The first inaugural Bandera Trail Run was held on January 11-12, 2003. The runs consisted of a 25K, 50K and a 100K. The Runs were held at the Hill Country State Natural Protection Area about 12 miles from Bandera, Texas, the Cowboy Capital of Texas. Co-Race Director Extraordinaire, Joe Prusaitis described the event in the initial brochure as:"A trail run more difficult and challenging than any other in Texas. A tough graduate level trail. This hilly, rocky, rugged and scenic cactus covered wrinkle of hills sits in the heart of cowboy country. Perfect for the rugged individualist who enjoys events such as Hardrock, Barkley, Western States, Wasatch or Leadville."

194 runners registered for this first-time event, 55 of them in the 100K. I had looked forward to this event for almost 10 months right after I heard Joe was going to put it on. When I went down to the Park in September with a group led by co-directors Joe and Jon Hill, I was hooked. The Park is mostly used by the equestrians from the Dude Ranches which border one side of it. The weekend in September was a memorable one. It had poured rain on us for a good part of the day as seven of us ran a 32 mile loop, most of which would be the 50K loop for the official race. It was the hardest thing I had ever done and the most fun! The challenge of doing two loops when it took 8+ hours to do one seemed daunting. Joe had put together a training schedule for me late that summer which was designed to get me through Bandera. Though I didn't quite keep the pace of the schedule, I did manage to get my first 50 miler done in October at Palo Duro and another 50 miler at Sunmart in December as a "training run". I had struggled in both of them and was still apprehensive about running an even longer distance over much more difficult terrain.

Hoping to better my odds, I volunteered to go to the Park a couple of days early and help mark the trail course. I figured I was going to be out there a long time, much of it in the dark, and the last thing I wanted to do was run extra because I got lost. I caravanned with Joe and arrived at the Park about 2:00 on Wednesday afternoon laden down with gear for the event. After quickly unloading the truck and the van, Joe and I headed out to start marking the trail. We had scads of survey ribbon, stakes and orange cones for the task. As soon as we got out on the trail, I knew why I had volunteered to help. The views from these hills are breathtaking. You can see for miles inside and outside of the Park. As a primitive, rugged park it is incredibly quiet. No car noise, no street sounds, just an occasional plane or covey of quail passing overhead. We scrambled up and down the hills, down into the creeks and through the woods for about 4 hours until well after dark marking the course. Being out there a couple of days before the event really gave me an opportunity to not only re-familiarize myself with the Park, but also to see how much light there was at what time of day. This was hugely helpful in planning where to have my gear for Saturday. I spent another four hours on Thursday with Joe marking the most technical portions of the course while that grizzled veteran director of prior Bandera races, Mickey Rollins marked the "other" "flat" side of the loop. Mark Raymond came down early to help out as well and most of the course was marked by the end of Thursday.

Friday was a blur of a day. More folks started arriving in the morning. Co-race directors, Nancy Hill and Joyce Prusaitis pulled up with SUVs jammed with necessities, including food, the race awards and all of the shirts. Jon Hill's mom, Carol, showed up to take control of the registration process. Just before noon the whirling dervish of the weekend appeared with a pick-up truck loaded down with food and gear. Sam Voltaggio had been persuaded by Joe to act as chef for the weekend. It was a huge undertaking and Sam showed the strength and energy he had to complete the Ultra Slam this past year. Sammy hit the ground running or chopping you might say. Like a general commanding an army, Sammy soon had folks chopping, stirring, grilling, fetching, tasting and sweating. Mark Lindsey had arrived with Sam, his truck also full of food and gear. By four o'clock or so, there were tall white chef hats atop the heads of Sam, Mark and Kelly Galloway as they dashed around the place readying the spaghetti dinner for the runners that evening. Many folks helped, but a special note should go to Lauren who was Sammy's right hand in the kitchen and who made some dynamite garlic bread for the dinner.

