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Mile 10.5: There is a Chevron gas station as soon as you hit the black top. Instead of going left to the trailhead parking lot you would take a right down about 1/10th of a mile. The Sunset Dr. Trailhead parking lot is a good spot for crews to meet you. Portapotty right before the trail ends.
Mile 15:Del Dios Park. This is also a good spot for crews to meet you. Porta potty here.
Mile 20:There is a little fruit stand that sells fruit and limited drinks (bottled water, etc). You have to walk down the paved road past the trailhead parking lot and up towards Del Dios Highway. About 0.25 off the route. This trailhead is a good spot for crew access. Google Maps “San Dieguito River Park - Santa Fe Valley Trail”.
Mile 24: A limited spot for crew access. Only if you haven’t met your runner in a while would I suggest meeting at this spot since it is not a trailhead and on the side of the road where the trail ends and San Dieguito road begins. Access to your runner from this point should become easier from this point on. No convenience stores.
Mile 30.3: There’s a boujie “Gelson’s” grocery store inside this little shopping center, with a McDonald’s, a Chevron etc. You leave the course for only 0.10 miles to get to the grocery store. Remember to return exactly where you got off course. This is a good place for crew to meet you. You are currently “where the surf meets the turf” at Del Mar, in case you were wondering. Del Mar Fairgrounds up ahead.
Mile 35: This will definitely be the highlight of Day 1 as far as beautiful scenery goes. “Torrey Pines State Beach”. Good place for crew meetup. Find street parking along the southbound side of the road. Shouldn’t be too hard on a Friday. There are also bathrooms and water fountains as soon as you enter the park past the toll collection booth and before the climb up the hill. Enjoy the scenery here, seriously!
Mile 43:”La Jolla Cove” - okay, this might tie for best scenery of the day. Good spot for crew meetups, free public parking available, might be hard to find parking hopefully not too hard. Bathrooms/portapotties and water fountains available. No convenience stores. As you enter La Jolla via La Jolla Blvd there will be plenty of gas stations, a 7-11 and other convenience stores along the road for the next couple of miles.
Miles 52-54: Ocean Beach and Sunset Cliffs. Hopefully you paced this right in time to see the sunset at Sunset Cliffs! There are plenty of convenience stores down Sunset Cliffs Blvd. I recommend meeting your crew somewhere around mile 54, before the aptly named Hill St.
Miles 58-62: SAN - San Diego Airport into Downtown San Diego via Harbor Dr. Enjoy the Friday night scene of downtown and Seaport Village. Go past the convention center where Comic Con is held every year. A good place to meet runners will be “Cesar Chavez Park” where the official check-in for the 100k mark will be. There are bathrooms here, park closes at 10:30pm. Runners may continue after 10:30pm but no aid will be promised.
Miles 62-80: Welcome to the Barrio, my friend. Since you will be running through here at night I advise you to bring a friend. Most parts will be fine but if you are female and would like some company through this part let me know and I can try to have some runner friends on standby to join you for this section. There are lots of convenience stores in the latter half of this stretch, going into Chula Vista. The next official meetup spot will be the Mother Miguel Trailhead at mile 80 “Mt. San Miguel Park”. Pay attention to the cutoff time here, although remember it is only a “soft” cutoff, meaning we will let you continue if you don’t make it in time just don’t expect aid. The next 10 miles will be climbing on rocky trails. If you want you can take the haunted ass Proctor Valley Rd to Rancho San Diego and I will give you extra credit. Youtube it. Seriously.
Mile 91: This is Rancho San Diego. There is a Ralphs (6am-1am) and a Denny’s (24h) along with a variety of other stores in this shopping center. A 7-11 is further down the road at mile 93.It will be road running from here until mile 113, with the ability to run on some dirt shoulder of the road every now and then.
Mile 101.4: “Flinn Springs Park”. The 100 mile cutoff and aid station will be here. The cutoffs will be 9:30am and 1:00pm respectively. This will be a good spot for crews to meet runners. Continue on to Viejas via Alpine. Bathrooms available during 9:30am and 7pm. Alpine up ahead will have grocery stores and some convenience stores, with a taco shop as well. Get that breakfast burrito.
Mile 113: “Ral’s House”. This is on the Viejas Indian Reservation. No easy way to plug in to Google Maps. Refer to course map for details and GPS coordinates “Tukook’s Way”. The hard cutoffs for here will be Saturday at 1:50pm (32h50m) and 6:00pm (37h) respectively. Good place for crew to meet runners and good place for runners to take a short nap if necessary. Bathroom available. The rest of the course is mainly trail or dirt and a lot of climbing.
Mile 120: “Merrigan Aid Station”. Those who are familiar with Cuyamaca 100k will know this as the first aid station of that race. This trailhead is a good spot for crew to meet runners. Portapotty available. There is a gas station called “Perkins Gas Station” in Descanso right off of Viejas Blvd. Open 6am-9pm. This will be your last chance until Lake Cuyamaca (Mile 144) to get anything from a store.
Mile 125: “Green Valley Campground”. Spigots available here to fill up on water. Bathrooms available. Campground should be available to crew. 14.5 miles until next spigot/campground.
Mile 139: “Paso Picacho Campground”. Water spigots and bathrooms available. Crew accessible location.
Mile 144: Lake Cuyamaca “Chambers Park”. There is a restaurant/store at Lake Cuyamaca but it is off the course about 0.5 miles left of mile 143. I only suggest going there if you are comfortable navigating the area as it is not the most clearly marked path and it is not on the course map. It is the finish line area of San Diego 100, if you are familiar with that. Good spot for crew to restock here. Chambers park will be the official waypoint for mile 144 and there will be aid available there. This is an RV park a crew can call ahead and make reservations at if they have an RV. Easily accessible spot right off the main road headed towards Julian.
