The Running Man: Brownsville’s Hurtado outruns competition in 100-mile endurance race

Brownsville ultra runner Art Hurtado is on a roll, having run the Cactus Rose Endurance Trail Race in under 24 hours in 100-degree Texas heat, first among 50 fellow runners and four hours ahead the next-closest participant.

The Cactus Rose, staged Oct. 25-27 in the Hill Country Natural Area near Bandera, was Hurtado’s third 100-mile race of 2024.

“They try to make it un-runnable basically. It’s rocky. Self-supporting with the Texas heat. It was pretty brutal. …Of the 50 that initially registered, 23 finished, and some of them ran up to 41 or 42 hours. The cutoff was 44 hours, so we had a lot of people out there for a long time,” Hurtado said.

“Basically, they mark the course, they give you the instructions, and they have certain areas where you can leave your own supplies, so when you get to that area you can restock with what you need to keep going. You can have people help you, which I have a few of my friends went up there to help me out, to meet me there in some of these places,” Hurtado said over the phone with The Brownsville Herald.

Hurtado has been running 100-mile races, sometimes referred to as ultra marathons, since 2021 after taking up the sport during the pandemic.

“It’s nice to be a part of it. They make you feel very included. It’s everybody versus the course, not everybody vs everybody else,” he said.

The Cactus Rose starts at 4 in the afternoon, 15 miles from Bandera, which is 40 miles northwest of San Antonio.

“You run through the night, so you have to have your headlight to see. The morning comes, so you have to have your sunglasses, hat, sunscreen, make sure you’re prepared for the heat, things like that,” he said.

For 100 miles, a runner has to complete four 25-mile laps through the Hill Country, but there are lesser distances down to a 1-mile youth run and a ruck race where runners carry weight-filled backpacks. Hiking sticks are allowed.

RAV Running Adventures, a local race event company out of Brownsville, sponsored Hurtado in the Cactus Rose.

Hurtado’s support crew included fellow ultra-runner Greg Fuhrmann, Eric and Liz Castillo of Los Rukos Barbells in Brownsville, a local fitness club, and their son Elijah Castillo. Hurtado said he and Fuhrmann take turns pacing at each other’s races and have been running together since 2021.

Hurtado has won three ultra marathons in a row, the Brazos Bend 50-miler south of Houston in April, the Bryce Canyon Ultra in Utah in May, and now the Cactus Rose, which was his seventh 100-miler overall, including the HURT 100 in Honolulu, Hawaii, earlier this year.

Recovery

“The two obvious things are eating and sleeping to make up for everything else. Those are the two absolutely essential items. I also incorporate light flex and mobility. I’m going to be at the yoga studio a lot more when I recover, at Breathe Hot Yoga in Brownsville. And then, I’ll do low-impact cardio and strength training until I’m back to normal. But I’ll gauge it,” he said.

Hurtado swims for a living as the head of beach patrols for Cameron County on South Padre Island. Being a first responder on emergency and medical calls requires him to be in top shape and physically ready to respond quickly, he has said.

Hurtado is already planning for his next 100-mile race, the Canyons Endurance Run in Auburn, California, in April 2025