This past weekend I volunteered at the Lone Star 100 Trail Run, a 100 mile or 100K race run in the Franklin Mountains State Park in El Paso, TX. This is a brutal race, put on by Trail Racing Over Texas, that I attempted last year, but only making it to mile 60. You can read my race report here.
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| Franklin Mountains State Park, TX |
The course is a 33 mile loop including an out-and-back trip to the top of N. Franklin Peak at 7192’ elevation. The entire 100 mile course includes around 20,000 feet of elevation gain. (Denali in Alaska is 20,310’). That should give you an idea of the difficulty of this race, but if that isn’t enough to convince you, the course is littered with rocks. Jagged rocks, smooth slippery rocks, razor edged slivers of rock, small annoying rocks that get into your shoes. The vegetation here is pointy, sharp, prickly, barbed, saw-toothed or otherwise covered in thorns. The weather can be anything in February. Last year we had a high of 85 degrees and then the winds came. Strong gusting port-o-potty tipping over gales.