The runners were all fed and then after Joe gave a short prep talk about the course and the rules, most of the participants were gone by 7:30. Sometime around 8:00, Mark Raymond and I drove down to Aid Station #3. That was to be the main drop bag area. Aid Station #3 was to be manned by Mickey Rollins. The 100K runners would come to this spot at mile 10, 20, 40 and 50. I had spent the better part of the previous weekend packing and re-packing my ice chest drop bag. I had ziplocked and labeled and stuffed and crammed until there was no contingency that wouldn't be covered. Now if I could only remember my running shoes......

By 9:30 I was in the "boys' dorm room" at the lodge with Steve Sprinkle, Matt Harrington and Mark Lindsay as we laughed at the insanely crummy mattresses and did our final preparations for the next day....most of which consisted of making jokes and laughing.

The lodge was a buzz of activity by 5:30 in the morning on Saturday. There was a brief rain shower at 4:30 and the weather was predictably cold. I had packed my tights in my drop bag, but was grateful that I had kept my good running jacket at the lodge. I tried to stay inside as long as I could to be warm and dry, but the excitement of the crowd of runners arriving was difficult to resist. I chatted with Paul Schmitt from San Diego. Paul is a veteran of such tough runs and he offered to let me use a spare hi-tech compression band to help my chronic IT Band problem. (The compression band was one of his wife's short pantyhose cut off at the toe and rolled up. It worked like a charm!). There were 50 runners who actually started the 100K and a like number for the 50K which both started at 7:30(sunrise). The 25K started at 8:00. I walked around greeting my fellow HCTR members: Shan Rooney and Doug Giminez were putting gear in my van which was to serve as a dry drop area after the first loop for the three of us; that buckle-hungry Robert Heynen was synching up along with his better half Diana as they also prepared for their 1st 100; Steve Williams, Liam Douglass, Kelly Galloway, Trey Taylor, Linda Hurd and Rick Gastelum were all quietly making final preparations. Lennie Winkleman was there as well. I had told him about Bandera when we had shared a room at Palo Duro. Lennie had done a 100K before, but on flat ground. As we finally sauntered over to the starting area, Deborah Wilcox from Dallas introduced herself. She told me since I knew the trail, she was going to follow me. I told her that was fine, but I was going to be walking a lot so I might be too slow for her.

For once I was determined to be smart and run my own race. I moved to the back of the pack and when we started, I let the crowd take off. I knew what lay just ahead.... Four miles of steady climbs with an occasional sharp down hill sprinkled in and then ....Ice Cream Hill. The drizzle abated and I soon had my jacket tied around my waist as I walked up the first of many steep inclines. I managed to control myself on the downhills---my favorite parts. While I ran them hard and passed other runners, I didn't quite go the limit on them. The down slopes at Bandera are just a blast! They are steep and sometimes winding with different options which can lead to some pretty radical step shifting. I love it!

I stopped to take a couple of pictures on the new ridge that Joe took us up after the first four miles. It was a narrow peak with fabulous views. We had trouble setting the course on it because it was so narrow. In fact Joe had bushwhacked a route off the peak which required very careful steps on a rocky down ledge that was a challenge when it was dry, much less in the rain and dark. After a short down hill and then brief up hill and a turn to another down hill, I came to Aid Station #2 manned by stalwarts Chuck Zeugner and Chris Chandler. This was another station like Mickey's that we would see several times during the run. It was set at mile 5 and mile 24 of the 31 mile loop. After quick greetings and pit stop, it was off toward Ice Cream Hill. This was when the lead pack of 25Kers showed up. Todd Gerlach, Jon Hill and Steve Sprinkle all blew past me on the flat section leading to the monster climb. I kept shuffling along and made the climb up Ice Cream Hill without much problem. I ran into Mike Martinez just before starting the final ascent. Mike is from San Antonio and had come up to run McKinney Roughs this summer. He had run Mickey's version of the Bandera 28 miler before. I had been running with Mark Raymond for a good portion of the 1st sections. But I started having problems with my Flash-Flo waist pack. I had borrowed it from Dinty Moore and felt that it would have the perfect amount of water for the distance between aid stations. But at Mile 7 I couldn't get the belt to stay tight. The pack kept sagging down to my butt and I couldn't run. I stopped a couple of times to try and fix it, but with only limited success. I was getting frustrated. When would I learn NOT to try something new for a race! I was frustrated at the waist pack, but more angry at myself for not doing what I knew was right. I had wasted a lot of time fooling with the dang thing so at mile 8, I threw it over my shoulder and ran carried it like a shoulder bag. I ran with Fred Fletcher for a couple of minutes as he did the 25K route. Just to visit and to make up a little time.

