Is crew access allowed on the 50 Miler course?

Yes, crew access is allowed on the 50 Miler course. Crew may reach the Gabe Zimmerman (GZ) and Pistol Hill (PH) aid stations and the start/finish, and nowhere else. No crew at Sahuarita Road (SR), Peaks View (PV), La Selvilla (LAS), the north turn-around, or X-9 Ranch Road. Attempts to access these areas will result in the runner being disqualified. (2025 Participant Guide.)

Are drop bags allowed on the 50 Miler course?

Yes, drop bags are allowed on the 50 Miler course. Drop bags at Sahuarita Road (SR) miles 11 and 23, La Selvilla (LAS) miles 36 and 47, and Pistol Hill (PH) miles 39 and 44. Delivered to the start/finish before 6:50 a.m., marked with location, bib number and name. Returned to the start/finish. (2025 Participant Guide.)

Are pacers allowed on the 50 Miler course?

No, pacers are not allowed on the 50 Miler course.

What is the cutoff time for the 50 Miler course?

The overall time limit for the 50 Miler course is 15 hours from the start. Runners must LEAVE an aid station BEFORE the cutoff time. Gabe Z northbound 4:00 pm (9 hours), Pistol Hill northbound 7:00 pm (12 hours), finish 10:00 pm (15 hours).

Colossal-Vail 50/50 2026: Date, Cutoffs, Start Time

The course

Where it goes out and back · 11 aid stations

Course line from the race's own GPX. Source file. Recorded 2025.

Two out-and-backs on the Arizona Trail from La Posta Quemada Ranch: south to Peaks View and back, then north past Pistol Hill and back. Runners can drop to the 55K at the ranch.

Gain is published as 'approximately 4,000 ft. of elevation gain' on the course page (2025 guide: 'Approximately 4,000 Feet of Elevation Gain'; the guide's course text says 55K 'almost 2,300 feet' plus 'an additional 1,700', the course page says 'an additional 1,000'). Not stored as a number because it is approximate and the pages disagree.

The race

What this one is

An ultra on the Arizona Trail near Vail, 24 miles southeast of Tucson, starting and finishing at Colossal Cave Mountain Park. Two out-and-backs make the 50 Mile and 55K, plus a daytime and a nighttime half marathon. Mostly singletrack on rolling desert. All proceeds benefit the Arizona Trail Association.

Getting in

Getting in Entry, lottery and what the race asks of you before race day.

Lottery: not checked yet

Lottery opens: not checked yet

Lottery draw: not checked yet

Field cap: not checked yet

Registration: UltraSignup runazt.org

Qualifying: not checked yet

Minimum age: not checked yet

Transfers: not checked yet

Deferrals: not checked yet

Running, crewing, pacing or still deciding

How NavRun helps with Colossal-Vail 50/50 Fifteen hours, and two stations with a clock on each.

You are running it

You reach Gabe Zimmerman (GZ) Northbound, mile 28.9, before its 4:00pm cutoff, and you already knew that this morning.

An arrival time for all 9 stations, worked out from your own training.

Start free →

You are deciding

You find out Colossal-Vail 50/50 is months of work away, not years, and you enter.

Put in a race you have already run. NavRun shows you where this one sits from where you are.

No account needed →

Crew access, pacers and drop bags

The rules that shape your day Anything marked "not checked yet" is a gap in what we hold, never a no from the race.

Crew allowed: Yes runazt.org

Vehicles per runner: not checked yet

Pacers: No runazt.org

Muling: not checked yet

Drop bags: Yes runazt.org

Cupless: Yes runazt.org

Course marking: Fully Marked runazt.org

Night running: Yes runazt.org

Dogs: not checked yet

Headphones: Not allowed runazt.org

Crew rules: Crew may reach the Gabe Zimmerman (GZ) and Pistol Hill (PH) aid stations and the start/finish, and nowhere else. No crew at Sahuarita Road (SR), Peaks View (PV), La Selvilla (LAS), the north turn-around, or X-9 Ranch Road. Attempts to access these areas will result in the runner being disqualified. (2025 Participant Guide.) runazt.org

Pacer rules: not checked yet

Drop bag rules: Drop bags at Sahuarita Road (SR) miles 11 and 23, La Selvilla (LAS) miles 36 and 47, and Pistol Hill (PH) miles 39 and 44. Delivered to the start/finish before 6:50 a.m., marked with location, bib number and name. Returned to the start/finish. (2025 Participant Guide.) runazt.org

Cutoff philosophy: Runners must LEAVE an aid station BEFORE the cutoff time. Gabe Z northbound 4:00 pm (9 hours), Pistol Hill northbound 7:00 pm (12 hours), finish 10:00 pm (15 hours). runazt.org

Aid stations

Every stop, and what you get there ● yes ○ no ? nobody has checked – does not apply to this race

