This past weekend, Sara and I were in Las Vegas and decided to take in a race. We were originally scheduled to be running the Rock n Roll Las Vegas, which runs on the Strip at night. That race was cancelled way back at the beginning of the Pandemic. We decided to go to to Vegas anyways, since we had our tickets and a hotel reserved and happened to find a small race outside of Vegas in Rachel, NV.

If you’ve never heard of Rachel, NV, you’re likely not alone. It’s a very small town about 2 hours from Vegas. Not much is in Rachel, except one hotel and a restaurant. Perhaps the most famous thing around Rachel is the (in) famous Area 51, supposedly.

On race morning, Sara and I were up early, around 4:45am. We had to take off early to ensure we could get to packet pickup at 7:45. The drive was pretty uneventful, but we did need to stop for gas on the way as there aren’t many services between Vegas and Rachel. After our brief stop, we finished our drive and arrived at packet pickup at 7:50am at an area known as the Black Mailbox. We picked up our packets and made a trip to the restroom and got ready for our races. I was running the marathon which would start at 7:30am and Sara would be starting the 10k at 8:30am.

Before my race started, I got a quick picture with a few other Marathon Maniacs. After the picture, I headed to the start line. The marathon and 51k (for Area 51) both started at 8:30, but there were only about 40 people registered between the 2 races and we kept our space, so there was plenty of social distancing.

The race started off relatively flat, running into the desert. There were aid stations approximately every 5k. The weather was relatively cool in the morning, but would heat up later. I took off at an easy pace and chose to enjoy the day. I got to the first aid station and felt good.

The next few miles, the race started to climb. It was easy at first, but the run would continue to go up all the way until the turnaround at mile 13.1 I noted the mountains off in the distance and knew we would be going close to the top. It would start to get warm, but I was still taking it easy. I had to walk from about miles 12-13 because it started to get to steep for me to keep climbing. We hit the top of the mountain and had a very short downhill section before we hit the turnaround at 13.1

After the short uphill at the turnaround, the race was pretty much all downhill back to the start. The course was an out and back and the roads were open to traffic. Since the race is more or less in the middle of nowhere, we ran on the only paved road around. There wasn’t much traffic on the course and only occasionally would a car pass. When I made the turnaround, I was able to run the section I had walked before because of the nice downhill. I felt great and was cruising down the mountain. There was also a nice breeze when I turned around.

I realized when I turned around that most of the people in front of me were running the 51k and only 5 or 6 people were ahead of me that were doing the marathon. I kept moving as quickly as possible, throwing in my fastest miles of the whole marathon. I started passing a few people and decided to keep moving as quickly as a could in hopes I would be top 5. I felt pretty good until mile 23, when I got a bit of a headache. I am pretty sure I was dehydrated, but I kept moving. I took a look behind and saw no one behind me, so I decided to walk a bit and give myself time to feel better. I would walk and run the rest of the race, only sprinting towards the end when I saw another runner for the first time in miles. At mile 25.5, I turned around and saw this runner closing the gap, but I did not want to risk not finishing as high as possible. This runner ended up passing me, but I found out he was in the 51k (though it is disappointing to be passed by someone running several miles more, at least he was not in my division. I finished the marathon in 4:50 and received my medal. I found out I was 6th overall, but I did finish 1st in my age group.

In all, the race was very fun. I do not mind running out and back races. The aid stations were nice with enough water to always fill my bottles. The race was very small, with maybe 200 people total between the 51k, marathon, half, 10k and 5k. I enjoyed some post race food and Sara and I headed back to Vegas. I would recommend races done by the race company, Calico.