Shan, Doug and Mark were all at Mickey's #3 Aid Station by the time I got there. My legs had gotten pretty bloodied from the Sotol cactus on Ice Cream Hill so I decided to put on my tights. I spent about 25 minutes making gear changes as I switched to my full Camelbak. I tagged along with Doug and Shan for the next section. This part is on the "other" side of the Park road from the big hills. While not completely flat, it doesn't have the differences in elevation as the first part of the course. What is does have that I hated in September is mud....lots of mud. The only drawback to Bandera is the black mud formed by the clay when it rains. We had a bellyful of it in September when it rained all day and we had it again on race day. For me the next 10 miles were torture. Doug was feeling pretty good and he would move on up ahead of Shan and me. By the time we hit Aid Station #4 (Paul and Abbey Stone), it was starting to rain harder. It wasn't long before Shan and I were walking along with Doug just in sight ahead. We were cold and wet and my attitude at that time sucked. I was never more happy to see Mickey's Aid Station again. For me it was the worse 10 miles of the whole race.

Doug had made some guacamole which he and Shan shared with me and with Robert and Diana who came in right after we did. I scarfed a couple of big scoops of it down and re-fueled from my own ice chest as well. More hot soup from Mickey's was also a boost. We hung around for 15-20 minutes and Doug and Shan were still gearing up. I popped a Red Bull and poured it down my throat. Everyone else had started out again. I left Doug and Shan and pressed on alone. I soon came up on Robert, Diana and Kelly who were running pretty close together. This was a nice, easy flat section that led up to the Three Sisters, the next series of climbs on the hilly side of the loop. The Red Bull kicked in and I decided to crank it up a notch. I began to run for four minutes at a time before taking a walk break. I stopped a couple of times to go to the bathroom. Robert and Diana would pass me as I pulled to the side out of sight. I think Robert thought he might be having early hallucinations as I kept passing him. I soon found myself gaining ground and passing runners. I came to the Three Sisters and kept a steady walk pace up them and blasted the downhills between them. The views from these three hills are spectacular. I paused briefly at the top of each to soak it in. Rick Gastelum was at the peak of the third one and turned and took my picture. I caught him and we descended to Aid Station #2 again. I got a chuckle out of catching Rick because when I was struggling between miles 10 and 20, Rick said perhaps I was running too fast for my IT injury. He may have been right, but I soon took off again and was running on my own. I dashed down the last slope and hit the Park Road for the ½ mile to the other side...back to the pig slop mud. I crossed the creek and then ran through the wooded single tack mud section which bordered the dude ranches. This winding path was okay as long as your foot didn't slide sideways in the mud. I made it to Aid Station #5 with that wild and crazy gang from NTTR and quickly pushed on. I knew there was still a brutal three miles ahead. Yes there was a killer uphill climb as part of the last loop, but what was worse was the slippery downhill. There are a couple of extended sections which are slanted downward at a perilous angle. After that there is one more steep climb and then you are headed for home. The drizzle had been intermittent, but enough to make the last section very muddy.

