My husband Darren signed up for the Revel Rockies Marathon in hopes that a “downhill” race would get him his elusive Boston Qualifier time. Learn about the race, how he trained, the obstacles he overcame, and the travel-hacks we used to get there for a low-cost.
About the Revel Rockies Marathon
The Revel Rockies Marathon is an event in a series from Revel. They host races in Nevada, Utah, California, and New Hampshire, as well as Colorado. All Revel events promise fast and beautiful races with their downhill courses in destination locations. The Revel Rockies take place at the beginning of June each year. It has a marathon and half-marathon. Starting at 10,510 feet in elevation, the marathon begins in the Rocky Mountains outside of Denver. The Half marathon starts at 7,495 feet. The finish line for both races is located in the Denver suburb of Lakewood at 5,802 feet.
Our local running group, Run Wichita, decided to form a team and attend this race. Darren had never competed in a spring or summer marathon before. The previous fall, he completed is third marathon and was just a few minutes away from getting his Boston Qualifier time. He thought this downhill race would give him a great shot at hitting it.
The Training Plan
For this training cycle, Darren wanted to try out ChatGPT as his trainer. He typed in some specifications and had it develop his training plan. He was very happy with the results and only made a few minor adjustments. Here are a few elements of the plan:
- 12 Week Plan
- 1 speed work day/week
- 1 tempo run/week
- 2 easy runs/week
- 1 long run/week
- Started with 30 miles per week
- Peaked at 52 miles in a week
Trouble Ahead
One of the biggest changes from Darren’s previous marathon training was the mileage volume. Darren typically runs about 25 miles in a week when he is not in a training cycle. But he is in excellent condition and has never had any problems with increasing mileage in the past. This plan seemed ambitious but do-able to Darren. He felt like the increase in volume would significantly help him get his BQ.
I remember watching his volume increase more and more during his training cycle and getting worried about it. Darren wasn’t changing how he was eating to make up for the massive amount of work he was doing. Although he wasn’t losing weight, I did suggest that maybe he add in some extra calories. He doesn’t feel hunger like a typical person, so sometimes I have to remind him about these things.
By Week 9, he was hitting between 40-50 miles a week. That’s when trouble started. His left calf started hurting. He continued to run and focused on recovery by using his massage gun, foam roller, ice, and compression socks, but he cut down on his volume. The pain was worse in the beginning of the run, and then afterwards. He began to worry that it might be shin splints, or even worse – a stress fracture.
At this point, two weeks before the race, Darren stopped running altogether. He was worried about making it worse. The earliest a PT could see him was the day before we were supposed to get on our flight to Denver. We were on pins and needles waiting to hear the news from the PT and making back-up plans if we had to cancel our trip.
Darren’s Race at the Revel Rockies
But it was good news! The best news we could have hoped for, actually. It was not a stress fracture or even shin splints. It was entirely muscular, and Dr. Allison at Natural Wellness Physiotherapy was able to use dry-needling and scraping on it that day. Darren said that by the next day, his calf already felt better and he was cleared to run!
By the morning of the marathon, Darren felt good. He knew he was at a slight disadvantage because of his extra long taper, but his leg was doing better.
At 3:45 am, I dropped Darren off at the speedway where runners got on buses to take them to the top of the mountain for the start. Runners had drop bags with them so that they could wear warm clothes until the race started. There had been snow up there the night before.
The marathon started at 6 am. I was able to track Darren in the app. He started out strong, but not so strong that he would blow up later. At the halfway mark, I was sure he’d easily get his BQ. But then his minutes/mile started to decrease. I thought this was okay since he’d run so well up to that point. However, by mile 21, I knew something was wrong. He had slowed way down, like to a pace that was slower than his easy pace.
He ran through the finish line limping and looking terribly beat-up. There were no hands in the air or rock-n-roll hand gesture as he crossed, as is his signature move for finish line photos. He was in pain.
It turns out that the race is not ALL downhill. There are hills around the half-way mark and they feel awful when you’ve just been running downhill for so long. Also, the muscles used in downhill runs are very different. We live in Kansas, so there are not many hills to practice running downhill. I don’t think anybody on our Kansas team was prepared for the battering your quads, glutes, and calves get on a downhill race.
Still, Darren only missed his BQ by 5 minutes and made good overall time, placing 8th in his age group.
It was days before Darren was walking normally again. Our post-marathon recovery trip to Costa Rica helped! He says that he wouldn’t do this race again and is looking forward to BQing at his next marathon in St. George, Utah in the fall.
How We Travel-Hacked Our Way to the Revel Rockies Marathon
We used Southwest points from our Southwest Rapid Rewards Card to fly from Wichita to Denver for about 15k points each roundtrip. For hotels, we wanted a room that had a mini-fridge and microwave so that we could make our own food. Since we had to be at the venue to catch buses at 3:45 am, we also wanted to be as close as possible to the drop-off. The points hotel with those specifications was the Marriott TownPlace Suites Denver Southwest/Littleton. We booked two nights there for 21,500 points per night with points earned from my Marriott Boundless Card.
Turo is our go-to for car rentals. We booked it with our Capital One Venture X Card for 10x points.
The race entry fee was $109, although there are early-bird discounts. We paid the fee using a card we were earning a sign-up bonus for, but if you wanted to charge this to your Venture or Venture X card, you could use the “erase” feature. This allows you to use earned points to erase charges.
Overall, since we brought much of our own food, our out-of-pocket cost for attending this race was very low. It was not a luxury trip – just a practical utilitarian one that came with a lot of training lessons-learned!
