Revel Mt. Charleston Marathon Cancels 7 Months Before the Race—and Won’t Give Refunds

Lori Smith and her friend Kristen Carr have been trying to run a marathon in all 50 states.They’ve been at it for almost two decades.Smith ran her first marathon, in Milwaukee, during college. She thinks the year was 2007. She hated her first 26.2—and then almost immediately started planning which race she could sign up for next.Smith is 40 now, an occupational therapist who lives in Hartland, Wisconsin, and she and Carr have just six states remaining in their quest: Nevada, Vermont, Oregon, Alaska, Hawaii, and Alabama. (They’ve got Alabama scheduled.) With jobs and five kids between them, it’s not easy to fit in races around the country, and they usually plan years in advance.“We have to be strategic as you get down to states, right?” Smith said in a phone call with Runner’s World. “It’s hard to figure out when to do them, and you know, each state, depending on where they are, kind of has their running times of year.”Smith and her friend thought they had Nevada scheduled—they signed up for Revel Mt Charleston outside of Las Vegas as soon as registration opened in July for the April 3, 2027, race. The early-bird price was $149, before fees.But on August 28, the race sent an email to all entrants: The event was being canceled.“After careful consideration, the REVEL Race Series team has made the difficult decision to cancel the 2027 REVEL Mt Charleston Marathon & Half,” the email began. “General interest and registration for the event is lower than expected, making it difficult for us to responsibly produce the race next year.”Courtesy of Lori SmithKristen Carr (left) and Lori Smith show off their medals after finishing marathons at the Big Bear Trifecta.What bothered Smith, however, were the options for people who had already entered: They could transfer to the Las Vegas Marathon on January 10, 2027, or run another Brooksee, Motiv, or Vacation Races event in 2026.No refunds. For Carr, whose husband had signed up to run the half marathon, the financial hit is even greater.Emails to three Brooksee officials from Runner’s World were not immediately returned.When Smith’s friend followed up, she received an email saying that if she didn’t make an election by next week (September 7), she’d automatically be enrolled in the January Las Vegas Marathon. But the timing of the race doesn’t fit with their schedules.This year’s Revel Mt Charleston race had 1,200 finishers and for years, it was a popular option for those aiming to qualify for Boston, because of its more than 5,000 feet of decline over the course.In June 2025, however, Boston organizers announced a “downhill index,” essentially adding time to qualifying times run at downhill marathons. People who qualified at Revel Mt Charleston would have had 10 minutes added to their time.On their two-decade quest, Smith and Carr have been accustomed to some last-minute changes to marathons, usually because of weather. But they’ve never had a race cancel seven months early and refuse to issue refunds.To pick their races, Smith and Carr rely heavily on reviews from the 50 States Marathon Club group on Facebook and Marathonguide.com“Nevada, oddly, we had a hard time finding races that either sounded good or had good reviews,” Smith said. “We stumbled upon Revel, and it had great reviews. Everybody really raved about it.”She and Carr had roughly mapped out their remaining states and thought they could finish the quest by 2029.Nevada remains a question mark.Sarah Lorge Butler is a writer and editor living in Eugene, Oregon, and her stories about the sport, its trends, and fascinating individuals have appeared in Runner’s World since 2005. She is the author of two popular fitness books, Run Your Butt Off! and Walk Your Butt Off!