Before you read on
- When you race
- 12–15 November 2026
- How many nights to book
- 3 nights
- Who this race suits
- Anyone who wants to find out what a mile of altitude does to a race they already know.
- Nearest airport to the venue
- Denver International (DEN), About 48 min by A Line and N Line, changing at Union Station
- Cost for the weekend
- USD 445 (USD 445) per person, Flights and race entry.
On this page
Should you race here?
One of only two races where the air itself is part of the course.
Reasons to
- The commuter rail station is at the campus and is named after it, so race morning is simple.
- Denver is a major hub, so direct flights come from almost everywhere in the United States.
- Hotels are ordinary prices that week, with nothing big in town.
- If you have never raced at altitude, this and Johannesburg are the two places to find out what it does.
Reasons not to
- At 5,280 feet there is about 17% less oxygen per breath, and a weekend is not long enough to adapt.
- The campus is industrial, so everything other than the race is a train ride away.
- Nights drop to -4°C (26°F) and the air is dry enough to catch you out.
Conditions on the day
The Feed HYROX Denver runs November 12th, 2026 to November 15th, 2026 at National Western Center. Here is what that specific window is like on the ground.
The catch
A mile up, and cold at night
12°C (54°F) by day, -4°C (26°F) at night
Denver in mid November
- NOAA puts November at 12.1°C (53.7°F) by day and -3.6°C (25.5°F) at night.
- The swing between the two is nearly thirty degrees, which is normal here and startling if you are not from here.
- The air is dry, around 54% humidity, so you will lose more water than you notice.
- At 5,280 feet there is roughly 17% less oxygen per breath than at sea level.
- Daylight
- Dark
- Bar height is temperature
What racing here is like
Your race is here
National Western Center
November 12th, 2026
The Feed HYROX Denver
- Everything below describes this building first, and the other for comparison
The venue at a glance
- Address
- National Western Center, 4655 Humboldt St, Denver, Colorado 80216
- Nearest station
- 48th and Brighton, National Western Center station, on the RTD N Line (at the campus)
- Parking
- Hyrox has not published the parking arrangement for Denver.
- From the nearest hotel
- 20 min walk or 5 min drive from Hotels in RiNo
- Altitude
- 1609m above sea level, low enough to make no difference to your race.
- Bag drop
- Hyrox has not published the bag drop arrangement for Denver.
- Supporters
- Hyrox has not published spectator ticketing for Denver.
Denver has moved building, moved season, and grown from a single day into the best part of a week. Where you race, and when, changes the day more than most people expect.
National Western Center, your race is in this building
A stockyard complex north-east of downtown, rebuilt around the hundred-year-old livestock centre, with its own commuter rail station.
Known for. The National Western Stock Show every January, which has run since 1906 and is the reason the site exists.
The building. The campus is part way through a long rebuild. The Livestock Center is the old hall, kept and reworked rather than replaced.
Race day and start times
The thing that shapes your travel is not the race date. It is when you find out what time you are racing on it.
Hyrox links individual start times on the event page about three days before the race. A provisional schedule goes up earlier.
What to bring
At the venue, and only on the day you compete. Registration opens 90 minutes before the first wave of your division.
You do not bring a chip. You collect the ankle strap at check-in, wear it for the race, and hand it back after the line.
What your wristband does not cover
You are given a wristband at check-in. Hyrox has not published what the Denver one admits you to, and check-in is open only on the day you race, so do not assume it covers a second day.
Getting there on the morning
The N Line runs from Union Station to the campus in about twelve minutes, from early morning.
What you need to book
Before you book
Book flights and the last night around the provisional schedule, not around a wave you have not been given.
If Hyrox cancels or postpones the event, its terms do not cover your flights or your room. Check the cancellation deadline on both before you pay for either.
Flying into the city
The airport is far out on the plains and the train in takes about 37 minutes.
Search flights to DenverBy train
Check train times and faresSomewhere to stay
The closest beds go first, and those are the ones that matter on race morning.
Compare hotels near the venueSomething to do with the rest of the weekend
Most people fly in for one race and see nothing. The day before is dead time if you do not plan it.
Tours and tickets in DenverSomewhere to put your bag
Flying out the same evening? This is the difference between a good afternoon and hauling a kit bag around a city.
Left luggage in DenverYour entry
Sold by Hyrox, one ticket per division per day. We earn nothing from this link and include it because you need it.
Official Hyrox entriesEstimate weekend cost
| Item | Local currency | USD |
|---|---|---|
| Three nights Nights near the venue | USD 315 | $315 |
| Travel, airport and around the city | USD 25 | $25 |
| Eating, three days | USD 105 | $105 |
| One athlete plus one supporter | USD 445 | $445 |
Getting to Denver
Denver International is about 48 minutes away by train, changing at Union Station.
The station is named after the venue
The RTD N Line stops at 48th and Brighton, National Western Center, which is at the campus. From Union Station it is about twelve minutes.
Two trains from the airport
The A Line runs from Denver International to Union Station in about 37 minutes, and the N Line goes out from there. About 48 minutes door to door.
Entry requirements
Quick tip
The N Line stop is called 48th and Brighton, National Western Center, so the station names the venue for you.
Getting to the venue
The campus is in an industrial pocket north-east of downtown. RiNo is the nearest part of the city with anything in it, and downtown is twelve minutes by train.
The commuter rail station is named after the venue, which removes most of the guesswork. From the airport it is the A Line to Union Station and the N Line out again, about 48 minutes in total.
