Revel Rockies Half Marathon

I trained for the Star Wars Half Marathon in late April at Disney World and after that was over, I just kept running, averaging about 14 miles per week to keep up my fitness. Since then, I also added some cross training including spinning, yoga, and swimming. The only thing in particular that I did for this race was rest up a few days before and have an earlier-than-usual and larger-than-usual dinner the night before.

Pre-race

I woke up at 3:30 am, had a bagel with peanut butter and some water right away. I did one last review of the race course and read a few race reports from previous years to get an idea of what to expect. I hopped in an Uber around 4:30 and made it to the buses around 4:45am. We were bussed up to the start, which took longer than I expected. I had a peanut butter Clif Bar on the bus. At the race start, I focused on staying warm with my space blanket and gloves (both were provided by the race organizer). It was still very cold, but I was happy because I knew this was perfect racing weather. As the sun was rising over the nearby peaks, we were instructed to get into the start corral. I checked my bag and ditched the space blanket. Seeing the half marathon field surprised me... it was much smaller than I expected. So far, this seemed like a very well-produced, well-organized, yet small race. And that's actually perfect. Often small races suffer from poor execution. This one does not.

When we were close to starting and the corrals contracted and moved up towards the start line, I couldn't believe how close I was to the start line. I kept the 1:40 finish pacers ahead of me, thinking it would be nice to keep them in my eyesight as long as I could. I didn't really set a pace goal because I had no idea how my performance would be at altitude, and how much the downhill running would offset that knock on my performance.

There wasn't much pre-race rigmarole, pretty much just the Star Spangled Banner and then a 10 second countdown to a 6:30 am on-the-nose start. I crossed the start line just 17 seconds after the gun.

Race

I knew to expect a few rolling hills to start, but then after mile two, it's mostly downhill from there on out. In the first mile, I did some mild weaving and bobbing around other runners, but after that, I had plenty of room. It was also awesome to keep the front runner in might sight for so long after the race start.

My first mile split came in at 7:49 and I felt like it was a comfortable pace, despite the rolling hills. When I hit my second mile after 7:23, I had a pretty good feeling about this race. My heart rate was where I expected and my breathing felt relaxed. I was keeping the 1:40 pace group in my sight, and even was running with them at certain points in the first few miles.

When we got back onto route 74, I was feeling really good and started to take in the amazing scenery. This is probably the most gorgeous race course I've ever seen. Bear Creek runs along your right side much of the way and there are beautiful trees and rock formations all around you. There are also so many cute cabins you'll see along the way. I'm a city guy, so this was such a nice change of pace for me.

Miles seven through nine were the toughest. You're still running mostly downhill, but it felt like there was less of a grade so I was feeling more of an effort. I eased up on the gas a bit until around mile 10 when I felt like I had recovered a bit and started to push it again for the last three miles. At this point in the race I'm mostly by myself, nobody very close ahead or behind me. So whenever someone did pass me, it was nice to acknowledge them and use them as motivation to push a little harder. Even though I couldn't see the 1:40 pace group anymore, I was doing the math in my head and thought I still had a chance at coming in right around that mark. That was also fairly motivating.

That downhill course grade takes you all the way to the finish, around a hairpin turn and I felt like I used every last bit of fuel I had to push it to bitter end. After crossing the finish, I felt like I had done a pretty good job managing my effort throughout the 13.1 miles.

Post-race

There was a nice finisher chute and festival after the finish. I got my stats printed on an index card and got my checked bag really fast. It looked like a really nice finish area, but I only stayed long enough to stretch and then I was eager to get back to my hotel to shower and relax for the rest of the morning.

Overall Review

After I signed up for the race, I was concerned that running at altitude and downhill so long would be a problem for me because I wasn't training in those conditions. It turns out everything was great and I performed even better than I expected. It was not a PR for me. But if I were to start taking my training more seriously again, this would be a good course for a PR in the future.

I absolutely recommend this race if you want a fast and beautiful course. It's a very well-organized race with pretty much all the perks you expect from a well-produced race. This is my first time running with Revel, but I would absolutely do it again; I hope I can try one of their races in another city. If you want a half or full PR, consider running with them.