Cactus Rose is put on by Joe and Joyce Prusatis of Tejas Trails out at Hill Country State Natural Area in Bandera, Texas, northwest of San Antonio.

New for 2011 - Cactus Rose has a 4-person, 100 mile relay!

The race has aid stations, but you are responsible for providing everything you need except ice and water. There won't be any volunteers at the aid stations unless you bring a crew. Anything you need to eat, any sports drink or supplements, you will need to drop them off at the aid stations before the race.

Two of the aid stations (Start/Finish(Lodge) and Equestrian) will have lots of activity, but the other two (Nachos and Boyles) will be very quiet.

This is one of the lowest priced 100 mile races in the country, but you will still get a nice tech shirt and a buckle for the 100 mile race (a medal for the 50 mile race). The entry cost is a lot cheaper than most marathons for either race.

Though you sign up for either the 50-mile or the 100-mile race when you register, you can switch at the 50-mile mark to the other race.

You'll need to write on a message book every time you enter an aid station - these can actually be pretty funny as the runners leave messages for eachother. Another interesting feature is that the race has washing machine loops - runners switch directions every loop. With the smallish number of runners in the race, this makes the 100 miler seem a lot less quiet.

The town of Bandera is about 15-20 minutes from the state park start/finish, and there is a small grocery store and quite a few restaurants. Brick's is pretty good for getting takeout hamburgers and fries, chicken sandwiches, pasta, that type of thing. Also a good place for a pre-race meal - with Cactus Rose, there aren't any official pre-race or post-race meals.