Mile 150: “Pedro Fages Monument”. A spot off the side of Sunrise Highway. Should be ample enough parking at this trailhead. Good spot for crew meetup. Not much else.
Mile 158:”Banner Recreation Ranch” off Banner Grade. Crew, make sure to pay attention to where you runner will be entering the highway off the side of a dirt road. Runners make sure you remember that the spot where your crew will be will be to the right down the highway a little bit, on the other side of the highway. It could be easy to miss your crew here so pay attention, but if you do miss your crew don’t worry, the next spot is not far away. There’s a small convenience store with VERY limited supplies here. Open 9am-9pm. Best to wait until Julian but its there if necessary.
Mile 158-161: Okay so most important thing to note is you will be going up the side of the highway for about 1.5 miles. It is important to find as much of the limited shoulder as possible when going up this highway. Always exercise extreme caution for this part. This highway is not ideal but hey. LISTEN for cars and make yourself as visible as possible during the night. I ran on the right side of the highway because there is more shoulder more of the time. There’s usually not much traffic to worry about but still be ALERT. You will cross over to the left side of the highway after 1.2 miles to go up a very clear double-track dirt road, littered with abandoned RVs. If you’ve gone further than 1.2 miles up the highway you’ve gone too far. The mining trails are a spectacular part of Julian’s history and if you’re up for it they’re haunted so have some fun exploring them at night for extra credit. You will enter a residential neighborhood called “Whispering Pines”. If you listen closely, they actually start to whisper when you’re sleep deprived enough. Your crew will meet you at a cul-de-sac at the end of the Woodland Rd. From this point you will have about 4.5 miles of road running through the town of Julian where there will be convenience stores and restaurants. Make sure your crew picks up some authentic Julian Apple Pie from Mom’s. They can also stay in the haunted Julian Hotel for extra credit.
Mile 166: “Santa Ysabel East Preserve”. This is a trail head, great access point for crews. Plenty of parking and portapotties should be available. The hard cutoff here will be Sunday at 10:30am and 8:00pm respectively. These are really beautiful trails through Santa Ysabel. There might be cows, they are harmless, they’ll just watch you run by. Crew: Note that this is NOT the “Hwy 79 Staging” trail head. That’s the next one.
Mile 173.5: The other end of the Santa Ysabel East Preserve, the “Hwy 79 Staging” trail head. Not much parking available at this side-of-the-road trailhead, but it’s a spot nevertheless. IF you are going solo, Don’s Market is 1.3 miles one-way south towards “downtown” Santa Ysabel. Might be too much to add on but the option is there. You could find everything you need there during the day. Good for crew to restock on as well. Don’t forget Dudley’s Bakery and the Julian Pie Company! This will be the last convenience store area for the rest of the race (33 miles). From this point you have 7 miles of road running on sparsely populated road, up a little grade and into beautiful Mesa Grande country. As always, be cautious and you will make it up the hill just fine.
Mile 180:”Old Mesa Grande Store”. Despite its name its not actually an open store. Cannot input into Google Maps but it will be pretty obvious. Its an abandoned old store that says “Old Mesa Grande Store”. Ample parking available here. Aid and possibly one portapotty available here. This is the final cutoff of the race at Sunday 4:30pm and Monday 3:00am respectively.
Mile 197:You’re gonna hate me for this one. But then you’ll love me when you get to the top. But then hate me still. You will be climbing up Big Black Mountain for the final climb of the race. The plan is to have some aid for you either right before the big climb or waiting at the top. This was a recent change so nothing is guaranteed. Make sure to have taken enough with you at the last aid station to cover 26.2 miles with 3k feet of climb. You will be going through Mesa Grande Indian Reservation (my home) in Black Canyon to get to Pamo Valley. These roads are traveled on by people who live in the housing down there that you will see, so be mindful! Always run with caution and don’t take up the entire road especially if you have pacers. Run on the right side of the road, as opposed to left. Double-track dirt roads on the sides of cliffs. Enjoy the beauty of the area.
Mile 205: You will run 7 miles down Big Black Mountain to Pamo Rd. which will be a flatish dirt road for the last 2 miles into the finish at Orosco Ridge Trailhead. There is no cell phone service in the area. Congratulations on becoming a finisher at the Inaugural San Diego 200! Not many people can say they RAN at 200 miler. Make sure to have a ride back out of the Pamo Valley. If you don’t, we might be able to arrange a trail uber to come get you but no guarantees.
COURSE DETAILS
TERRAIN: The course is advertised as half road half trail but it is closer to 60% Trail 40% Road. Here is a more specific breakdown of what that looks like over the 206 miles.
The first 32 miles are TRAIL
The next 48 miles are mainly ROAD
The next 10 miles are TRAIL
The next 23 miles are ROAD
The next 93 miles are mainly TRAIL (16 miles of road interspersed)
That’s 119 miles of trail and dirt and 87 miles of road.
DISTANCE AND VERT:
206.5 Miles
20,650 ft
Cutoffs:
Men under 50: 72:00 (5:00am Monday)
Men over 50 and Women: 84:00 (5:00pm Monday)
Phillip Espinoza (Race Director): (619) 916-1433
Whitney Liera (Co-RD): (951) 837-0543
Race Website: www.redroadracing.org
Course Map: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/312252