On a cool and beautiful Saturday morning in February, 87 hearty souls raced through the desert to complete the 2017 Death Valley Marathon. The course runs through spectacular Death Valley National Park along the same road traveled by the infamous Badwater 135 ultra marathon.
View of the starting line on Highway 190.
Instead of the national anthem, the race director led us all in a more appropriate and moving rendition of America the Beautiful.
Marathoners and their friends gathered for the 8 a.m. start. You can play “Where’s Angela” and find me in the purple top toward the front of the group.
Before the race, I worried that the out-and-back course might be a bit dull, with the same view for miles. I needn’t have worried, as the park is gorgeous and the course winds through the valley with ever-changing views of mountains to the east and west. Also, while the course boasts less than 325 feet of elevation gain, that number is deceptive. It felt to me like we were usually on a slight uphill or downhill grade on rolling hills and rarely running on just flat pavement.
The course roadway is open to park visitors, but I found the vast majority of drivers to be extremely respectful of the runners. We ran on the west shoulder at all times, and while that meant a little jockeying for position at the beginning of the race, the runners soon spread out and by the second half, I often found myself running alone through the desert. Spectators are not allowed on the course, and aid stations are only every three miles. The stations were well-stocked but I thought the Gatorade was a little too watered down (that is foreshadowing, in case you didn’t catch that).
I really enjoyed the first half of the course. The problem for me came around mile 16 when my calves started cramping. I can only speculate that I undertrained for the race or underfueled during the race, or some combination of the two. I had brought my own homemade sports drink that worked fine for me in training but obviously did not do the trick in the race, and the Gatorade on the course didn’t make up for it in the final miles. My splits went from a super-consistent 8:52.6 and 8:52.4 in miles 8-9 and 8:58.8 and 8:58.9 in miles 14-15 to 13:56 for mile 21 and 15:03 for mile 24! At one point I considered whether I wanted to drop out of the race (that might have been the time I heard the raven caw above me and wondered if that was a vulture coming for my carcass when I dropped to the ground. I might have gotten a tad bit dramatic in my suffering). I asked myself if I was going to injure myself by continuing. When the answer was no, I asked myself if I would feel better if I stopped, or better if I finished. I knew for certain that I would feel better if I finished, so I set my mind to it. I decided that I needed to take the focus off my cramping, painful calves, and concentrate on something that didn’t hurt. Somewhere after I really hit the wall in mile 20, I started counting my arm swings. My arms didn’t hurt, and I felt more powerful and in control as I counted each time my right fist punched forward. Long story short, by the time I finished the race, I had counted over 4,200 swings of my right arm. I got into a zen zone by the final miles, and brought my pace back down from 15:03 to 12:38 for mile 25 and 11:37 for mile 26! Mike brought the girls to the finish line, and they gave me a burst of energy as I ran the final 0.33 in a pace of 9:46.
The most special moment of the race, as the girls ran with me to the finish.
I finished in 4:28:01, a full 51 minutes off my PR of 3:36:58 (recap of the Phoenix Marathon here). I had hoped to come in under 4 hours, but no such luck. My final stats:
The first place male and female finishers came in at a blazing 2:49:40 and 3:21:08 respectively. Including all of the 87 finishers, the average finish time was 4:39:40.
If I had to do it over, I would train harder (though I thought I had trained well, with 3 20-milers under my belt), and carry Gatorade instead of my homemade sports drink. Or perhaps, knowing what I know now, I would have opted to do the half marathon and had more time to view the rest of the national park, which truly wowed me with how beautiful it is in the winter. [Edited to add: a couple of weeks after this race, I ended up getting some blood work done and I found out that I had iron-deficiency anemia. No wonder my race time was significantly off my best time! I’m happy to report that my running has started to get back to normal after some iron supplements prescribed by my doctor.]
I was very happy to find that the finish line fare included trail mix with nuts, raisins and M&Ms (heaven!) and a pretzel mix too. I picked up my cotton race t-shirt, which I will wear with pride. While I didn’t finish anywhere near the time I hoped, I am unusually proud of myself for finishing this race. The marathon always has something to teach me, even in my 8th one. This time I learned that the mind really can control the body. My mind carried me through 10 miles after my legs started cramping. It wasn’t pretty, but it was a pretty impressive display of sheer determination.
