Bryce Canyon Half Marathon Review

The Bryce Canyon Half Marathon started 9 years ago as an Eagle Scout project and is run every year in mid-July.  It has grown rapidly in numbers of runners and technology.  It's capped at 1200 runners and is chip timed.

The race starts on Highway 63 (about 1/2 mile north of Ruby's Inn) at 6:00am with the firing of a real live 6 shooter.  After the first 1/2 mile on Hwy 63 the route turns East (right) onto Highway 12 where the majority of the race is run.  At mile 12.8 you turn off the highway and into Cannonville for the finish line where a large crowd will cheer you onto the finish.

The elevation at the start is 7,652 feet.  The first mile is slightly uphill but followed by several miles of downhill.  Miles 2-4 are particularly steep with an 8% grade.  Not only are you going downhill but the road is really crowned so your right foot will be lower then your left foot (runners are relegated to only the eastbound lane of traffic since police are shuttling traffic back and forth on the other lane).

There are a couple of hills at about miles 9 and 11.  The overall course is downhill so people come from all over the world to run for their PR.  The finish line elevation in Cannonville is 5,900 feet.

There are several water/Gatorade stations throughout the race.

One misconception people have is that due to the name of the race they think they'll get to see a lot of the beautiful scenery of Bryce Canyon.  However, as the National Park Service map indicates the race only goes through a corner of Bryce Canyon.  Way off in the distance if you look hard you can see some hoodoos.

If you're looking for a PR this is a great race to try - just be prepared to have very sore quads from the several miles of downhill and the high elevation.