39th State, New Mexico

GHOST TOWN 38.5 RACE, Hillsboro, NM

On January 18th I ran the Ghost Town 38.5 mile race in New Mexico. I have been to the area three times in my life on vacations and always thought the area was a beautiful sight. So when I saw the race listed in Ultrarunning several years ago, I was determined to make it my New Mexico state race.
The race starts and finishes at Susan the race director's home. The hospitality was great as well as the pre race meal held at the Community Center or old high school.
The building was restored and very nice facility.
Betty, my wife and I drove down to NM. It took three days but was a nice trip. This is the greatest distance I want to drive in the future. I must be getting old.

Rob Powell flew down on Saturday night and crashed at my digs in Truth or Consequences. He arrived at 11:45 PM and we got up to head to Hillsboro at 4:30 AM on Sunday. I told Rob I drove the first 6.3 miles the day before and found it to be rolling with some ups and downs. I don't know what I had been smoking when I checked it out, since the first 6.3 miles only goes one direction and that is up!

We arrived at the race start and Rob spent time sucking up to the RD while I meditated on the up coming start.

The race started at 6 AM in the dark with 25 degrees and quite windy. In fact the wind was blowing in our faces for the first 6.3 miles.
We were off and I saw Rob disappear into the distance and would not see him for at leat two hours on an out and back section.
The first portion of the race gained from 5,500 feet to 7,000 feet of elevation. I did notice the altitude and thought this will be an interesting day.
Now first, I was not well trained for this race. Knew altituted would be a factor.
And had excess weight on the old chasis. But hey it was beautiful course and what a setting.
Now I could desribe every little complaint that I had during the race, but who doesn't have them.
My race was more of a survival trudge, as the course was rocky and rough in places and I made a mistake in the trail shoes I wore causing much pain.
I did finish in 51st place out of 72 in a time of 9:02:13.
I did meet Greg Murray a member of NEO Trail Runners as well as his brother, Brian. Brian is from New Mexico.
There were a total of five Ohio runners: Rob Powell, Robert Kazar, Greg Murray , Melissa Johnson, and of course me. The temperature did get up to 58 degrees and sunny. What a day. I say let the photos tell the story. Now to get ready for 'Forget the PR', Mohican 50 KM; a Mohican Trail 100 sampler.