REVEL Mt Charleston Limited Edition is an in-person (non-virtual), Boston Qualifying, fully supported race. This race does not replace the 2020 or 2021 REVEL Mt Charleston events; rather, it is its own stand-alone race that will be offered one time only in this format.
There will be up to three days of the REVEL Mt Charleston Limited Edition race, with a cap of 262 participants per day. Race dates include Saturday, Nov 14; Friday, Nov 13; and Thursday, Nov 12.
Registration will open at 12:00 noon (Pacific Daylight Time) on Wednesday, Sept 23. Entries will be made available on a first-come, first-served basis and will be sold in reverse chronological order, beginning with Saturday’s race. All 262 entries for the Saturday race must be filled before registration for Friday becomes available. Similarly, all 262 entries for the Friday race must be filled before registration for Thursday becomes available.
Registration will close at 11:59pm on Wednesday, Sept 30, or when all available entries have been filled (whichever comes first). The Saturday race is guaranteed to take place regardless of whether the cap of 262 entries for that day is hit prior to the deadline. However, the additional race days on Friday and Thursday will only take place if the cap of 262 registrants is hit for each respective day prior to the deadline. If the cap is not hit prior to the deadline, the partially-filled race day will be cancelled and all runners who have registered for that day will receive a full refund. Runners are encouraged to wait to book their travel until they receive confirmation that their race day has met its cap.
The REVEL Mt Charleston Limited Edition marathon course offers the best of Kyle Canyon, including breathtaking views of the forests and cliffs of the Spring Mountains National Recreation Area. Runners will enjoy the fresh scent of towering pines, glimpses of mountain wildlife, and the charm of the Mt Charleston community as they run through the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest. If that were not enough, the course is entirely downhill on a paved highway and is a Boston Marathon qualifier!
The marathon begins roughly 21 miles up Kyle Canyon Rd near the original Mt Charleston Lodge. Standing at 7,600 ft above sea level surrounded by snowcapped peaks and fresh mountain air, runners will feel a world away from nearby downtown Las Vegas. The course meanders through the Cathedral Rock area for the first mile before reaching the main stretch of Kyle Canyon Rd.
Once on the main highway, the route begins a 20-mile stretch of pure running bliss as the course heads downhill towards Las Vegas at a nearly steady 4% grade. Along the way runners will enjoy stunning views of the sun rising over nearby Gass Peak to the East and the Las Vegas Strip to the South.
The final five miles take runners through the beautiful palm-lined roads of the Centennial Hills neighborhood. Continuing its downhill slope the course ends near the Thunderbird Family Sports Complex, where a catered meal awaits. This is the fastest and most beautiful marathon in Nevada!
Half Marathon
The half marathon course begins roughly eight miles up Kyle Canyon Rd near the Twilight Zone recreation area. Standing at 4,600 feet above sea level surrounded by snowcapped peaks and fresh mountain air, runners will feel a world away from nearby downtown Las Vegas.
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Favorite Race.
I did my first marathon the day before shutdowns, but I had the bug. So what was I to do? I ended up buying a last minute bib to this … MORE
I did my first marathon the day before shutdowns, but I had the bug. So what was I to do? I ended up buying a last minute bib to this race, and driving to Vegas. It was incredible. The views, the swag (a full container of Nuun Endurance?!), and the fact that it was actually available were all amazing. I was in a group of significantly faster runners (one person who ran alongside me for a while said that this was their “long run” for the week so they were taking it “slow”- cool cool, but I’m dying and this is faster than I’ve ever ran in my life) but no one made me feel less than. In fact, I credit this race with teaching me how to actually race. So many friendly people pulled alongside me for a bit and chatted. Some people came back up the route, collected my toss off clothes that I wasn’t willing to toss and took them to the finish for me. Dudes in the $250 shoes slowed to an almost crawl next to me at mile 24, and coached my breathing for me. I’ve run races with the biggest crowds ever, and this race was the most supportive I’ve ever felt. Someday, when I’m ready to BQ, I’m making the drive to Vegas and doing this race again.
