Conquering the Revel Reno Tahoe Downhill Marathon

Gysel Parajon(MM8995, HF18751) – I had planned to run a double last weekend, a local 50K Saturday, followed by the Revel Reno Tahoe Marathon Sunday. I tapered for two weeks running only one mile or less, sometimes more on heavy workdays. As luck would have it the 50K sold out and later on I couldn’t have been more grateful. I love challenging my body but the Revel downhill marathon proved to be challenging enough on its own.
When Revel announced this marathon I jumped on the registration as I was so happy the race series would be coming to my neck of the woods! I was also really happy to find out so many Maniacs would be running it too. A number of us got together for dinner the night before the race and had a great time! Race day I saw friends and made new ones, which was awesome!
The race itself was fantastic, albeit I did experience distress, which cost me about 20 minutes in the long run, but despite that I am okay with my time. I banked time by letting my body be free through the first half, which was all downhill. In the second half I slowed down as I had planned when the small hills appeared. The weather, which had been cold at the start and then perfect for running, nice and cool, took a turn and became chilly and windy. Ultimately graupel, or snow pellets began to fall in the last couple miles. We had had a heatwave the previous week, so despite feeling frozen by the finish I preferred it over the heat.
All in all this was a great race experience mainly because I got to see and run with friends, which is always special. And even though it took more time to recuperate from this race I do love running downhill. Thank you @runrevel for this special edition, the volunteers, fellow runners, friends and family for the support, especially my boy and his papa. #runrevel