This year will see the Third Burning Man Ultramarathon. Participants run 50km around a course. The race begins at 5am on Wednesday, August 29th. Last year there were about 60 participants, all in race bibs. The course was four loops around the Esplanade and deep playa then a final out-and-back that went along the Esplanade to 2:00 and C then back to the finish line.

Here’s a great report from last year’s event.

The second loop was interesting because there was daylight now and as you ran you would pass by all sorts of Burners who were heading home after a full night of partying out on the playa.  If Burning Man is the place where all the freaks go, we were running by the most hardcore that exist in the freak kingdom – and they were all staring at us like we were the weirdest people they had ever seen.  We were the freaks to the freaks.  And we kept running.  You had acid heads with beers in their system chasing after us trying to run alongside until their energies gave way.  A woman in only her underwear was shuffling along with her legs locked together towards the port-o-potties.  As we came up behind her I realized why she was shuffling – she had shat herself.  Yes, this clearly was the hour when the animals were still wandering free out of their cages.  The junkies were scouring the land.  The werewolves were looming about.  A lost soul came up on us, suspiciously asking if we were undercover cops.  We assured him that we were.  People stopped what they were doing to check us out.  There was a chorus of comments:

“You guys are crazy!”