The Deadwood-Mickleson Trail Marathon was awesome. The course was breathtakingly beautiful. The setting was South Dakota’s black hills, home to Mt Rushmore, jewel caves, mammoth site and near the Badlands and Devils Tower. There is a little altitude involved. The course starts at ~5300 feet, and climbs steadily over the next 13 miles, (yes I said the first THIRTEEN MILES is up hill!) to 6200 feet – then it turns downhill for about 5 miles. From mile 18 to 19 you have a one mile uphill section, but then it’s down until the finish at 4500 feet on the main street of Deadwood. This was run mostly on trail, with very little auto traffic to deal with. You cross some 30 bridges and go through a tunnel. The course was patrolled by volunteers on bicycles, and there were aid stations situated at every other mile. We were quite well taken care of. The “medal” was actually a rock. Apparently there’s a thick vein of alabaster that runs through the black hills. A local artist was contracted to make the “medals”. At the finish line we were presented a polished disc of alabaster on a ribbon with the race logo and date on the front. It is quite a unique ‘medal’.

During the 1870’s Deadwood had such “Wild West” celebrities as Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, Wyatt Earp and Poker Alice Tubbs. Wild Bill Hickok met his maker in Deadwood. The race logo shows Wild Bill Hickock and Calamity Jane running down the trail :;):

The trail is one of those made from an old railroad right of way, and its surface is crushed limestone. That was a nice surface to run on, very little asphalt. The trail itself is 115 miles long. The scenery was incredible. Most of the time you’re running through the countryside, although like most of these “linear parks” there is very little shade. After you wind down from the mountain, it picks ups an asphalt bike path for about the last two miles, and the last quarter mile or so is on the brick main street of Deadwood. It did get quite hot. The temperature when we finished read 96 degrees. It was in the mid 80’s 2 hours into the run. It’s typically not that hot in June in South Dakota. Apparently last year, folks were running by snow fields.

The packet pickup/expo was held at the chamber of commerce pavilion. It was a great setting. The race director Jerry Dunn and his lovely wife Elaine Doll-Dunn were extremely nice and very accommodating. Jeff Galloway and Billy Mills both took part in the events. Both are very inspirational speakers. After the packet pick up/expo most folks went to see Mt Rushmore and/or Crazy horse. Then the pasta dinner was at one of the hotel/casino restaurants. It was quite good. Yup, I took pictures.

I’d recommend this marathon!

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