REVEL Big Bear

Sara Dugan

2018 REVEL Big Bear Marathon
Published: Oct. 15, 2018, 11:36 a.m.

Overall Rating

5/5 Stars
Describe your race day.

Very smooth arrival - plentiful parking, easy bus loading, and a smooth ride to the start line. Once we arrived at the staging area there was plenty of port o potties, extra gloves and blankets, and good instructions on the race start. The only hiccup was bus loading - runners were not wanting to board the standard school buses in favor of waiting for a charter bus, and it slowed the boarding process.
Did you PR?

Yes! A PR of 18 minutes, and struggling to achieve my last PR in May, the effort to attain this PR was much easier.
How would you describe the course?

Runnable downhill - I was intimidated by the course profile’s elevation drop but it proved to be easier on my legs that’s anticipated. The beginning did have some more “challenging” uphills than expected, but by no means were the uphill portions difficult.
Tell us about your training.

I trained 4 days a week and tried to incorporate trail and pavement into my runs. I would have trained specifically on downhill a little more, but overall did not prove to be detrimental to my race.
What advice would you give future runners?

Train downhill, if for nothing else than confidence in knowing you can tackle it. I was nervous and ran more conservatively than necessary the first few miles because I didn’t know how much the downhill would effect my legs.