⏵ Course guide · Crater Lake National Park rim
Crater Lake Rim Runs is a high-altitude Marathon, 13.0 mile run, and 6.7 mile run/walk along the Crater Lake National Park rim, racing between roughly 6,000 and 7,850 feet. The 2026 event was cancelled and the official site says organizers hope to return in 2027, so I will walk you through the course as it has run historically, then give you an altitude-focused pacing and fueling plan for whenever this race comes back. There are free calculators along the way to dial in your own numbers.
These facts come from the official craterlakerimruns.com site. The 2026 event is cancelled and no 2027 date is announced, so check the official site before making any plans.
All distances follow the Crater Lake National Park Rim Drive, mostly paved, with the altitude doing more work than the terrain itself.
The road surface stays paved for every distance except the Marathon's final 4 miles, which switch to dirt and pumice cinders. That is the only real surface change on an otherwise straightforward road course.
Altitude ranges from 5,980 to 7,850 feet above sea level, and the course includes long grades that gain or lose nearly 1,000 feet over stretches approaching 5 miles. Even on a paved road, that combination of altitude and grade makes this a genuinely tougher course than the surface alone suggests.
The race caps combined participation across all distances at 500, first-come first-served, which keeps the road uncrowded. Entry is online only, non-transferable, and non-refundable, with no on-site registration available in the park.
Your normal goal pace almost certainly needs an altitude adjustment here, especially if you are traveling in from somewhere near sea level.
Start with a realistic sea-level goal using the race-time calculator, then plan to run slower than that number for any distance here, the thin air at 6,000 to nearly 8,000 feet affects most unacclimatized runners more than they expect. Give yourself a real buffer rather than chasing your usual pace on the first climb.
⏵ Free tools to plan your pace
Aid stations are spaced roughly every 2 miles starting at mile 3, with water, electrolytes, and sponges, plus watermelon, pop, and bagels at the finish, a reasonably well-supported course for a standard marathon fueling plan. High altitude can blunt appetite and increase fluid loss, so lean on your per-hour carbohydrate plan even if you feel less hungry than usual, and work out your exact gel count for your goal time with the free gels per race calculator. Browse the rest of the free running tools at the tools hub.
⏵ Train for it with Summit Line
Get a training plan built around YOUR fitness and the kind of high-altitude effort this rim course demands, whenever it returns. Summit Line reads your real training, builds the durability your goal distance asks for, and rehearses your fueling so race day is something you execute, not guess at.
The 2026 event has been cancelled. The official race site states plainly, "We hope to be back in 2027," but no exact 2027 date has been announced as of this writing. Check craterlakerimruns.com directly before making travel plans, and the details below describe the race as it has run historically, most recently in August 2025.
The course follows the Rim Drive in Crater Lake National Park, paved for all distances except the Marathon's final 4 miles, which switch to dirt and pumice cinders. Altitude ranges from 5,980 to 7,850 feet, with long grades that lose or gain nearly 1,000 feet over stretches approaching 5 miles, real elevation change even before you factor in the thin air.
The altitude is the defining challenge here, not the distance. Racing between roughly 6,000 and 7,850 feet means meaningfully less oxygen than sea level for most entrants, on top of grade changes nearing 1,000 feet over just a few miles. If you are not acclimatized, expect your normal pace to feel harder than usual well before the terrain itself gets difficult.
In the most recent edition, the 6.7 mile run had a 9:30 AM cutoff, the 6.7 mile walk 10:00 AM, the 13.0 mile run 10:00 AM, and the Marathon 1:00 PM, all from a shared 7:30 AM start. These reflect the most recent run edition, not a confirmed future date, so treat them as a planning reference rather than a locked-in schedule.
The mostly paved rim road keeps the footing straightforward, and a 500-person field cap keeps the course uncrowded, both good things for a first marathon. But the altitude, 5,980 to 7,850 feet, is a genuine variable most first-time marathoners have not trained for, so this is a better fit if you already have some altitude experience or time to acclimatize beforehand, not a beginner-friendly sea-level course.
Registration has historically been online only, with no on-site sign-up available inside the park, and entries are non-transferable and non-refundable. The field is capped at 500 combined participants across all distances on a first-come, first-served basis. Since the event is currently on hiatus, registration will not open until organizers confirm a 2027 return.
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<a href="https://runsummitline.com/guides/crater-lake-rim-runs">The Crater Lake Rim Runs course guide</a><iframe src="https://runsummitline.com/embed/race/crater-lake-rim-runs" style="width:100%;max-width:420px;height:180px;border:0;" loading="lazy" title="Crater Lake Rim Runs course guide by Summit Line"></iframe>This guide is independent and for planning only. The 2026 event was cancelled and the course details above describe the race as it has run historically, not a confirmed future edition. Confirm current status, dates, and cutoffs with the official race before you register or run. The fueling and pacing advice is general and not medical advice.
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