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Beth Townsend
2015 REVEL Canyon City Marathon
Published: Nov. 9, 2015, 12:40 p.m. 
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Overall Rating
5/5 Stars
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Describe your race day.
Overall, it was a great day. Stayed local, got to parking and shuttle very easily and was on bus by 4:30am. The shuttle ride up was unpleasant. I was on a school bus and it was not a smooth ride. So, I was nauseous by the time I arrived at the start. That subsided quickly once I got off the bus though. It was very cold up at the top but I took advantage of the emergency blanket that was provided. After a long wait, I made my way to the start. Intending on starting with the 3:45 pacer. I couldn't get to her and so I just took off. I found myself running with the 3:40 pacer and kept telling myself, "you're going too fast" but I couldn't slow down and I felt fantastic. The mile markerun were flying by at a rapid pace. I hit that first hill around mile 13 and was secretly glad for the break in the downhill. However, that glee vanished as the course became more gradual in the descent and more hills crept up along the course. I took each hill and ran by effort knowing that I had banked several minutes on the first half. I lost the 3:40 pacer around 15 miles but I knew that was coming. By 18 miles the 3:45 pacer caught up to me and I did my best to stick with her. Those last 4 miles exiting the canyon were my most challenging. My legs were killing me and they were not too keen on keeping pace. I was getting pretty emotion by mile 25 because I knew at this point I still had a shot at a BQ. I approached the last 200 meters and could hear the announcer shouting that there was less than 45 secs to break 3:45. I mustered up every ounce of strength and ran as fast as my tired legs would go through the finish. I'm pretty sure the announcer was encouraging me on as I made the approach because it was so close. I made it through in 3:44:08. With 52 seconds to spare! My 3:45 pacer, my Godsend, was waiting at the finish and she gave me the biggest and best hug after I crossed. What an AMAZING moment for me!
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Did you PR?
Yes and BQ'd! 3:44:08
I PR'd by 10 minutes! I ran LA Marathon in March 2015 and that was my previous PR of 3:54. -
How would you describe the course?
Intense! Beautiful & Scenic! First half was steep downhill grade at times. Lots of embanked curves. Second half was more gentle downhill with some tough climbs that crept up along the descent.
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Tell us about your training.
I tried to incorporate hills (up and down) and glad I did. My last 20 miler was 15 miles of downhill on a curvy canyon road followed by 5 flat. It was brutal and I barely made it through the run. My legs were destroyed by mile 10. As miserable as it was, it was critical to my success on Saturday. I also incorporated speedwork too. My schedule was to run tues, thurs, sat, sun. Speed was dusing the week and I tried to do more hills on long runs.
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What advice would you give future runners?
Train on hills! Up AND Down! If you think downhill running is easy...you're wrong! I trained on hills and two days later, I'm still having a tough time walking!
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What fun things did you do in the area before or after the race?
Not much, I'm from Santa Clarita and so I drove home right after.
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