Downhill Marathons

I know a lot of runner friends who specifically run Revel races to BQ(and to improve their corral at Boston). I did use a somewhat downhill race (Mountains 2 Beach) for my first BQ but now with further training I have BQ’d by over 20 minutes on regular marathons like Chicago and Boston. How much faster is Revel compared to a course like Chicago?

Bruin1996 wrote:

I know a lot of runner friends who specifically run Revel races to BQ(and to improve their corral at Boston). I did use a somewhat downhill race (Mountains 2 Beach) for my first BQ but now with further training I have BQ’d by over 20 minutes on regular marathons like Chicago and Boston. How much faster is Revel compared to a course like Chicago?

I've never ran a Revel race, but if you're trained for downhill running I'd guess upwards of 10 minutes, maybe more. These races are literally set up to be ran down mountains - 5,000+ feet of drop over 26.2 and downhill the whole way. Not sure how anyone can take these Revel courses seriously....

Ian Sharman thought he was ~15 minutes faster than a flat course at Mt Charleston. He ran 2:21, a huge PR.

http://sharmanian.blogspot.com/2017/05/its-all-downhill-from-here-revel-mt.html

Bill the pill wrote:

Helpful advice giver wrote:

Back on topic though, it someone tells me about their marathon "PR" from some 2000+ foot drop course, not only do I instinctively roll my eyes and add 5+ minutes but I kinda think less of the person for running such a race in the first place and then, worse, trying to pass it off as a legit time. That's only one small step from people who flat out lie about their PRs (which was much worse before the internet).

You my friend are a purist. Your arguments are valid. But I'm still tempted.

I do wonder if there is a sweet spot with more like 1500 foot decline, like maybe Steamtown. But getting to Scranton PA looks like a beating. Ojai/Mountain2Beach is another but it's sold out, and I have an ultra 2 weeks before that I wouldn't recover from in time.

You can of course run a downhill marathon for fun, but it is not a PR if it's not on a legal course.

I agree.. I just ran a local downhill half marathon (-2125 Feet elevation) and ran a 1:13 and got 2nd overall. I still consider my true half marathon PR to be 1:18 which I ran on a basically flat half marathon course with a few small hills.

Living in a state with some big downhill marathons I'll say that flatter races are better. No matter how much training you do you can't prepare being negative elevation for 20 + miles. By mile 20 your quads and knees are just trashed, and if the race ever flattens out, you're done. Flat to moderately hilly races are easier to train for and you fatigue more evenly over the race.