I finally saw the lodge and made it in at 7:23 for the first 31 miles. I was quite pleased with that time. I had covered the last 10 miles in right at 2 hours. My goal had been to do the first loop in 8 hours and then hope that I could do the second one in 10. I was a full 35 minutes ahead of schedule. Lennie was about to take off on the second loop and offered to wait for me. I knew I would be a while so I told him to go on. Adam refilled my Camelbak for me at the Aid Station while I went into the house for a minute. I was determined to make one warm dry bathroom stop, but I had to wait in line to do it. I dropped off my bottom layer of shorts at the house and kept on my tights. I grabbed my Trek 7 LED flashlight and stuffed it into my Camelbak and headed out for the second loop. I started off walking and caught up with Valerie K. from California. She had been struggling with a stomach upset and we ran together for a bit. Lennie had started the second loop about 20 minutes ahead of me, but I soon caught up with him on the second set of hills. We stayed together to the second Aid Station and decided to push on to make it past Ice Cream Hill before dark. Lennie stayed ahead of me most of that way, but we would meet up periodically. I was struggling again as it started to get dark. Lennie had pushed on because his lights were at the drop area at Aid #3. My running gloves had gotten soaked and I forgot to get my warm gloves at my van at the turn. When I reached back for my spare latex gloves which I knew would keep me dry, I found they had fallen out of my pocket. My hands were getting numb from the cold. I cracked open a couple of handwarmers and pulled out my flashlight. I shuffled my way and finally saw the light and fire of Aid#3.

I had made it to mile 41 and was delighted to see that Dinty Moore and James Booher were there. These chums had talked about coming to crew and pace me several months ago. But when I had last talked to James a few days before and he had told me I was crazy if I thought he was going to pace me the last 31 miles, I just figured they would come out to cheer. My hands were numb and James went to fetch me hot soup. Dinty dashed to his car and came back with ski gloves and a dry pair of running gloves. He also had Joe's 14 LED light and was going on the next loop with me. At this point I changed clothes again. I put on a capilene thermal top on as a base layer, a short sleeve Dri-Fit shirt next; then added my singlet with my bib number on top of that; added a heavy fleece sweater that zipped up as a turtleneck and put my "good" running jacket on top of that-5 layers! I don't have too much natural insulation and the nighttime cold was relentless. Chuck Z. had told someone else on Friday night that when you get to the longer distances at night, your body acts differently.....and sometimes has a hard time getting warm. That led me to throw in that extra fleece sweater.....And Man was I glad I did! (Thanks, Chuck).

I took some time to refuel and get my gear set and then Lennie, Dinty and I took off for the mud slop on the other side of the road. What a pal! Dinty had run 18 miles in the morning with his Austin Fit group and then proceeded to run the most difficult, challenging 21 miles of the Bandera course. I don't think any one else had a pacer, much less one so dedicated and generous with his time and effort. As we walked along through the mud, Lennie's light became almost irrelevant with the two Treks Dinty and I had. After Aid #4 Lennie had moved ahead of us and when Dinty and I finally slopped through the mud to get back to Mickey's, we expected to see him there. He wasn't and had apparently not come in yet. I felt bad because Lennie had wanted to stick with me to get over the Three Sisters again. It was simply too cold to stay very long. I tried to help out one poor guy who was at mile 41 and was sitting by the fire and feeling bad. I gave him a Pepto-Bismol and wished him luck. Joyce was there and wisely told me to stay away from the fire. She offered for Sammy to run with me, but to my amazement Dinty said he was out there to see me finish. He was going to go the last 11 miles with me. I shrugged off the Camelbak to lighten my load because my shoulders were getting tight. I strapped on my reliable bottle belt from Sunmart, shoved a Red Bull in my jacket, and walked down the trail with an Ensure. I had told the folks at Mickey's that Lennie was still out there. But after 15 minutes, I was too cold not to keep moving.

