Marathon #59 – Revel Sun Valley Marathon – 6/26/21

Marathon #59 / Lifetime Total #90 / State #21 (Idaho)
Revel Sun Valley Marathon
Sun Valley, ID
June 26, 2021

Sun Valley is a beautiful place situated in the mid portion of Idaho. This marathon was hosted by Revel, known for their downhill races. Due to COVID, this was a Limited Edition race, which presumably there won’t be any more in 2022 shame.

We flew into Salt Lake City the night before on Thursday (flight got there super late) and drove off to Sun Valley the next morning (about 5 1/2 hours). There are plenty of gentle slopes that surround the town, as this place is typically known for its ski resort.

Packet pickup was at the Sun Valley Lodge, which has a gorgeous garden surrounding it. There was also an ice rink next to the lodge. The expo was small but I presume pretty typical for a Revel race.

There was another event that happened that same weekend, so the restaurants were packed… Luckily, we got a spot at an Italian place in town.

The race requires bus shuttle to the start, which took about 45 minutes from the Sun Valley from the Sun Valley Stables area. As the shuttles were going up, we could already see half marathoners start going down already.

All racers are designated with a start wave in increments of 10 minutes spread apart. The bus shuttled us to about 8,000 feet at the start, so it was a bit chilly but manageable.

The Course Itself (see slideshow)

It was a beautiful course indeed, featuring plenty of switchbacks, nice cool weather in the morning, and some areas for shade. However, for a typical Revel race, this one didn’t have that much downhill. The steepest portions of the race is at the beginning, lasting only 2-3 miles. The rest of the course had only a gradual decline to being completely flat in the last few miles.

We both ran into Angela (from Texas last month – small world ha) who was doing both days. The weather was definitely hot at the end, and especially when the downhills ended it seemed like a drag for the last few miles. The final stretches had us going on a sidewalk/path, which was nice as we went into town.