Though some actually run this most walk or march it. It is in southern New Mexico on a military base and miles from lodging or a major airport. Most of the race is on dirt or loose sand, but about 4 or 5 miles is paved. The first six or seven miles are somewhat downhill to the lowest point on the route at about 4000 feet elevation. From there it is mostly a steady uphill for the next 8 miles or so to the route's highest point at 5200 feet. From the highest point it is mostly downhill for 7 or 8 miles until mile 21 or so when you enter the "sand pit", about a mile of very loose sand in a creek bed. Then it is a slow rise to end.

The course is challenging to say the least. When we did it this year (2017) the temperature at start time was about 60 degrees and topped out around 90, early afternoon. Most of the route is on dirt trails and a short portion is on very loose sand. There is also a 1200 foot rise in elevation between mile about mile 6 and mile 13. We trained to walk the event and that is what we did. But our training was on flat paved trails in Ohio. We were not prepared for the weather or trail conditions. It took us 11.5 hours to finish and we were about 2 hours slower than average. Course support was pretty good, but the stations were spaced a bit far apart (about 2.5 miles). There were plenty of course support monitoring the route and picking up those that were having trouble or calling it quits. A few hundred called it quits on our day.

The race honors the survivors of the WWII Bataan Death March and there were a few actual survivors in attendance on our race day. There are a fair number of military teams and individuals that participate and you have the option of participating in the military heavy (if you're military) and carry a 35lb pack, civilian heavy carrying a 35lb pack, civilian light, carrying what you want, or doing the shorter (14.2 mile) honorary march.

It's a tough race. Be prepared if you go. Heat, elevation, loose terrain, BIG hill. And though we didn't experience it, high winds are possible which could really kick up the dust.

I won't do it again.... But I'm happy I did it. Though if you had asked me at about mile 20 how I felt about it, I probably wasn't so happy.