I started on down the trail with my Ensure as Dinty sprinted back to the Aid Station to grab a visor for me to keep the rain out of my eyes. He had spotted Lennie who had indeed gone a 1/4 mile out of the way after getting lost. Lennie skipped the Aid Station to catch up and the three of us were off again. We walked briskly to stay warm. Dinty would hang back with Lennie to give him the benefit of Joe's 14 LED light while I moved ahead leading the way on the trail. I had marked this section myself so we didn't waste much time finding our way. It was interesting going up and down the Three Sisters in the dark. No longer did we have the panoramic views, but you could feel how exposed the hills were as the wind socked us at each peak. When we reached the top of the third hill, I could see the light of Chris and Chuck's Aid Station. I knew this downhill pretty well and I dashed ahead of Dinty and Lennie. We drank down some lukewarm soup and then kept going. We kept up a brisk walking pace and were soon back to the Park road. We crossed over and forded the creek into the mud again. The single track through the woods was now nearly impassable. You couldn't really run in it because your foot would slide sideways even while walking. I just kept walking as quickly as I could. It seemed forever to get to Aid Station #5, but when I heard the blast of Stevie Ray's guitar, I knew I was close. Letha and Mark were jamming away as we pulled in to the Station. All of a sudden Joe popped up. His grin was as warm as the fire that was roaring nearby. "You're almost there!" he cried "You're doing great!". That was a big boost and after a cup of water and a quick gulp of Coke, I strode on. Dinty and Lennie were behind as I pushed the pace a bit. I knew Dinty would help Lennie so I blazed the trail. That last section was tough as we slid down on our butts on the brutal downhills. We made it up the last steep downhill and then started going down. The mud seemed to get worse and worse as we descended down toward the bottom of the hills. It seemed like forever before we got down to the creek and the homestretch. Lennie and I were determined to run at the end and we took off together after crossing the creek. It was 2:27 a.m. as we crossed the finish line to the small, but enthusiastic crowd of Joe, Joyce, Mark Lindsey, Tom Eaton and Kyle, the timekeeper. Joe whisked us into the tent by the jet engine space heater. They stripped off our wet gear and then hustled me inside to a blissfully warm shower.

By the time I put on warm clothes and shoes, Dinty, my guardian angel and Lennie, my running companion for nearly 26 miles were gone. Shan was in the living room of the lodge. She had made it through the first loop, but like many others, the cold had gotten to her. She wisely called it a day at mile 36( It didn't help that she was coming down with a sinus infection during the preceding week. It is amazing that she ran as far as she did in those conditions). Robert, Diana, Steve Williams, Kelly and Doug were still out on the course. I kept going out to look for them and getting progress reports. The weather was really bad and it started raining harder....again. Kelly dropped somewhere around 58 miles with blistered feet and chilled to the bone. A tough run on his part and one he should be proud of. Robert and Diana came in together at 20:41 at a little after 4 a.m. Steve was right behind them. That left only three still out on the course and still running. Doug had hooked up with Pete from Houston and Deborah Wilcox from Dallas. The three of them wisely stayed together as the footing was slippery and the terrain treacherous in the cold, dark rain. At 21+ hours the three of them came in with an assist from Joyce who had jogged out to look for them. Waterlogged, but smiling, the three amigos came in together side-by-side. As had been done for me, I whisked Doug in the tent and helped strip his wet gear off. Sometime around 5:45 a.m., I finally crawled to my cot and sleeping bag and slept for about two hours. The house was rocking again early for the Duathlon scheduled to start at 10:00. Sammy was at it again, whipping up breakfast for the 100K awards presentation at 9 a.m. Mark Raymond and I had spent most of the wee hours waiting for the rest of the HCTR crew and then went out to pick up our drop bags at about 8:45. We also got Mark Lindsey's. Mark L. was up and prepping for the Du the next day. Some of us are crazy and some of us are just insane. The official results are on the website and in the books. Mark Raymond had a great run and finished in under 17 hours. Linda Hurd had her now standard excellent race and took third within 2 minutes of Mark. Mark Lindsey finished in 15 hours with Paul Schmitt. I finished with Lennie at 18:52. Robert, Diana and Steve were all at just under 21 hours with Doug slightly over that and proud of his first ever DFL. It was a fabulous run with excellent organization and a marvelous support crew. I was the most fortunate runner there with the support of Joe and Joyce, Shan and Doug, Lennie and my most excellent personal crew of James Booher and Dinty Moore. What a friend Dinty was to go that last grueling 21 miles in the wee hours of the morning in the cold and rain. I am truly in debt to him. Shan, Liam, Trey, Kelly and Matt (at a torrid pace) all made the 50K. Duane Lewis also accounted admirably for himself at the 50K. Thanks to Chris Matus for the camera work and the encouragement from the bike. It was a blast. I can't wait until next year.

Henry Hobbs