First full-moon weekend in August, Rachel, NV, Midnight Start.
See Extra Terrestrials as you run near Area 51

App and info click on ET above

The 2012 ET half marathon road trip was a fun, fantastic & frantic couple of days seeing the sights in Las Vegas, meeting up with former Foothill Flyer Dragana Dragus and running the midnight race in Area 51. We even had a real UFO experience when an unknown object went through the front window of one of the race buses in our group. Leaving a baseball size hole and spiderwebing the whole windshield. After a brief delay those passengers were distributed through the other buses so we could all get to the race start on time. Many runners wore costumes and everyone had lights and reflection that lit up the night. The race was well organized with plenty to eat at the finish line. The weather was surprisingly cool and even down right cold at the finish. Note to self, pack warm clothes for the finish line. Can't wait for the next adventure. See the photos .
Robert and Maria

Charles Sayles says of the 2014 Marathon:
Heavy FOG on the Extraterrestrial Highway.
The Extraterrestrial Midnight Full Moon Marathon (ET Marathon) is run on the Extraterrestrial Highway, Highway 375 in the mysterious Area 51 of Nevada. The marathon starts at 12am from the "Black Mailbox" (which is ironically white). The start elevation is about 4820 feet. The course runs gradually and continuously upward to Coyote Summit at mile 13 and an elevation of 5591. From there it is down hill to the town of Rachel at about mile 20 an elevation of 4970. The course continues as nearly flat to Mile 23 where is a turnaround and return to Rachel at mile 26.

This was the 8th running of the ET Marathon. In the first seven times there were between zero and 3 finishers over the age of 70. When I ran this event in 2010, 2011, and 2012 I came in 2nd or third. Always there was a Fast Old Guy (FOG) who beat me. In 2011 I became the first runner over 70 to finish 3rd in the 70+ age group. And in 2013 I became the oldest finisher ever of the ET Marathon. I was the champ. In 2014 I was looking for defending my oldest finisher designation and hoped no other Fast Old Guys (FOG) showed up. But it was not to be. A few weeks before I saw a list of runners and I recognized two names; Dan Shuff of Amarillo Texas and Jim Simpson of Huntington Beach, CA. Dan is one of my heroes. He is two years older than I am. He has run more marathons than I have including 3 marathons in each of the 50 states. And he is much faster than I am. Several years ago he finished 14 marathons that year. And two of the races were tough he did not qualify for Boston. That is he qualified for Boston 12 out of 14 races that year. When he runs he usually takes first place in the age group. As for Jim Simpson (who by the way holds the record for most marathon completions by a Californian at about 1,300) he is 72 and if I am having a good day and he is not I will finish before he does. I saw Dan at packet pick up and told him he now would be the new oldest finisher ever. He responded "If I finish". As I was at mile 21 headed to the turnaround, I saw Dan running to the finish at Mile 25. At mile 22 Jim Simpson passed me and I thought I would be another 3rd place finish. But I was wrong. There was a lot of FOG on the highway that night. I came in 9th out of 10. Jim was 8th and my hero Dan was 5th. Only in the initial year were there overall fewer finishers than 2014. In 2014 there were only 120 marathon finishers, but 10 of them were over 70.

I finished the ET in 7:00:46 my second fastest finish of this event. Other interesting things continued after I finished. Don Pemberton, of Phoenix, wearing an Elvis costume finished his 100th marathon. And 78 year old Ray Moses of Huntsville, AL completed the 50th state of a marathon in all 50 states.