Mines of Spain Trail Races

03/06/2026

Aaaaaaand registration is FULL!!!
🤯🫡🥰

We are constantly and just utterly floored by the incredible level of excitement and show of support for our little trail race on registration day every first Friday of March! THANK YOU!!!

It’s truly an amazing feeling to see SO MANY familiar names coming through and if this is your first time, welcome to the Mines family!

If you didn't get signed up in time, please consider registering for the waitlist by going through the normal registration process on UltraSignup: https://ultrasignup.com/register.aspx?did=132609

We usually move through a fair number of spots on the waitlist before August and runners are invited in the order they signed up so the sooner you get on the waitlist, the higher your chances of getting a spot. The waitlist is public and be viewed here: https://ultrasignup.com/event_waitlist.aspx?did=132609 or by clicking on ‘Waitlist’ on the race’s ultrasignup page.

Now excuse us while we dream about summer trails and those finish line vibes!
🔆😎🤙💚🤙😎🔆

03/06/2026

Let’s do this.
https://ultrasignup.com/register.aspx?did=132609

03/06/2026

Noise… there certainly is a lot of it these days. I don’t know about you, but I’ve found the best place to block out that noise is out on the trails. The trails are for me. My time to focus… the path in front of me… my foot placement… my breathing. And then there it is – my tunnel vision. My goals line up right in front me and I focus. Focus like a beam of light in the middle of the night…and everything else fades away. Just me, my goals, my footsteps… and my breathing. The only thing that can stop me is myself.

And that is why we invite YOU to join us out on the trails this August. Don’t forget your goals.

03/06/2026

Psst… you… Yes – YOU! Are you awake? You know what today is, don’t you? Are you ready?

03/05/2026

For anyone new to MoSTR, we've always strived to be as sustainable as possible in our practices while producing minimal waste each year. All registered runners receive a piece of useful and functional custom race swag as part of their registration while any shirts or larger pieces of swag are offered as an optional add-on to help keep the base registration cost as low as possible for every runner.

Since we know registration is a bit of a scramble for many folks on Friday, we wanted to give a quick heads up on this year's optional add-on. We've decided to offer a premium bamboo blend, ultra-soft race shirt that we're very excited about! These shirts are SUPER nice and are RD Rob's personal favorite! We always try to focus on quality over quantity and that will be the case with this year's shirt as we do not plan on ordering any extra beyond what's purchased through registration.

24 hour countdown!!!

Register Now!

03/04/2026

Early registration has been open for a few days now and we're so happy to see such a strong response already from our deferrals, MoSTReakers and top 2025 runners from last year!

Remember that the early registration window ends this FRIDAY when general registration opens so if you're reading this and are in one of the aforementioned groups of early registration invitees, check your email and let us know as soon as possible if you didn't receive an invitation. Deferrals and any discounted entries are good for ONE year (2026) only and cannot be rolled to 2027.

Everyone else! Friday at noon! We're super excited to see a flood of both familiar and new names roll in and to start gearing up for the 14th annual Mines of Spain Trail Races!

03/02/2026

Greetings MoSTR runners!

Despite the new year coming in like a roller coaster, we are optimistic and hopeful for a 2026 filled with love, compassion and lots of time in nature spent with friends & loved ones! The weather's been a bit crazy but we're thankful for it all and look forward to REAL spring being right around the corner!

The 14th annual Mines of Spain Trail Races is scheduled for Saturday August 8th and early registration is currently open with general registration opening this Friday (March 6th) at noon!

We wanted to touch base and give everyone a reminder and a little refresher on how the registration process and timeline will work.

First we want to recognize the awesome trail runners who have been with us since the very beginning and have supported our event year after year! The first group has ran the Mines of Spain Trail Races EVERY YEAR since our inaugural race in 2013! The second group heard about this fun little race in Dubuque a little late but haven't missed a year since 2014! In recognition of their continued support of the race year after year, we're giving all of our MoSTReakers free entry for any distance and the option to sign up early to guarantee a spot in the race!

OUR 13 YEAR RUNNERS!
Jason Charley, Seth Dudgeon & Jason Willits...thank you!!!
OUR 12 YEAR RUNNERS!
Andrew Brown, Jay Gates, Tim Bergan, Susan Eisenbacher, Gary Jones, Lynne Jaeger, Mike Nyman, Julie Tyler, Kim Matthews & Hannah Slothower...thank you!!!

