Palo Duro Trail Run
50K · 50K
Registration open
Registration closes on Wednesday 14 October at 11:59 pm Central.
Race dateOctober 17, 2026
Duration1 day
Start7:00am
Whenin 38 days
First held1986
Free, and always will be. NavRun makes money from race-day planning for runners who want it, never from this.
Ultras change constantly, sometimes the morning of. Always confirm with the race director and the official website before you rely on anything here.
Distance
50K
Climb
not checked yet
Descent
not checked yet
High point
not checked yet
Time limit
12:00:00
Aid stations
13
Started
not checked yet
Finished
not checked yet
Finish rate
not checked yet
The course
Where it goes
multi-loop · 13 aid stations · rust marks a stop your crew can reach
Two laps of the canyon loop from the Mack Dick Pavilion. In an east year the loop runs counter clockwise, and 2026 is an east year. It goes half an hour behind the 50 mile, at 7:00 am, and comes back through the start and finish once at 15.5 miles, where your crew and your drop bag are.
Rock Garden Trail and the Comanche trails are the most technical part of the loop: short steep ascents and descents, loose rock, and drop offs close to the trail. The Hackberry Spur and parts of Paseo del Rio are very sandy, and most of the rest is hard packed singletrack. Mid October in the canyon can be freezing at the start and over 100 degrees in the afternoon, and the canyon itself can run 10 degrees hotter. Trekking poles are allowed.
The race
What this one is
The Palo Duro Trail Run is run on the floor of Palo Duro Canyon State Park in the Texas Panhandle, the second largest canyon in the United States. It is a loop course from the Mack Dick Pavilion: 50 miles is three laps, the 50K is two and a 25K is one, so you come back past your crew every lap and see other runners most of the day. Underfoot it runs from rolling singletrack to sand and rock, with short steep technical climbs and descents. Mid October in the canyon can be freezing at the start and over 100 degrees by the afternoon.
The race was started by Red Spicer as a road race and became a trail run. By 2003 it was in its 18th year, with a 20K, a 50K and a 50 mile on a 12.5 mile loop and nearly 200 runners on the line before dawn. The distances now are 25K, 50K and 50 miles on a 15.5 mile loop. From 2024 the direction alternates, east in even years and west in odd, and west is the way the course has historically been run. The 2025 running was the race's 40th year.
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
palodurotrailraces.com
- Qualifying
-
not checked yet
- Minimum age
-
not checked yet
- Transfers
-
Yes
palodurotrailraces.com
- Deferrals
-
No
palodurotrailraces.com
Running, crewing, pacing or still deciding
How NavRun helps with Palo Duro Trail Run
Twelve hours.
You are running it
You reach Mack Dick Pavilion, mile 15.5, before its 1:00pm cutoff, and you already knew that this morning.
An arrival time for all 11 stations, worked out from your own training.
Start free →
You are crewing it
You park at Mack Dick Pavilion, and you are standing there when they come in.
One link from your runner, with the stop and the window they arrive in.
You are deciding
You find out Palo Duro Trail Run 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
palodurotrailraces.com
- Vehicles per runner
-
not checked yet
- Pacers
-
No
palodurotrailraces.com
- Muling
-
not checked yet
- Drop bags
-
Yes
palodurotrailraces.com
- Cupless
-
Yes
palodurotrailraces.com
- Course marking
-
not checked yet
- Night running
-
not checked yet
- Dogs
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Not allowed
palodurotrailraces.com
- Headphones
-
not checked yet
- Crew rules
-
Crew wait at the start and finish, in the Mack Dick Pavilion parking lot, and every lap comes back through it. Tents and canopies go in the marked area there. A runner may not take support anywhere on course except at the aid stations.
palodurotrailraces.com
- Pacer rules
-
not checked yet
- Drop bag rules
-
There is a designated drop bag area at the start and finish, which every lap returns to.
palodurotrailraces.com
- Cutoff philosophy
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The cutoff is taken at the start and finish line, so the only place a lap decision gets made is the one place you come back to. You may leave for the second lap up to 1:00 pm, and the course stays open until 7:00 pm. The race is plain about the walking: almost everyone walks at some point.
palodurotrailraces.com
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 |
Mack Dick Pavilion
|
? |
● |
● |
? |
? |
1.90 |
| 1.90 |
Hackberry
|
? |
? |
? |
? |
? |
1.60 |
| 3.50 |
Lighthouse
|
? |
? |
? |
? |
? |
3.30 |
| 6.80 |
Capital Peak
|
? |
? |
? |
? |
? |
2.20 |
| 9.00 |
Rock Garden
|
? |
? |
? |
? |
? |
3.80 |
| 12.80 |
Hackberry
|
? |
? |
? |
? |
? |
2.70 |
| 15.50 |
Mack Dick Pavilion
|
1:00pm |
● |
● |
? |
? |
1.90 |
| 17.40 |
Hackberry
|
? |
? |
? |
? |
? |
1.60 |
| 19.00 |
Lighthouse
|
? |
? |
? |
? |
? |
3.30 |
| 22.30 |
Capital Peak
|
? |
? |
? |
? |
? |
2.20 |
| 24.50 |
Rock Garden
|
? |
? |
? |
? |
? |
3.80 |
| 28.30 |
Hackberry
|
? |
? |
? |
? |
? |
2.70 |
| 31.00 |
Mack Dick Pavilion
|
7:00pm |
● |
● |
? |
? |
? |
Driving your crew
Getting your people there
3 stops with directions the race published.
Mack Dick Pavilion
mile 0.00
Parking. The start, the finish and the crew area are all the Mack Dick Pavilion parking lot. Tents and canopies go in the marked area there and nowhere else on the course.
Mack Dick Pavilion
mile 15.50
cutoff 1:00pm
Parking. The start, the finish and the crew area are all the Mack Dick Pavilion parking lot. Tents and canopies go in the marked area there and nowhere else on the course.
Mack Dick Pavilion
mile 31.00
cutoff 7:00pm
Parking. The start, the finish and the crew area are all the Mack Dick Pavilion parking lot. Tents and canopies go in the marked area there and nowhere else on the course.
Same race, other lines
Other distances and other years
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.
9 people have been out there with a camera or a microphone.
+ 1 more.
These are other people's work and we link straight to them. Watching costs nothing and needs no account.
More of them: every race we hold, on film.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Where this came from.
Every fact on this page records its source and when we last checked it: 152 sources for this race. Hover a source link to read the sentence it came from.
37% of what we track for a course is filled in. The rest says "not checked yet" rather than guessing.
Ultras change. We will tell you when this one does.
Cutoffs move, races get postponed, lotteries open and close. We read the race's own sources and record where every fact came from. Put your email in and we will send you what changed, and where we read it.
No account, and nothing to cancel.
What happens to your email. Nothing else. I do not sell it, and I will not send you anything except this race changing. One click gets you out.
I keep this catalog because the information is scattered and hard to trust. Telling you when it moves is the same job.
Running this one?
NavRun builds your pacing from your own training, then turns it into a plan your crew can follow: when to leave and where to park.
Start free
