Vacation Races Joshua Tree Half-Marathon NEW COURSE 2026 Review

The race used to be in a different location. I’m not sure why they moved, but it appears to be a joint venture with the Reset Hotel, a bunch of small freestanding rooms in the middle of the desert. The expo was outside, and it was a complete disaster from start to finish. 

We arrived early, since we love the expo, and this year we were excited to bring our puppy. We got out of our car, and the ground was uneven. I don’t mean a few dips. I mean, there were rocks, boulders, giant ditches, and areas to climb. It was full of cacti with huge needles. (My husband, myself, and my dog were all stuck with them repeatedly throughout the night and they hurt like hell.) There was really no way to get around the expo without dealing with this. While the vendors were very nice, there were no bags given out, so we had no way to carry anything, meaning repeated trips back to the car. 

There was alcohol being served, and while that’s absolutely fine on its own, the uneven ground and cacti had a number of people falling and injuring themselves. I saw a ton of people fall, and all three of us (yes, including the puppy) fell as well. You couldn’t get to the porta potties without going through cacti, and you had to take a huge detour to get to the food truck if you wanted to avoid them. The music was so loud that lots of people were avoiding the DJ. That was especially true after the race. In fact, it was so loud that you couldn’t hear any of the names being called out at the finish line, but I’ll get to that. 

This has always been a dog-friendly expo, and this time it was so dangerous for them that everyone was talking about it. While it was nice to have some chairs around, the old location was so beautiful and full of places to sit and explore. It was by a lovely duck pond, and there were charming structures all over. It felt enclosed and like a group event. This new location felt like a frat party thrown by drunk teens. (Look, I love a good party, but not one where a misstep is going to keep me from being able to run a race.)

Again, I enjoyed the vendors, but all I heard from other people was how unpleasant and difficult this was to navigate. I was tense as hell before I started. The announcements for the raffle and race lineup were impossible to hear if you weren’t right there, and the directions were really lacking. The after party was so loud and chaotic that I couldn’t find my husband for 10 minutes, and he was right by the finish line (I heard this echoed by dozens of racers), and all the dog owners had to leave.

In the evening, after the race, it was badly-lit, making the walk back to the car across cacti fields and deep, rocky ditches very dangerous.

As I said, no one could hear where to go and how to begin the race once it was time to start. Waves? Forget it. You had to climb through more cacti because if they were announced (and there used to be color codes and groups), no one could hear them. I was lucky to find a spot to start. 

The former event started just before sunset, with U2 playing, and one of the best race announcers I’ve ever heard. This one started after the sun had already set, making it even harder to figure out where to go. It did start in waves, but no one said anything about which one you were in. 

The course was a mix of a small amount of paved ground, and then rocks and deep sand. I hated the course. That is a matter of opinion, and I’m sure there were people that liked the challenge. (None that I spoke to, however.) The thing is, the last five years I ran this race, it was the same course. The jump in difficulty was immense. It was uphill for around two-thirds of the race, and there were ankle-breaker rocks all over. There were lots of areas where only two or three runners could fit, slowing everyone down. I fell four times, and I saw so many others go down. My husband actually texted me during the race because of all the ambulances he saw go by, though I don’t know if it was for racers. I can’t imagine anything else other than people breaking bones falling into cacti at the expo while they waited. 

The big draw of this race was always said to be the fact that you could see every star in the sky as you ran. It was all over the marketing for years, and it was true. However, this course was so technical (again, I’m sure a lot of people love that) that there was no way to look up for even a moment. If that’s the draw of your race, telling people to stop at mile seven (which is what they did) to look up is kind of disingenuous. Some of us don’t want to stop, especially if we’re chasing a PR. 

I want to be clear here. Despite falling, I ended up with a really great finishing time. I worked so hard, and I’m really proud of myself. I just feel that if you’re going to change the course difficulty so drastically, you need to be really clear about it to people who do this every year. It went from, say, a 2 to a 9 if that makes sense. 

There were also a lot of areas where runners were smashed to the side on a path with cars blinding us with lights. Just before the end, there were two cameras absolutely blasting our eyesight for pictures, and I almost fell again because I couldn’t see. I had to slow my pace until my eyes cleared. 

The end was … please excuse the expression, but it’s honestly what I said when it happened … a cluster F. Everyone was falling all over each other because there was no real path out. The former location had a bit of a corral for runners only before we went out to meet spectators. 

I knew I was going to review the new experience, so we stayed longer to speak to other runners. Not a single person had anything good to say, and all the people I talked to who had done the race before were very upset about the change. Not one of them said they’d be back unless the course went back. I also heard from people on my socials who said the same thing. I’ve already looked up alternate races to do on this weekend since I like to do this half back to back with next week’s Santa Clarita Marathon. Even the walk back almost ended up with me breaking an ankle. 

I’m really upset to say this. The Joshua Tree Half-Marathon was always one of my favorite races, and I’ve been telling my friends to run it for years. I won’t be back unless they go back to the old location and course. It breaks my heart.