Conquer the Cove 25k and Marathon Trail Races
About this race
Please see the race webpage for all of the race details - https://mountainjunkies.net/conquer-the-cove-25k-marathon/
This event has it all, great headquarters and trail system, tough challenging courses and the perfect time of year to see mountain laurel and rhododendrons in bloom. If you are from Roanoke it gives you a chance to compete against the home town folks to see who’s top dog. If you aren’t from Roanoke it gives you the chance to see 80% of the trails of the park that will be well marked and maintained. This is the anchor event to the Roanoke Non Ultra Trail Series (RNUTS) and is the perfect place to test your fitness.
Carvins Cove Natural Reserve is the place to run and ride if you are in Roanoke. It is the second largest municipal park in the nation. It holds not only a major water source within its 12,700 acres, but also overflowing recreation opportunities. There is approximately 40 miles of roads and trails in the park and within trail plan there should be miles and miles of new trails added each year.
Both race distances will be challenging. There will be a lot of climbing, approximately 3500ft of elevation gain in the marathon. 1000ft of this will occur following mile 18, but your reward will be 2.35 miles of downhill followed by a relatively easy 2 mile to the finish.
Pick your distance
Trail running
Conquer the Cove 25k
Conquer the Cove Marathon
Running
Conquer the Cove 25k Virtual Run
Our Virtual events are setup for you to be a part of the series without having to be present since there are so many layers to activities. This is a run anywhere option, that counts as one of the RNUTS qualifying races. In addition, you will get the race shirt until 5/6/26, after that, all registrants will get a Mountain Junkies LLC Socks or Hoo Rag (similar to a Buff).
Conquer the Cove Marathon Virtual Run
Our Virtual events are setup for you to be a part of the series without having to be present since there are so many layers to activities. This is a run anywhere option, that counts as one of the RNUTS qualifying races. In addition, you will get the race shirt until 5/6/26, after that, all registrants will get a Mountain Junkies LLC Socks or Hoo Rag (similar to a Buff).
Typical race-day weather
Based on 11 years of Open-Meteo archive data for this event's race dates in Roanoke, plus the 3 days either side.
The sun rises at 6:01 AM and sets at 8:33 PM local time (EDT) in Roanoke on May 31, 2026 — 14h 32m of daylight.
Course
No course map published yet.
The organizer hasn't released a route for this event, and we don't publish guesses. If you're the organizer, send us a GPX file and we'll draw the profile.
Reviews
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2026 results — Conquer the Cove 25k and Marathon Trail Races
216 finishers across 3 distances · leading places in the Conquer the Cove 25k
| Place | Name | Time | Pace |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Patrick Wachter | 1:48:53 | 6:52 /mi |
| 2 | George Tolton | 1:51:06 | 7:00 /mi |
| 3 | Andrew Parkins | 1:59:01 | 7:30 /mi |
| 4 | Emerson Bryant | 1:59:29 | 7:32 /mi |
| 5 | Bryan Plunkett | 2:08:40 | 8:07 /mi |
Every finisher is on the results page, filterable by distance, gender and age group.
All results by year
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Where this page comes from. Race details were last updated on . We re-check listings regularly and again in the week before race day.
- Entries, prices, waves and inclusions — the event's official registration page
- Temperature and humidity — Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis via Open-Meteo (CC BY 4.0)
- Elevation and terrain relief — Copernicus DEM GLO-90, ESA (CC BY 4.0)
- Comparisons and counts — Race Discovery calendar, 27 Roanoke events
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