Race Directors Advice

Having done this course myself in 61.5 hours in November 2020, I would like to offer some advice on this course.

Do not underestimate the road miles and the first half of the race. If you have experience with road 100+ milers it helps. If not, pavement beats you up a lot harder than trail and you want to make sure you are alive enough to "enjoy" the second more trail friendly half of this race. Pace yourself slowly despite the modest 7,000 ft in the first 100 miles and you will be rewarded. There are plenty of convenience stores and gas stations along the route that will make it possible to do the first 100 without much of any assistance in the form of a crew or the race provided assistance.

The second half of the race is about 13,500 ft in 100 miles and mostly on trail or dirt road. You will only have race provided aid every 25-30 miles, which is a long time to go without aid. This is why I strongly recommend you have a crew. If you do have a crew they can meet you more frequently. If you do not have a crew make sure you carry enough to do a 50k between aid stations. That's a good amount of water you will need. There will be campgrounds you go through, like Green Valley and Paso Picacho, which will have water spigots for you to be able to fill up on water in between aid spots. After the town of Julian (mile 165) you really won't have any kind of water spigot to fill from, but will have race aid at mile 170 and 180. It's more or less a downhill finish to mile 200 with a bump of a climb in the end.

Expect setbacks. When I ran this I was stopped in downtown by a freight train for 15 minutes. Talk about bad timing. At another point there was an issue with my crew getting access to me and I was set back for about 30 minutes. There are also a number of street lights you'll have to cross during the urban part of this race. You also gotta calculate the inevitable navigational setbacks. I think my one navigational setback was finding the mining trails on the side of Banner Grade. Expect them to happen but don't be discouraged, just recalibrate and carry on (Refer to rules and policies on navigation errors).

Safety. Please be safe. I'm talking visibility at night during the city portion and making sure your tracker/phone is on and charged. San Diego is more or less pretty safe but *some* areas in downtown and East County (miles 62-100) have the potential to be a safety hazard if only at night and perhaps more if you are a lone traveling female. I recommend a pacer during this section if you feel unsure. Again, there was absolutely no problem for me and at no time did I personally feel unsafe but I recognize for women it can be a different story.

Really, seriously though, take time to admire the absolute beauty of this course. The whole point of this race above and beyond everything else is to provide you with a beautiful experience similar to the one that I had. San Diego has some of the best most beautiful views in the world, from the ocean to the mountains and I'm literally having you pass through all of that. Enjoy each moment and each step that you take through San Diego, remember you GET TO you don't GOT TO do this, and before you know it this will all be a cherished memory. Don't get too caught up in the timing or racing that you end up forgetting and ignoring the absolute beauty around you.