Deadwood Mickelson Trail Half Marathon
Deadwood, South Dakota
Sunday, June 1, 2014

I race walked the Deadwood Mickelson Trail Half Marathon near Deadwood, South Dakota on Sunday, June 1, 2014. For the most part the Mickelson Trail is an old railroad that has been converted to an all-purpose trail with fine gravel and sand covering the old railroad tracks. The trail is extremely well maintained. The 2250 entries in the half marathon and 600 entries in the marathon were bussed from Deadwood to two different places along the trail for an 8 AM start. The last bus left Deadwood at 6:15 which mean half marathoners had a lengthy wait for the start at the half way point in the marathon course. My wait was approximately 1.5 hours and for 30 minutes of the wait it rained with the temperature near 48 degrees. I always bring an extra-large trash bag to cover me to keep me dry and warm in situations like this. There were plenty of port-a-potties in the woods near the start as well as enough room for the 2250 entrants to wait. The trail itself is about 8 feet wide so the start area covered about ¼ mile of the trail with participant expected to fill in according to expected finish time. Because the importance of this had been explained often during the waiting for the start, participants actually cooperated extremely well and made the congestion on the trail not too bad. The first half mile and a 1.5 mile section between miles 5 and 7 were the only uphill parts of the course which for the rest of the course saw a drop in elevation of approximately 1500 feet. Two sections had extremely steep short down hills. The old railroad beds by necessity could not be steep either up or down. There was a lack of level sections on the course. Water/Powerade stations averaged 2.5 miles apart and were restricted to places where the trail could be accessed. At each station the Powerade was on the left and the water was on the right to make crowding minimal. There were plenty of enthusiastic volunteers to take care of the needs of the participants. When the trail was approaching Deadwood, there were a few places where roads needed to be crossed and there were police and school crossing guards to control traffic. Unfortunately from mile 8 until I reach my motel after the race it rained some more and the temperature remained in the 50’s. The event was extremely well organized and I had a wonderful time on my trip to the historical town of Deadwood.