Ghost Town Course FlyoverA couple of weeks ago I got to run the last Ghost Town 38.5 (click here for my race report) which takes the runners up Highway 152 for 6 miles and then sends them off into the Gila National Forest for the majority of the race before turning us around and sending us back the way we came.

The race begins at about a mile in elevation, and after basically heading uphill for the first 10 miles, you spend the rest of the race going up and down some “smaller” hills until you are ready to go back down that initial 10 miles to the finish.

All in all, there is about 6500 feet of ascent and descent, with very few flat sections on the course that last more than 20 or 30 meters at the most.

Dave Hanenburg from Endurance Buzz downloaded my GPS data from the race and created this course flyover, which is pretty neat and gives you a small idea about what the course was like:


The part I enjoy about this flyover is that it gives me a good reference to remember different points on the course, especially as the race is still fresh in my mind. So thanks, Dave!

Curious what it might be like to run in that kind of terrain? Here’s a chart of the elevation (in green) versus my pace (in blue) from the race (click the image for full size):
Pace vs Elevation