Where to stay
The campus sits in a working industrial district. RiNo is the nearest neighbourhood with restaurants, and downtown is twelve minutes down the N Line.
Open in Google Maps · Get directions
1. Hotels in RiNo
Converted warehouses, breweries and murals, and the closest beds to the campus. About USD 105 a night.
2. Hotels around Union Station
The transport hub, so the airport train and the venue train both leave from under your feet. About USD 124.
3. Hotels in downtown Denver
The widest choice and the most to do after the race. Still a short ride on the same line.
No trade fair is in town that week, so prices are ordinary. Book near the N Line rather than near the venue.
Neighbourhoods worth the commute
The venue is industrial and the city is a short ride south. Pick somewhere on the N Line and the morning takes care of itself.
| Area | To the venue | Why | Suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| RiNo | about 20 min on foot | Warehouses turned into breweries and galleries. The closest thing to a neighbourhood near the campus. | |
| Union Station and LoDo | about 12 min by train | The restored station is the centre of the transport system and has good eating around it. | |
| Downtown | about 15 min by train | More hotel rooms than anywhere else in the city, with the mountains visible at the end of the streets. | |
| Capitol Hill | about 20 min by train and on foot | Older houses, cheaper rooms and a quieter evening, just east of downtown. |
Eating before and after
The night before a race is not the night for the best meal of your trip, which is harder discipline than it sounds in a city this good at food.
RiNo, nearest the campus
The warehouse district has plain kitchens alongside the breweries, and it is the closest food to the venue. Twenty minutes on foot or five by car.
Around Union Station
The hall and the streets around it have everything from a counter to a dining room, and you are standing on the line that takes you to the start.
Denver eats like a mountain town that got rich, which means good beef, better breakfast and more breweries than anywhere its size.
A Colorado steak
Beef is why this site exists: the stockyards are the venue. Downtown has steakhouses that have been there since the yards were working.
Green chile
Pork stewed with roasted green chiles, poured over almost anything. It is the regional dish and it is better here than its reputation outside Colorado suggests.
Race day supplies
The practical failures that spoil a race weekend are almost never the training. They are forgetting the gels, or carrying a kit bag around a city for six hours.
Pack list
- Lip balm and more water than you would normally carry. The air here is dry enough to notice.
- Layers for a thirty-degree swing between afternoon and night.
- Realistic expectations. A sea-level pace at 5,280 feet is a different effort.
Quick tips
- Arrive a day early if you can, or arrive the same day. The worst option is arriving 24 to 48 hours before, which is when altitude feels its worst.
- Alcohol hits harder up here and dehydrates you faster. The breweries will still be there on Sunday.
The campus is industrial and has nothing around it. Buy everything in RiNo or downtown before you go out.
The last race in Denver
Hyrox has not raced at the National Western Center before, so there is no previous weekend here to describe.
What happened
The last edition, in short.
- This is the first Hyrox at the National Western Center, so nobody has a lap of it to pass on.
- The campus is mid-rebuild, so signage and entrances may not match older maps of the site.
What it means for you
How your race differs from that one.
- No report from a previous year describes this building, because there has not been one.
- Every pacing plan you have is a sea-level plan. This is the one race on the calendar where that matters.
What else is on that weekend
Nothing that fills the city, but two things that fill a car park.
| What | When | Where | What it means |
|---|---|---|---|
| Disney On Ice | 13 to 15 November | Ball Arena, downtown | Family audiences arriving and leaving around the same hours, on the same rail line into downtown. |
| Andrew McMahon with the Colorado Symphony | 13 and 14 November | Boettcher Concert Hall | Evening performances downtown. No effect on the campus. |
| Daku Con | 13 to 15 November | Hyatt Regency Aurora | Out in Aurora, away from both the venue and downtown. |
What to see
Written for someone racing tomorrow, not a tourist with a week. Each entry says how far it is, because some of these are worth a longer trip and some are not.
Union Station
A 1914 terminal restored into a hall with a bar, a bookshop and benches people actually sit on. It is the one building that explains how Denver thinks of itself.
The Denver Art Museum
Two buildings, one of them a Libeskind wedge of angled titanium, holding the best collection of Indigenous American art in the country.
The Colorado State Capitol
The step on the west stairway marked exactly one mile above sea level is the city's favourite fact about itself, and the view from it is of the Front Range.
Red Rocks
An amphitheatre between two sandstone slabs, half an hour west and six hundred feet higher again. In November it is empty and you can walk the seats.
What to do
Walk RiNo
The warehouse district north of downtown is covered in commissioned murals and full of breweries. It is also the nearest thing to the venue, so it doubles as reconnaissance.
Take it easy, deliberately
The usual advice about a spare day does not apply here. At a mile up, arriving and then walking fifteen thousand steps is how you turn a good race into a bad one.
The 16th Street Mall
A mile of pedestrian street through downtown with a free shuttle running its length. Unremarkable, and useful when you want to cover ground without using your legs.
Look west
The Front Range rises straight off the plain at the end of almost every westward street, and in November it has snow on it. It costs nothing and it is the reason people move here.
Raced here? Tell us about it.
Anything you wish you had known. It goes into this guide for the next person, and most of them have never done a Hyrox.
Things people find useful
- How early you really needed to arrive
- What caught you out
- What the hall was like inside
- Where your supporters watched from
- Anything good you did in the city
Not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to Hyrox. HYROX is a trademark of its owner, used only to describe the races discussed.
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Last updated November 7th, 2026.