Top runners from the previous year (top 5 half and top 3 7mi/4mi) also get to register early and for the low low cost of FREE! We feel blessed to be able to put on an event that celebrates every single runner from first place to last place but we also appreciate the men and women that race hard and create a fun and competitive atmosphere at the front of the pack.
Olivia Dietzel, Brett Rosauer, Melissa Taylor, Dalton Rice, Kaia Richmond, Ross Salinas, Sasha Gallagher, Cade Baker, Apryl Mortenson, Elliott Klauer, Anna Hertz, Caleb Burjes, Brooke Ferguson, Kyle Orlando, Brooke Klein, Natediz Hird, Ella Rohner, Nick Elder, Mya Rohner, Mitchell Dowell, Annmarie Rohner & Ben Roussell...thank you and congrats!

MARCH 2ND (Monday) - Early registration is open for deferrals, MoSTReakers and top 2025 runners. Comped entries for deferrals are tied to the email address used last year and those will expire on Friday March 6th so please sign up promptly.

PLEASE NOTE
-If you fall into any early registration category and your email address has changed since last year, please let us know as soon as possible!
-If you registered multiple runners on the same order under the same email address last year, please know that only one deferral discount can be tied to each unique email address. Please contact us if you have multiple deferrals tied to the same email and we will sort it out for you.
-If your discount is not applying at checkout, please WAIT and do not continue. Please contact us before checking out so we can avoid having to process any refunds.

Emails were sent out last week (Friday) to all runners eligible for early registration with sign-up details so please let us know if you did not receive an early invitation and should have.

MARCH 6TH (Friday) - General registration for all remaining spots opens at 12PM. We anticipate hitting our total capacity in a matter of minutes so please be prompt and sign up early to avoid missing out. If you do miss the initial cap, don't fret! Please register like normal to be placed on the waitlist and the sooner you sign up for the waitlist, the more likely you'll have a spot open for you later in the year.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to the race via FB or email. Thank you and we love you all! 💚💚💚

https://ultrasignup.com/register.aspx?did=132609
https://suntrailrunning.com/

📷: Mile 90 Photography

08/13/2025

Kiddos, trails, balloons & popsicles!

Another amazing Mini-Mines kids race is in the books! Thank you so much to the parents and families of all of these incredible kids for taking the time to participate, support and create such a fun annual tradition that we are so happy to be a part of!

🎈: Ron "Toto" Johnson
📸: Michele Sun & Rob Morrison

#1 - 03:43 - Abe S.
#2 - 04:05 - Brooks E.
#3 - 04:25 - Anna S.
#4 - 04:25 - Nolan B.
#5 - 04:32 - Auggie S.
#6 - 04:42 - Helena W.
#7 - 04:47 - Anderson G.
#8 - 04:56 - Henry S.
#9 - 04:58 - Mason E.
#10 - 05:00 - Joey S.
#11 - 05:02 - Lennox J.
#12 - 05:08 - Griffin P.
#13 - 05:25 - Remy D.
#14 - 05:50 - Brooks O.
#15 - 05:51 - Nettie E.
#16 - 05:52 - Lucy E.
#17 - 05:55 - Hailey H.
#18 - 05:57 - Henrik S.
#19 - 05:58 - Piper D.
#20 - 06:23 - Jude J.
#21 - 06:50 - Myles B.
#22 - 06:51 - Clark S.
#23 - 06:53 - Molly M.
#24 - 07:00 - Gabby H.
#25 - 07:43 - Audrey M.
#26 - 08:19 - Violet S.
#27 - 08:24 - Apollo G.
#28 - 08:33 - Alice S.
#29 - 08:48 - Lenora D.
#30 - 10:50 - Rory B.
#31 - 11:21 - Allie J.

08/11/2025

A lot of folks asked us this past weekend what year this was for the race and honestly, it didn't quite feel real replying 'year 13'. This is the race that started it all and like a lot of things, it was an idea born on the trails. What if we...?

So now we find ourselves sitting here after another amazing MoSTR weekend. Brain still a bit fuzzy and disoriented but hearts full of love. Thirteen years of smiles, laughs, pain, blood, jokes, fist bumps, stings, hugs and tears. Whether this was your first or thirteenth time with us, thank you from the bottoms of our hearts. Once a year, we get to celebrate this annual tradition that means so much to us and we are so humbled and happy to hear what it means to so many of you. We hope that the Mines of Spain Trail Races has stayed the course and remained true to our original vision of bringing a simple but rich and authentic race experience to these beautiful Iowa trails each August.

Summer showed up in full force Saturday morning and while it did it's very best to pummel us into submission with some ridiculous humidity and high temps, we witnessed the very best in all of you. Runners balanced performance with self-care and volunteers pushed deep into their reserves to support and take care of the runners and each other. These volunteers are the very backbone of the weekend and none of this would be possible without them. Thank you to our entire volunteer team and to all of our runners for believing in us year after year. From our three remaining 13 year MoSTReakers to those tackling the trails at the Mines for the very first time...THANK YOU!

