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Jill Ashworth
2015 REVEL Big Cottonwood Marathon
Published: Sept. 15, 2015, 10:32 a.m. 
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Overall Rating
4/5 Stars
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Describe your race day.
Overall, it was an awesome day. Close to perfect weather (a little warm at the end, but if I was faster this wouldn't be an issue ;), the excellent company of friends, and a timely start. The aid stations were well manned, and the volunteers were amazing. It would be impossible to have such a positive experience without them - so thank you!
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Did you PR?
I did, by 25 minutes!
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How would you describe the course?
The first 2/3 of the course were breathtaking, the downhill was crazy but cool, loved every minute. Once we got to mile 19, though, not so much. I know it's the logical approach to have us ending in a populated area where it's easy for spectators to cheer us along, but once we came out of the canyon and started seeing strip malls and gas stations, it was anticlimactic. Not sure how it could be changed and still make the miles accurate... but it might be worth considering to have the last 1/3 of the course be located in the more residential areas if possible.
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Tell us about your training.
My run group is fortunate enough to live near a fairly large (8,000 feet, so not quite as high as BC) mountain, so we were able to do lots of downhill training. It definitely made a difference. Anything I'd do differently would be in regard to my nutrition past mile 15. I need to re-work that to avoid the slog of those last miles, and hopefully next time come in under 4 hours :).
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What advice would you give future runners?
Stay at Hyatt House Sandy - wonderful place! In lieu of pasta, try a baked potato the night before. Layer with clothes you're ok with donating to charity, and drop along the course. Oh, and if I had this race to do over again (and I might next year), I'd have stayed put with the 3:55 pacers!
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What fun things did you do in the area before or after the race?
We traveled from Las Vegas, and didn't do too much before the race (other than make a stop at the State Liquor Store for our celebratory wine), but we went to downtown Salt Lake (Temple Square area) for dinner the night of the race, and it was delicious. We had dinner at the Copper Onion.
Thank you, Revel, for an amazing marathon experience. I'm looking forward to running with you again!