Distance: 8 mi.
Time: ??
I have developed a very nasty habit at the worst possible time: forgetting to charge my Garmin. I will make sure this doesn't happen on Friday!
After setting my valets up for a show downtown, I decided I wanted to run the last 8 miles of the course, away from town on Caldwell Street and then back. Unlike yesterday, I felt very sluggish, but I think that has more to do with working and staying out late the night before than it does with anything else. At any rate, any soreness is all in the muscles and not in the joints, so that's a good thing. Mostly I am trying not to worry about anything weird that happens to me; I understand the mind has a way of playing tricks on the runner this close to a big race.
This part of the course is supposed to be nothing short of awful, and I can see why. However, I would like to note that, while this course is indeed tough, most of the big uphills are preceded by big downs. Queens East, Morehead, Mint Street, Davidson, Hawthorne - they are all preceded by comfortable downhills. That's the easy side of the term "rolling" that's used to describe this course. This Davidson Street section, however, is just going to suck....plain and simple. It's long, the scenery is ugly, and it's wide open, very inviting to the elements. It will get better after that as I expect the crowd support to be excellent in the NoDa district, but this stretch of pavement will test my ability to run well without help.
From here I wound through NoDa and down what should be a fast section of the course on the Plaza. This next section will again be tough, as we turn down Central, towards uptown, only to wind back through some neighborhoods for a couple miles. We ascend the infamous Hawthorne Avenue hill right after the 24-mile mark, and at that point we're basically home-free. I'm getting antsy. This is going to be a beast, but I can't wait to see how I handle it.
In these course previews I left out the section that goes through South End and downtown, but I have run through there multiple times on other runs. I've bitched recently to friends about not trusting my training, but upon further review it looks like I actually knew what I was doing these last 15 weeks.
Time: ??
I have developed a very nasty habit at the worst possible time: forgetting to charge my Garmin. I will make sure this doesn't happen on Friday!
After setting my valets up for a show downtown, I decided I wanted to run the last 8 miles of the course, away from town on Caldwell Street and then back. Unlike yesterday, I felt very sluggish, but I think that has more to do with working and staying out late the night before than it does with anything else. At any rate, any soreness is all in the muscles and not in the joints, so that's a good thing. Mostly I am trying not to worry about anything weird that happens to me; I understand the mind has a way of playing tricks on the runner this close to a big race.
This part of the course is supposed to be nothing short of awful, and I can see why. However, I would like to note that, while this course is indeed tough, most of the big uphills are preceded by big downs. Queens East, Morehead, Mint Street, Davidson, Hawthorne - they are all preceded by comfortable downhills. That's the easy side of the term "rolling" that's used to describe this course. This Davidson Street section, however, is just going to suck....plain and simple. It's long, the scenery is ugly, and it's wide open, very inviting to the elements. It will get better after that as I expect the crowd support to be excellent in the NoDa district, but this stretch of pavement will test my ability to run well without help.
From here I wound through NoDa and down what should be a fast section of the course on the Plaza. This next section will again be tough, as we turn down Central, towards uptown, only to wind back through some neighborhoods for a couple miles. We ascend the infamous Hawthorne Avenue hill right after the 24-mile mark, and at that point we're basically home-free. I'm getting antsy. This is going to be a beast, but I can't wait to see how I handle it.
In these course previews I left out the section that goes through South End and downtown, but I have run through there multiple times on other runs. I've bitched recently to friends about not trusting my training, but upon further review it looks like I actually knew what I was doing these last 15 weeks.
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