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⏵ Course guide · Nevada ultra

Running with the Devil Course Guide

Running with the Devil is Calico Racing’s mid-June desert ultra on the paved Lovell Canyon Road in the Spring Mountains outside Las Vegas, and it has earned its name as one of the hottest races in America. The course is simple, an out-and-back that climbs gradually on the way out and coasts back, but the heat is the entire test. I’ll walk you through the course first, then give you a pacing and fueling plan built around surviving the temperature. There are free calculators along the way to dial in your own numbers.

⏵ At a glance

Running with the Devil quick facts

Date
Saturday, June 27, 2026 (typically the last Saturday of June)
Location
Lovell Canyon Road at Highway 160, Spring Mountains, about 30 minutes from the Las Vegas Strip, NV
Distances
100K, 50M, 50K, Marathon, Half Marathon, 10K, 5K (all on the paved canyon road)
Elevation gain
Roughly 2,400 ft of climbing per the race, effectively net-zero per out-and-back (gradual up on the way out, fast coast back). Confirm with the race.
Start
7:00 AM for the 100K, 50M, 50K, and Marathon (shorter races later)
Cutoff
16-hour overall limit for the 100K, 50M, 50K, and Marathon
Heat
Mid-June desert: daytime highs around 95 to 100F, lows near 75F. Billed as one of the hottest races in America.
Qualifier
No Western States, Hardrock, or UTMB qualifier status listed by the race

These facts come from the official race site, RunSignup, and UltraRunning. Check the current date, start times, cutoffs, and aid stations in the race-day details before you commit. Race logistics change year to year.

The course: where Running with the Devil is won and lost

Forget technical trail, this is a fully paved out-and-back on Lovell Canyon Road. The road climbs gradually from about 4,500 feet for roughly 11 miles up the canyon, then you turn around and run the same grade back down. The 50K does it as a long out-and-back, and the 50 Miler and 100K stack multiple laps, passing the start/finish homebase each time. The whole race is won or lost on one thing: how well you manage the heat.

The climb out: a false flat that bites in the heat

There is no wall here, no switchbacks, no scrambling. The way out is a long, gradual, gradually uphill grind on smooth pavement, the kind of grade that feels almost flat for the first few miles and then quietly drains you. The trap is that it runs easy early, especially in the cooler morning air, so people roll out too fast and bank time they think they will keep. You will not keep it. As the sun comes up and the road tilts up, that effort compounds, and the runners who held back are the ones still moving well at the turnaround.

Treat the outbound climb as the conservative half on purpose. Run it slower than feels necessary, walk through the aid stations, and keep your core temperature down while you still can. The canyon sits about 10 degrees cooler than the Vegas valley, but that is cold comfort on open pavement under a desert sun.

The turnaround and the coast back

The reward for the climb is that the return is net downhill on the same gentle grade, so if you saved something it is genuinely fast and runnable. The homebase at the start/finish turnaround is where crew and drop bags live, and on the multi-lap ultras you hit it repeatedly, which makes it the perfect place to re-ice, refill, and reset before heading back out.

The catch is timing. The back half happens later in the day, when it is hotter, so a downhill that should feel like a gift can turn into a death march if you cooked yourself on the way out or let your core temperature run away. The people who walk this course in late June are almost always paying for heat mistakes made in the first few hours.

The heat is the course

Say it plainly: the difficulty of Running with the Devil is the temperature, not the terrain. Mid-June brings daytime highs around 95 to 100F, there is very little shade, and the pavement radiates heat back up at you all day. The aid stations are close together (on the 50K, roughly every 1.5 to 2 miles, all with water and energy drink, ultra stations adding gels), and that tight spacing is your best weapon: it means frequent ice, frequent fluids, and frequent chances to cool down.

Use every station to cool, not just to drink. Ice in a bandana around your neck, ice down your sleeves and shorts, a cup of water over your head. Do that religiously from the very first aid station, before you feel hot, and you give yourself a real shot at the back half.

Pacing strategy for a hot, paved, gradual-grade ultra

This is not a race where you chase a pace-band split. With a gradual climb out, a coast back, and brutal heat on top, the right plan is to run the first half well within yourself by effort and let the temperature, not the clock, set your pace.

Pace by effort and heat, not by your flat splits

Your flat road pace is a fantasy out here. The gradual grade plus the heat means your honest, sustainable effort will be a good chunk slower than your usual, and trying to hold a familiar pace is exactly how you cook. Run the climb by feel, keep it easy, and let the return be where any speed shows up. A grade-adjusted pace turns your real flat-ground fitness into honest targets for the gradual up and the coast back, so you are not fighting the road or your watch.

Build a heat-and-grade-aware finish prediction

Do not predict your Running with the Devil time off a cool-weather road race. The heat alone can add an hour or more over an ultra distance, and the gradual climb adds time on the front half. Build a finish window that accounts for the climbing and then mentally pad it for the temperature, so you can work backward into the 16-hour cutoff and know you have buffer even if you have to walk big chunks of the afternoon. On the multi-lap ultras, knowing your realistic lap splits also tells you how much margin you are carrying each time you pass homebase.