Tall runners beware
I am tall and tried to do downhill training and weight lifting to get ready for this. Downhill races favor those with shorter strides and a quicker cadence. I was … MORE
I am tall and tried to do downhill training and weight lifting to get ready for this. Downhill races favor those with shorter strides and a quicker cadence. I was torn up by mile 13 and was way off my PB.
Mostly Good Race Experience
First, the good - much of it very good. Revel put on a very good race with lots of attention to making runners comfortable and also rewarding them for their … MORE
First, the good – much of it very good. Revel put on a very good race with lots of attention to making runners comfortable and also rewarding them for their effort. One of the best swag bags I’ve ever gotten, tons of extras. Very helpful and friendly race/bib pickup staff. Extremely comfortable bus ride (was surprised at coach buses!) and, in my opinion, good COVID protocols in place. Felt they did an excellent job keeping us safe as far as COVID, especially at the start – some of the most cautious start area precautions I’ve seen/heard about. The course, for me, was tough. I know the downhill for the first 20+ miles is great for lots of people – I would say it was good for me for awhile. But I live in an extremely flat area, and the combination of the downhill that flattens out in the last 5 miles or so, elevation I’m not used to at all, and the extreme temperature change from start to finish made the last few miles of this race really rough for me. Also, the recovery was significantly worse than normal – I typically do not have any noticeable leg soreness after a marathon and can resume running normally right away, but this time it was several days before I could even go up and down stairs normally. But all of that is just personal situation stuff – I know these types of courses are really great for lots of people and help them set big PR’s. Just not me. Okay, now the one negative I feel like I have to share. First let me say, I am very grateful to Revel for having this race, and for the great production of the event under the circumstances. But I felt like there were sections of this course that were genuinely unsafe. It bothered me that we didn’t find out some of the unsafe details of this race (not from a COVID perspective, from a getting-hit-by-cars perspective) until days before the race, after we had paid nonrefundable, expensive race entries, booked travel, etc. I did not know we would be running on the shoulder of the road, with active traffic going the same direction as we were, at 60 miles an hour, for the majority of the race. That made me nervous, but I made myself adjust to it and block it out. I didn’t know we were going to be crossing multiple intersections with live traffic and no police to direct traffic, in the last few miles, when our legs are tired and we’re a little out of it and don’t always have great body control. And I really didn’t know that in the last mile, we were going to be running on a relatively busy road, in the traffic lane because there was no shoulder, going the same direction as traffic. The last one was without a doubt the most unsafe conditions I have ever run in in any race, and I have run many marathons and ultras in a wide variety of conditions. I feel bad saying something negative about this race, because I really do appreciate how much effort they put into making this race happen, but I genuinely was scared during that section of the race and felt I had to make people aware a situation like that is something they should check on before registering for these races, if that’s something that would make them uncomfortable, too. It also seems like it should be a relatively easy fix – I can’t understand why they didn’t at least have us run the opposite direction as traffic. It’s still not great to be running a race in the traffic lane with live traffic, but at least if you can see it coming, that would have helped. Again, other than that, this was a very nice race, handled well in COVID, and with lots of great extras.
A Tale of Three Races
This was a tale of three runs - it was the best of times, the worst of times. I ran the half in 2018 - great race and effort. That … MORE
This was a tale of three runs – it was the best of times, the worst of times. I ran the half in 2018 – great race and effort. That was the first race. The second race was the first 14.7 miles of this run. Anyone that thinks Mt Charleston is an easy qualifier is wrong. Give me Houston any day. The first 13.1 went right to plan. The biggest issue was 8500 feet of elevation. I starved my calfs of oxygen and they let me know it. Especially the left one and I have had issues with it in the past. I was breathing much harder than usual and it showed. After the 4th uphill on the first half of the course (they are short but still uphill), my calfs cramped up. I walked/ran (mostly walked) the last 12ish miles (the third race). I was ready for the hills but I was not ready for the elevation and the snow (only at the top and not on the road)! I was happy with my effort and I really was on course for about a 3:40 (my goal) but it was not to be on this day. The people at REVEL do a fantastic job and I am thrilled that they were able to pull this off. The SWAG was good considering the amount of time between the sign up of the race and the day of the race.