It’s been three weeks since the race and I’m back up to running 10 miles for my long run this weekend. I am still thinking through what I’d like to take on next. Do I choose another marathon after three particularly hard experiences (REVEL Canyon City, Boston and this one)? Or turn to a different challenge? All I know is I like having a big goal, so I’d better start planning.
What was your hardest race and why? Have you been to Death Valley? (If not, you should go — in the winter!)
Fit Fun Mom 
Congratulations! I’m super impressed. I visited Death Valley many years ago and its beauty is fierce.
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Thanks! “Fierce” is the perfect word to describe the beauty of Death Valley. I was so glad to get to see it and share it with my family.
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Finishing a marathon is always a great accomplishment! The cramping legs are a real challenge. Way to rally!!
My most challenging race was last summer’s half marathon in Pennsylvania. As Oregonian I was NOT prepared for the humidity. Thankfully my Canadian friend was there to commiserate.
I have not been to visit Death Valley except for the part you drive through when you go from San Diego to Vegas.
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Thanks for sharing about your tough race. I’m with you on the humidity — coming from dry California to run in the humidity feels like breathing through a wet blanket! Re the drive through Death Valley — on the way home to SoCal we had the most gorgeous drive out of the park and saw two coyotes!
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What fortitude and grit you have to finish the race. It is a testament to your tenacity and competitiveness within you to do so. I always love how you find some way to take away some positive aspects of the training and race experiences. That shows maturity.
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Thanks Mom!
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Congrats! Sounds a lot like my recent race. Good for you on pushing yourself to finish a tough race!
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I am always impressed by your dedication to your training and your courage in tackling big races! What a beautiful butterfly you earned for 1st place in your age group! I was just pleased to get a blue ribbon for this race. 🙂
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That is way more than a respectable time and a totally rockstar time! I’ve only done the one marathon and I was waaay slower but I finished. lol!
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Congratulations on your marathon! I totally agree about the time — what’s hard for me is hoping to finish in a certain time and actually finishing over 30 painful minutes later! 😀
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[…] I ran the Death Valley Marathon in a time that was 51 minutes off my PR. I hit the wall at mile 16 and struggled simply to finish […]
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Thank you so much for your story and experience! There’s not a lot of info available on this marathon and I’m running it in 4 weeks! Much appreciated mind>matter!
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Good luck at the race! I’d love to hear your race recap!
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This is over a year late, but would you suggest this run as a first marathon? I’ve been tempted by it for a while.
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Hi Holly! I don’t want to discourage anyone from choosing this race as it’s gorgeous and the organizers did a good job. That said though, it’s probably not the best choice for a first marathon for a few reasons. Spectators are not allowed on the course, and while I don’t mind that, I think it can be very helpful for first-timers to have spectators to cheer them on in the final miles especially. Also, because the race is so small, you might find yourself out there without any runners around you, either (there were stretches where I was alone)! And when I ran the race, aid stations were 3 miles apart, which can be rough for someone who is running a full marathon for the first time — it’s a challenge to dial in your nutrition and to carry enough with you, and you don’t want to find yourself running out of fuel on this course as it heats up toward the end. Better to have aid stations every two miles if possible. I understand though if a destination race like this is what’s interesting to you. Just make sure you practice your hydration and fueling on your long runs (both how much you take in and how you carry it), run in similar weather conditions as you train, and adjust your expectations accordingly about the size of the race and the lack of spectators. Make sure you check out the course profile also so you know what to expect. Good luck! I hope you’ll come back and let me know how your first marathon went and whether it was Death Valley or another one!
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I am trying to research more about this race – specifically if the race organizers strongly enforce the no headphones rule? I have a hard time running without music so that might be a deal breaker for me. Did people actually get disqualified for headphones?
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Hi Ellen — sorry, I do not know whether the rule was enforced and anyone got disqualified. I suspect it would be enforced if you were caught, both because it is a safety issue on the road which is open to cars, and because it is in the national park which requires an extra layer of rules in order for the race to be held there. You might inquire about whether an exception could be made for AfterShokz or similar bone-conducting headphones that allow you to listen to music without buds in your ears and without the music being audible to others — a potential compromise!
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[…] since I ran the Death Valley Marathon, which is a lovely race on a spectacular course but was a very difficult race for me. I later discovered I had low levels of iron, vitamin D, and vitamin B12. Once those levels got […]
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[…] at the starting line healthy and finish uninjured. Check! B was to beat my 4:28 time from the Death Valley Marathon, which I unknowingly ran while deficient in vitamin D, B12 and iron. Yeah, I definitely did not […]
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