Results are available at: https://ultrasignup.com/results_event.aspx?did=122369
Big thanks to Nonstop Race Management for the excellent work timing the event along with all of the additional support they provided going above and beyond!
Please contact us directly via FB or email and let us know of any missing or incorrect times and we’ll fix it immediately.

Photos this year were taken once again by the incredible Mile 90 Photography! The full set of albums can be found here: https://www.mile90.com/Race-Photos/2025-Race-Events/Mines-of-Spain-Trail-Races-2025
Needless to say, they CRUSHED it as always and were a joy to have at the event capturing the beauty and magic of this year's race! Photos are paid for by the race and free for runners' personal use! PLEASE don't forget to give photo credit where photo credit is due - so if you post the photos, please tag Mile 90 Photography!

From first to last, congratulations to EVERY SINGLE runner who challenged themselves, got to that start line and gave it their all! We had 308 runners participate on Saturday with our oldest runner being 77 years young and our youngest just 10 years old! Women out-represented the men as OVER 50% of our runners and we lost count of how many first time MoSTR and first time trail runners we spoke to!

Despite the brutal conditions, our runners wore their hearts on their sleeves and rallied against the course for some impressive performances across the board! It would take forever to go through all of the incredible races we witnessed Saturday but we wanted to give some special recognition to the top folks in the half marathon.

In his MoSTR debut, Brett Rosauer claimed the top spot on the half marathon podium after a fierce battle with second place Dalton Rice who has continued to climb the standings in his 3rd year racing the half having been 4th in 2023 and 3rd in 2024. Rounding out the podium was MoSTR veteran Ross Salinas who has ran the half marathon ELEVEN times now, having won in 2017 and has never placed lower than 5th in an ever improving field of competition!

On the women's side, Olivia Dietzel claimed the win and the 9th fastest time ever despite some of the toughest weather we've had to date! Melissa Taylor came in 2nd place in her 5th MoSTR and 5th year on the podium including 3 wins in 2020, 2023 and 2024! Finishing less than a minute behind for 3rd place was Kaia Richmond in her 3rd MoSTR and 2nd year in a row being on the podium!

HALF MARATHON
1st- Brett Rosauer - 1:30:30
1st- Olivia Dietzel - 1:47:14
2nd - Dalton Rice - 1:30:47
2nd - Melissa Taylor - 1:53:16
3rd - Ross Salinas - 1:33:46
3rd - Kaia Richmond - 1:54:08

7 MILE
1st - Caleb Burjes - 50:19
1st - Anna Hertz - 1:02:42
2nd - Kyle Orlando - 52:53
2nd - Brooke Ferguson - 1:03:46
3rd - Natediz Hird - 57:23
3rd - Brooke Klein - 1:07:27

4 MILE
1st - Nick Elder - 32:45
1st - Ella Rohner - 38:09
2nd - Mitchell Dowell - 34:25
2nd - Mya Rohner - 38:30
3rd - Ben Roussell - 34:49
3rd - Annmarie Rohner - 38:30

Special thanks: Iowa Department of Natural Resources, Friends of the Mines of Spain, Dubuque County Conservation, 7 Hills Brewing Company, Dubuque Rescue Mission, No Coast Trail Series, Mile 90 Photography, Nonstop Race Management and most importantly, our amazing volunteers, friends and families for their selfless love and commitment. Thank you!!!

The 14th annual Mines of Spain Trail Races is scheduled to take place on August 8th 2026! General registration will open Friday March 6th with early registration opening earlier that week for all 2025 deferrals, MoSTReakers and 2025 top 5 M/F (half) and top 3 M/F (4mi/7mi)!

And if you like what we do and are interested in checking out some of our other events throughout the year, find Sun Trail Running here: https://suntrailrunning.com/ and on IG: https://www.instagram.com/suntrailrunning/

08/09/2025

It’s a great day for a trail race! Stay hydrated, my friends.

08/07/2025

The only thing more fun than the trail races on Saturday morning is the MAIN EVENT Friday night at packet pickup...the Mini-Mines Kids' Race!!!

The kids' race has been a tradition since Y1 back in 2013 and it's truly been a blessing and an honor to host these young and mighty trail runners and to watch many of them grow alongside the event year after year!

Kiddos 12 and under are invited to participate in the Mini-Mines race and parents are welcome to accompany the really little ones on a fun ~1/2mi loop that starts and finishes at the EB Lyons Center where we'll have post-race treats for the runners!

There's no cost and no pre-registration is required. Please just arrive by 6:15PM at the latest to sign your Mini-Mines runners in so we can start promptly at 6:30PM.