Matagorda: The Gulf Coast Trail Running Festival

Where the river meets the sea

Two days. Five ways to run the Texas coast.

Matagorda is where the Colorado River finally gives up and hands itself to the Gulf. LCRA's Matagorda Bay Nature Park is flat, wide open, and quiet in a way that most of Texas is not. In February the heat is gone, the light is long, and the wind coming off the water is the only hill you will climb all weekend.

Saturday belongs to the Backyard Ultra: one loop, one hour, over and over, until one runner is left. Sunday belongs to everyone else, with a marathon, half marathon, 10K, and 5K rolling out at sunrise. If you show up Sunday morning, look for the backyard runners still moving. They have been out there since Saturday.

Start times are staggered: All Central Time.

The course is miles of packed sand, rock levee, beach, and crushed granite. 

The marathon and half run long by design. The course is the course, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. If you are chasing a certified PR, this is not that race. If you want to run the Texas coast at sunrise, it is.

The Events

Gulf Coast Backyard Ultra

The Last One Standing Wins the Sea 

Complete the loop within one hour, then start again on the next hour. Finish early and the leftover time is yours to eat, change socks, nap, and regret your decisions. Miss the hour, or fail to start the next loop, and your day is over. There is no finish line. There is only the moment the person next to you decides they are done.

Camp is at the pavilion, which you pass twice every hour, so your chair, your crew, and your cooler are never more than a few minutes away.

Matagorda Marathon

Six full laps of the out and back, then a seventh that stops at the pavilion. Seven trips down the sand, the levee, the beach, and the crushed granite. Flat, fast if the wind cooperates, and honest if it does not.

Matagorda Half Marathon

Three full laps, then a fourth that finishes at the pavilion before the turnaround. Same sand, same beach, same wind, home in time for lunch. Walker friendly within the cutoff.

Matagorda 10K

Two out and backs from the pavilion, 1.55 miles each way, down the packed sand and rock levees toward the trail head and the beach. All of the coast, none of the commitment.

Matagorda 5K

Out and back from the pavilion, 1.55 miles each way. Flat, packed, forgiving. Bring the family. Bring the kid who says they hate running and watch them sprint the last 200 meters anyway.

The Course

From the pavilion, you head west toward the trail head near the visitor center, then south on the LCRA trail, moving through packed sand, over rock levees,  before dropping back onto packed sand on the beach. You run with the Gulf on one side and the dunes on the other, come back north through the pavilion, then turn onto the Wildlife Trail's crushed granite and out to the gazebo. Touch the turnaround and retrace it all.

Surfaces, in order: packed sand, rock levee, packed sand, open beach, crushed granite. Most of the course, the packed sand and the crushed granite, runs fine in road shoes. The rock levee and the softer stretches of beach are where a trail shoe earns its grip. If you have trail shoes, this is a day to wear them. If you do not, road shoes will get you around. If the sand is soft after rain, you will know it.

Elevation: About 56 feet of gain per lap on Strava, net near zero on the out and back. Different watches will report anywhere from 30 to 60 feet. Either way, the only hill you climb all weekend is the Gulf wind.

Every race starts and finishes at the pavilion, so that is where the noise is. Crews, coolers, chairs, and the finish line all live in one place, and the marathoners come through it twice a lap.

Expect wind. Expect birds. Matagorda sits on one of the busiest migration corridors in North America, and you will share the morning with herons, pelicans, and a few thousand things you cannot name. Expect the horizon to be very far away.

Aid, Awards, and Logistics

Where the Colorado River meets the Gulf. Come run it.