Come celebrate the outdoors this summer with The Face Challenge, Heavy Half or Marathon in the Land of Enchantment with a weekend of challenging trail fun. Red River, New Mexico is the quintessential cool little adventure town with rivers, mountains, stunning views, tons of character and a huge heart. Red …
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Come celebrate the outdoors this summer with The Face Challenge, Heavy Half or Marathon in the Land of Enchantment with a weekend of challenging trail fun. Red River, New Mexico is the quintessential cool little adventure town with rivers, mountains, stunning views, tons of character and a huge heart. Red River sits on the southern end of the Sangre De Cristos and racers will experience the rugged trails in the Carson National Forest and the gorgeous rolling high alpine Enchanted Forest cross country ski area on the course. After the races relax with your friends, family and other racers over local food, music and microbrews in the heart of town at the after-party.
The Face Challenge – 7.6 miles
Elevation Gain: 1400’+
Low Point 8670′
High Point 10,480′
Heavy Half Marathon – 14.7 miles
Elevation Gain: 1600’+
Low Point 8670′
High Point 10,200′
Marathon – 26.5
Elevation Gain: 4000’
Low Point 8670′
High Point 10,480′
Awards/Party
The Awards Ceremony for the Marathon will be held at Brandenburg Park in Red River, NM. The Men’s and Women’s winners of each race will receive comp entries to next year’s races.
Customized awards will be given to the top three male and female finishers in each race in each of the following age groups:
Under 20, 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60+
Racers will receive customized finisher’s awards as they cross the finish line. Placer’s awards will be distributed at each race’s awards ceremony. Awards and mementos will not be mailed after the event.
Red River Ski Area
The Red River Ski Area is part of the race course and extremely family friendly. If you’re looking for things to do while in the area, check out the hidden treasure aerial course, mini golf, summer mountain tubing, disc golf, the pioneer flyer zip line, and the mountain top disc golf. You can take the scenic chairlift and gain a bird’s eye view of your runner as they climb The Face at mile ~20. And with an aid station at the top of the chairlift, friends and family can sit around with food and drinks, listening to music and cheer as your runner comes through.
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Beautiful and Challenging
So gorgeous and equally challenging. The marathon course runs up two different mountains from approximately 8600 ft to 10,000 ft. As a flatlander it seemed that the uphill running would … MORE
So gorgeous and equally challenging. The marathon course runs up two different mountains from approximately 8600 ft to 10,000 ft. As a flatlander it seemed that the uphill running would never end. The first mountain is a series of switchbacks with a technical rocky road. Once you finally make it up to the forest at 10k ft you run loops on softer ground but the course rarely flattens out completely. You are ultimately rewarded with the downhill switchbacks that brought you up the mountain. This can be a fast section if you are adept at traversing the rocks but it can be treacherous. At mile 20 you start the second climb up the ski slope which is laughably steep. From the ground it doesn’t look too bad, but the hill keeps going up and up and up to the highest point possible. After reaching the peak it’s about 4+ miles down soft switchbacks. (The course is over 27 miles) If you still have legs you can make some good time here, but for me it was just a nice fast walk jog, knowing that I would indeed finish the race if I didn’t let my heart rate get too high. Having noted the technical challenges I’ll say that the views make it all worth it. I forced myself to stop and take pictures several times since I wasn’t competitive on this race . Also met several special people on this race that made it very enjoyable and fulfilling. Final tip: take walking poles! I did not but a nice young lady let me have one of hers going up the ski slope. It was a game changer for me and I’m forever grateful for her generosity.