Bandera Endurance Trail Race

The Bandera Endurance Trail Race runs on the rocky, cactus-lined trails of Hill Country State Natural Area, west of San Antonio. The main loop is a 50K; the 100K is two counterclockwise laps of it, with roughly 3,300 feet of climb per lap and about 6,600 across the full distance. The organiser's own billing has not softened in twenty years: no whiners, wimps, or wusses, on a trail where everything cuts, stings, or bites.

The 100K goes off at 7:30 a.m. on the Saturday with a 25-hour limit, and the 50K and 25K run the Sunday. It has drawn the sport's best for a January opener: Jim Walmsley holds the men's 100K record at 7:46:37 and Courtney Dauwalter the women's at 8:59:37. A sub-18-hour 100K finish is a Western States qualifier, which is seven hours inside the race's own cutoff.

One 50K loop of Hill Country State Natural Area, run counterclockwise, with the 100K covering it twice. The organiser gives roughly 3,300 feet of elevation change per full 50K lap and about 6,600 for the 100K. Its aid-station chart puts the full lap at 31.14 miles and the 100K at 62.28, through six aid stations a lap: Boyles, Equestrian, Nachos, Chapas, YaYa and the Lodge start-finish. The park is known for loose rock and sotol cactus, and the only consistently flat ground is the stretch around YaYa the race calls the Race Track.

Entry is first-come sign-up on RunSignUp, with no lottery and no qualifying standard, and a first-in-first-out wait list once a distance fills. The 100K is $235 and the Sunday 50K $146. A limited number of runners may also take a non-competitive 50K start on the Saturday alongside the 100K: those finishers are recorded and get a medal, but the organiser states they are not eligible for overall awards, which go to the Sunday competitive field.