Mile	Station	Cutoff	Crew access	Bag	Pacer	Med	To next
0.00	Start NoneSignal wrong?	?	●	?	?	?	4.90
4.90	Gabe Zimmerman (GZ) Southbound NoneSignal wrong?	?	●	○	?	?	6.10
11.00	Sahuarita Road (SR) Southbound NoneSignal wrong?	?	○	●	?	?	5.90
16.90	Peaks View (PV) South Turn-Around NoneSignal wrong?	?	○	○	?	?	5.90
22.80	Sahuarita Road (SR) Northbound NoneSignal wrong?	?	○	●	?	?	6.10
28.90	Gabe Zimmerman (GZ) Northbound NoneSignal wrong?	4:00pm	●	○	?	?	6.60
35.50	La Selvilla (LAS) Northbound NoneSignal wrong?	?	○	●	?	?	3.60
39.10	Pistol Hill (PH) Northbound NoneSignal wrong?	7:00pm	●	●	?	?	5.20
44.30	Pistol Hill (PH) Southbound NoneSignal wrong?	?	●	●	?	?	3.60
47.90	La Selvilla (LAS) Southbound NoneSignal wrong?	?	○	●	?	?	2.20
50.10	Finish NoneSignal wrong?	10:00pm	●	?	?	?	?

Same race, other lines

Other distances and other years

Other distances: 55K (33.8 miles)
13 Miler (13.6 miles)
13 Miler NIGHT (Half Marathon)

What it looks like out there

Somebody has been out there with a camera the tables say the climb is long. these say what long feels like.

Nobody has been out there with a camera or a microphone yet. A gap means nobody has found it, not that it is not out there. Seen a course preview or a film of this one? Send us the link.

Add to this page

What you know every one of these is read by a person before it changes anything

Ran this race? Tell the next runner what you know.

Nobody sees it until we have read it. No account, no sign-in.

Which distance? Leave blank if it applies to the whole race.

Which stop? Leave blank if it is not about one particular stop.

Give it a short title: Optional. Something like “Cal Street, mile 62 to 78”.

What do you wish someone had told you? Write it the way you would say it to someone at the start line.

Were you there? Optional, and it decides nothing. It only tells the next runner where this is coming from.

What year? Optional.

Your email: Optional, and never shown on the page. Only so we can ask you a question about this note.

Website: Leave this field blank.

See something wrong or out of date? Suggest an edit.

This changes nothing on the page on its own. Somebody checks it against the race first.

Which detail? Optional. Filled in for you when you start from a specific line on the page.

What does the page say now? Copy it as it appears, so we can find it.

What should it say? The corrected value.

How do you know? Required. Where it came from: the race email, the runner manual, what you saw on the day.

A link that shows it: Optional.

Or a photo of it: Optional. A screenshot or a photo of the sign works.

Were you there? Optional, and it decides nothing.

What year? Optional.

Your email: Optional, only so we can come back to you about this correction.

Which distance? Leave blank if it is about the whole race.

Which stop? Leave blank if it is not about one particular stop.

Website: Leave this field blank.

Were you out there? Say which stops a text got out from.

Nobody sees it until we have read it. No account, no sign-in.

What year? Were you there?

Optional, and it decides nothing.

Your phone company:

Which stops did a text get out from?

Leave a stop blank if you did not try, or do not remember.

50 Miler

55K

13 Miler NIGHT

13 Miler

Start mile 0.0
Yes
No
Gabe Zimmerman (Heading South) mile 4.9
Yes
No
Gabe Zimmerman (Heading North) mile 8.7
Yes
No
Finish mile 13.6
Yes
No

Your email:

Optional. Never shown.

Seen a course preview or a film of this one? Send it over.

Somebody watches it before it goes anywhere near this page. What we are after is footage of this course, on the ground. If it would be just as true of any other race, it is not this.

What does it show that the page cannot? Required. A line is plenty. Where the climbs are, what the footing does, what the last twenty miles look like.

Were you there? Optional, and it decides nothing.

What year? Optional.

Your email: Optional, and never shown on the page. Only so we can ask you a question about this one.

Where is it? A YouTube link, a race report, a photo gallery, whatever it is.

What kind of thing is it?

Who made it? Optional, and we credit them on the page.

Website: Leave this field blank.

Have the GPX? Send us the link.

We want the address of the file the race publishes, not the file. We download it from there so the page can say where the line came from.

Are you the race director? Get in touch and we'll make it right.

We read every one of these and we write back. Every fact here carries the source it came from, and the way a wrong one gets fixed is a person checking it against what you tell us.

Colossal-Vail 50/50

Who's going to Colossal-Vail 50/50?

Where it goes out and back · 11 aid stations

What this one is

Getting in Entry, lottery and what the race asks of you before race day.

How NavRun helps with Colossal-Vail 50/50 Fifteen hours, and two stations with a clock on each.

The rules that shape your day Anything marked "not checked yet" is a gap in what we hold, never a no from the race.

Every stop, and what you get there ● yes ○ no ? nobody has checked – does not apply to this race

Other distances and other years

Somebody has been out there with a camera the tables say the climb is long. these say what long feels like.

What you know every one of these is read by a person before it changes anything

Which stops did a text get out from?

50 Miler

55K

13 Miler NIGHT

13 Miler

Ultras change. We will tell you when this one does.