⏵ Free tools to pace this course

Fueling and hydration for extreme heat

On a 95 to 100F day, hydration and sodium are not side notes, they are the race. The heat wrecks your appetite and slows your gut, so the plan is steady carbs you can actually stomach and aggressive fluid and salt to match what you are losing.

Carbs: steady, simple, and heat-tested

Aim for roughly 60 to 90 grams of carbohydrate per hour, and lean lower if your stomach is struggling in the heat rather than forcing it. When it is this hot, liquid and gel calories usually go down easier than solid food, so do not count on chewing your way through the day. Practice your exact carb plan on hot afternoon long runs so your gut is trained for it, because race day in Lovell Canyon is the worst possible time to find out your stomach shuts down at 98 degrees.

Fluid and sodium: the make-or-break numbers

This is where the race is decided. You will sweat hard, so lean to the high end on sodium, often in the 600 to 1,000 milligrams per liter of fluid range, and more if you are a heavy or salty sweater, because plain water in this heat is how you end up nauseous and hyponatremic. Find your real sweat rate by weighing yourself before and after a hot long run, then drink to that number instead of guessing. The aid stations come often, so refill and re-ice at every one, and use the cold fluids to cool your core as much as to hydrate.

⏵ Build your fueling plan

Get a carb, sodium, fluid, and caffeine plan per hour built for your weight, your goal time, and the Running with the Devil heat with the free ultra fueling calculator. Browse the rest of the free running tools at the tools hub.

⏵ Train for it with Summit Line

Get a race-day plan built around YOUR fitness, this exact Running with the Devil course profile, and your projected splits. Summit Line reads your real training, builds a plan for the gradual grade and the heat, and rehearses your fueling so race day is something you execute, not guess at.

Start free →Explore the demo

Running with the Devil FAQ

How hard is Running with the Devil?

The course itself is not technical, it is a fully paved canyon road, but the heat makes Running with the Devil one of the hardest finishes in the country. It goes off in mid-June in the desert outside Las Vegas with daytime highs around 95 to 100F, and the out-and-back climbs gradually for the whole first half before the fast coast back. The pavement holds and throws heat, there is almost no shade, and the difficulty is entirely about surviving the temperature and not blowing up early. The ultras get a generous 16-hour cutoff, so finishing is about heat management and discipline far more than raw speed.

What distances does Running with the Devil offer?

Calico Racing runs a full ladder of distances on the same paved Lovell Canyon Road course: a 100K, a 50 Miler, a 50K, a Marathon, a Half Marathon, a 10K, and a 5K. The ultras and the Marathon start early at 7:00 AM to get a head start on the heat, and the shorter road races go off later in the morning (some with a second noon wave). The 100K and 50 Miler run multiple laps of the out-and-back, so you pass the start/finish homebase repeatedly, which is great for crew and resupply.

How much elevation gain is in Running with the Devil?

The race bills the course at roughly 2,400 feet of climbing, and it is effectively net-zero on each out-and-back because you climb gradually on the way out and coast the same grade back down. It starts around 4,500 feet of elevation and runs up Lovell Canyon Road, which rises steadily for about 11 miles before the turnaround. There is no single steep wall, it is a long, runnable false-flat grind, so the climbing sneaks up on you in the heat. The race does not publish a precise per-distance ascent number, so treat the figure as approximate and confirm the current course.

What are the cutoff times for Running with the Devil?

The 100K, 50 Miler, 50K, and Marathon all share a 16-hour overall time limit, which is generous and gives heat-affected runners real room to walk it in. The shorter road races have their own shorter limits. Because the day only gets hotter, the real pressure is not the final cutoff, it is staying ahead of the heat early so you are not crawling through the worst of the afternoon. Confirm the exact limits in the current race-day details before you start.

How hot does Running with the Devil get, and how do I handle it?

This is the whole point of the race. Mid-June in Lovell Canyon runs daytime highs around 95 to 100F, with overnight lows near 75F, and the canyon sits about 10 degrees cooler than the Las Vegas valley, which still leaves it brutally hot on bare pavement with little shade. Handle it by heat training for two to three weeks beforehand, starting conservatively, drinking to a real sweat-rate number, loading sodium, and using every cooling trick at the aid stations (ice in a bandana, ice down your shorts and sleeves, dump water on your head). Slowing down early to keep your core temperature down is the single most important thing you can do here.

How are the aid stations spaced at Running with the Devil?

Support is excellent for a desert race. On the 50K the aid stations come roughly every 1.5 to 2 miles along the road, all stocked with water and energy drink, with designated ultra stations adding gels and more substantial provisions, plus a homebase at the start/finish turnaround where you can stash a drop bag. That tight spacing matters because it lets you carry less fluid between stops and re-ice frequently, which is exactly what you want when the goal is keeping cool. Even so, run your own plan and carry enough to stay on top of your fluids between stations rather than rationing.

This guide is independent and for planning only. The course details, dates, start times, cutoffs, and aid stations come from public sources and can change year to year, so confirm the current specifics with the official race before you register or run. The fueling and pacing advice is general and not medical advice, and racing in extreme heat carries real risk, so know the warning signs of heat illness and back off when your body tells you to.