Ghost Town Race Report

Ghost Town 38.5 miles (63km) Hillsboro, New Mexico Jan.18/09.
By Jamie Nielsen

First & foremost, I have never met a better organized & more communicative race organizer than Susan Reynolds. For this Canadian from Barrie, Ontario it was a marvelous experience that will remain with me for a life time. Hillsboro a former Mining Town with fascinating history & stories is located in the southwest part of New Mexico, 3 hours south of Albuquerque. The sunny balmy weather of 70 degrees F. was like Puerto Plata to this “Hockey Puck” who on the Wednesday prior had experience -29 degrees Celsius temperatures in Barrie. I met a few racers from Iowa, blaming their unseasonable cold weather on Canada too. The course was “Deceivingly Challenging”. All but 12 miles was off road, stone, crush boulders, dirt trails, none of which was flat. You were either climbing or descending between the start of 5,000 feet elevation to a high of 7,000 feet. Anyone outside the Utah, Colorado & New Mexico State area was referred to as “Low Lander”. Apparently I am a Low Lander. The elevation of my city in Barrie, On. is about 750 feet. Some for whatever reason, don’t feel the elevation effects like my running buddy Keith Lascelles who finished in 19th spot with a time of 6 hrs 54 minutes. This time includes the extra 3 km (15 minutes) we ran as we took a slight unscheduled detour. Holy Crumba, we’re going the wrong friggin way! Later of course we laughed as Keith won the Martin Luther King Award for his noble 19th spot.
How ironic two Canadians in a field of 71 Americans and Keith wins the MLK award. The altitude did effect me to some degree & I finished 23rd with a time of 7 hrs & 21 mins, Elevation to me is Blue Mountain in Collingwood, On. 3,600 feet, whereby my work associates from Calgary point & hysterically laugh, “Mountains ? My backyard has berms bigger than that”.
Keith & I met many familiar names in the Ultra Running world like Paul Grimm, Tim Long from Colorado, Abilgail Meadows from Texas, Marty Duchow from Connecticut, Ed Heller from New Mexico (last years winner) and Bobby Biles & Rona Van Willigen from Albuquerque, NM.
You know the terrain is tricky when the local Sherrifs & Park Rangers will only tackle it by horseback. At one point I felt like I was on “Mantracker”. The race is run in January for a good reason the snakes are dormant. Dormant snakes I don’t mind. We were forewarned their maybe families of wild pigs complete with tusks ( not so dormant ). In New Mexico, I did notice that almost all the City signs don’t post their population but their elevation. I have a new appreciation of altitude. The Ghost Town has grown significantly in its 4 year history. This years event attracted many elite racers which is a main reason you will see the GT 38.5 become a race of choice for the future.