From Ashleigh Lawrence of Run For Your Life:
"With the development of the construction on Mint Street throughout this week, [RFYL], [the Panthers], and the police did a final evaluation of the area today -- and after discussing some options, they decided the best option would be to run the course backwards and not change the actual route.
"This option allows minimal course change for runners that have run the course before and those that have trained on it and are therefore familiar with the streets. It will also decrease the bottleneck effect that would have occurred if the course was run in the original direction."
This is a very, very good call on the part of the organizers, because at present, it looks like a bomb went off at Church and Stonewall overnight. Here's a photo I snapped with my iPhone while pausing at that intersection on my way into the Observer around 8:30:
How does a reversal of the course affect things? Well, there's now a decent climb in the first half-mile, but then it's downhill for the next mile on Morehead. Then you've got about 1.4 miles of slow ascent, with some flats mixed in. Final 0.2 or so includes a fairly swift dropoff after crossing Church before leveling off around the left turn back onto Mint.
See ya out there. Good luck with that PR. And keep an eye out for potholes and other surprises in the final half-mile near that construction.
Friday, August 7, 2009
Running BluePoints? Read this NOW
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4 comments:
Wow. That's pretty scary. It looks like Blue Points may turn out to have a lot in common with that recent Marine Corps obstacle course race. This could get interesting. Do I need to change my race motto from 'Sub-21. It can be done! to 'Um, just don't hurt yourself'?
Hmmm...would it be too hard to just go around the construction? Just a thought that would eliminate any worries.
I think most of the Run For Yor Life race courses are certified, meaning that they are measured so you will run exactly a 5K distance. And you have to get road closing permits, etc. There are lots of reasons why is hard to make last minute changes to the course. This sounds like the best solution to the situation.
Makes sense! The problem is there is a bottleneck because we all start together, but we surely don't finish together (PR 31:07).
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