Revel Mt. Charleston

Revel Mt. Charleston

Revel Mt. Charleston

( 6 reviews )
100% of reviewers recommend this race
  • Las Vegas,
    Nevada,
    United States
  • May
  • 13.1 miles/Half Marathon, 26.2 miles/Marathon
  • Road Race
  • Event Website

Elizabeth Bain

California, United States
81 62
2016
"Amazing Inaugural! Can't wait for 2017 and yet another PR!"
Overall
T-Shirts/SWAG
Aid Stations
Course Scenery
Expo Quality
Elevation Difficulty
Parking/Access
Race Management
Elizabeth Bain's thoughts:

I didn't realize this was an inaugural race until after the race. It ran so smoothly, I was surprised! This is not Revel's first rodeo--they have other races--but was the first year at Mt. Charleston. Revel Races are all seriously net downhill, and touted as a great way to get a PR. More on that later.

Expo. I missed the expo because my flight was delayed. (Bummer, because I wanted to attend the #werunsocial meetup.) Revel allowed my friend to pick up my race packet for me. (I sent her a text with my ID and a message asking her to get my packet.) She reported the expo was small, which is not surprising for a first year race.

Swag. First, the shirts. At registration you got to choose a tank, short sleeve, or long sleeve. The shirts were gorgeous colors (an ombre teal/green and black) that were pretty but not girly. Second, the organization. When you got your bag at the expo, it was already tagged for use as a drop bag! I thought this was smart, since people forget to take the thing off of their bibs to tag their bags. Third, the other swag. Races on mountains are cold in the morning! Revel gave each runner a heat sheet, cotton gloves ("tosser gloves"), and a thermal/tech beanie that is so nice I'll wear it again. Bonus: it has a hole for your ponytail. Other items in the bag included cards about other Revel races and some product samples.

Parking/Race Day Transport. For this race, we parked at a large shopping center parking lot. There was plenty of parking, and we had no trouble finding a spot. From the lot, we walked to the corner where there were two sets of buses (one for the marathon, one for the half) waiting. These were not school buses but were the charter coach type of bus. Warmth! All of this ran very smoothly, and I did not hear a single complaint about parking, buses, or directions (rare for a race).

Staging/Race Start. The half marathon bus dropped off at an area that I assume is usually used as a parking lot, half way up the mountain. It didn't seem like there was that much elevation gain while driving up. The staging area had great views for selfies! There were a large number of porta potties, so lines were short, in addition to a water station, and gear drop truck. The race director was out there too, using a bullhorn for announcements and directing bus traffic. (I like to see the RD on the ground during events.) Eventually there was an announcement that it was time to head over to the starting line, a short walk in the downhill direction. I expected some formal start--announcements, national anthem, something--but people basically just started running when they got to the start. This surprised the other runners too. Since it kept the runners spaced out a bit--we all had to start our Garmins, etc.--it worked out quite well.

Course. The entire course was on the road. The road was not closed, but there were orange traffic cones spaced well enough to keep cars away from runners. The road is four lanes, and the cones were about in the middle of the right-side lane on the downhill side, so runners had half a lane plus the ample shoulder. As the runners were starting, there were clumps and passing took a tiny bit of planning, but all of the runners were super polite and followed the rules of the road. THAT was pretty awesome. Also awesome, a total lack of potholes and messed-up pavement. Save for the last few miles, the entire course was straight down the hill. The last few miles passed through a residential area and to the park next to the shopping center where we started.

Aid stations. The aid stations had water (and maybe electrolytes--I can't remember, and I was carrying my own). There were gels available at a couple of the aid stations. There were plenty of staffers, no one had to reach for their own water. One thing that was missing, the aid stations didn't have self-help first aid supplies. I'm used to seeing at least vaseline/anti-chafe and bandaids, and the race info said there would be basic first aid at the aid stations, but there was not. I developed a weird blister (probably since this was literally all downhill) and for the first time really wanted some anti-chafe, and there wasn't any. (That's my only real complaint here.)

Course scenery. The view was mountains, mountains, mountains until the last mile or two. Since it doesn't look like where I live, I felt like it was vacation scenery. There weren't many spectators on the course itself, but there were a ton at the finish line.

Finish line. Right before the finish line the marathoners started to catch up with the half runners. Despite my blister, I bolted to the finish line when I saw it. Shiny new PR! There were cheering sections at the finish, and they announced names as people crossed. Finish line free food for runners included the usual snacks, but also pizza and pie! The race ended in a park. Finish area included: race photo stations (did I mention the race photos are FREE to runners??), Revel gear booth, massage tent, a few other vendors, stage with live music. We got great weather, too!

Overall, I loved this race and yapped on and on about it to anyone who would listen for at least a week. It was so well-done that I'm looking at the other Revel series races. (That all-downhill-PR-maker course did NOT hurt my feelings at all.)

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