a couple minutes down the single track. 2013 was my second 50k at Bandera. In 2011 I made the rookie mistake of going out too hard on the hilly section, and had a very rough last 10-miles. This time around, my plan was to be very conservative. I knew those hills can really zap you, so I planned to really take them easy with the hope of finishing strong. I was looking at Bandera as a harder than normal training effort, but not an all-out totally spent at the end kind of race---something to leave me sore for a few days, but not requiring weeks to recover.

This worked out pretty well for me. I walked all of the steep sections, and walked any place where the "crowd" was bottle-necked. I figured pushing it in these sections might save you a few seconds, but would cost many minutes by the end of the race. I'm sure this turned out to be the case, as I passed LOTS of people during the last half of the race.

2013 was a much tougher race than 2011 for two reasons. The first was the weather. It was warm, humid, and drizzle for most of the morning. Temps were in the upper 60s / low 70s, and humidity was right around 100%. The only saving grace was that the overcast meant no direct sun. Issue 2 was that all the wet weather turned the trail into muddy, sticky mess on most of the flat sections. This mud was some of the stickiest stuff I've ever seen. For many miles it felt like each shoe picked up several inches of mud and gained about 5-lbs a piece. It was BAD, and made the flat sections as tough, if not tougher, than the hills. That mud was physically draining and mentally discouraging. On the positive side, I was worried that the rocks on the hills would be really slick. I didn't have any issues with slick rocks, and this was the only 50k trail run I've done where I haven't taken a fall.

As usual for a Tejas Trails race, the aid stations are unbelievably well stocked and the volunteers are excellent. All the Tejas Trails races I've done have had OUTSTANDING, bordering on unbelievable, aid stations.

I ran with one hand-held amphipod bottle. I think it holds around 22 oz. Because of the higher temps, this wasn't quite enough, and I ended up with an empty bottle 15-minutes before some of the aid stations. This didn't turn out to be a big deal. I did see a few people trying to get by without carrying any sort of liquid. That struck me as absolutely crazy.

Overall, my time only improved by 8-minutes over 2011, but I went from 84/199 to 57/258. I felt like the race was a big improvement over last time and that the tough conditions are what limited my improvement to only 8-minutes.

My focus for 2013 is dropping some weight. These hill courses really favor the slim. I've dropped 10# in the last few months, but losing another 10 or 15 will make a big difference.


Excellent race on a challenging trail!

One of the best trail races in Texas! Highly recommended!