What's your grade preference?
Tomorrow, I'll be running the Steamtown Marathon in Scranton, and I have to admit that I'm a bit scared of "accidental time banking," a problem that develops when a course is downhill at the start, then flat or uphill near the end.
I have long procrastinated on getting a GPS watch, and a friend kindly loaned me one in order to help me avoid this downhill problem, which is unique to point-to-point marathon courses.
As someone who has run the Baltimore Marathon, my generous loaner donor has plenty of experience with elevation changes: While the Baltimore course for next weekend's race is not in the same category as the old Maryland Marathon route (described as one of the most difficult marathon courses ever devised), one of the first things that usually comes up in discussions of Mobtown's fall race is the challenging topography.
(One counterexample: Last year's winner said he was "used to mountains," so this course suited him just fine.)
The Chicago marathon, which, like Steamtown, will take place tomorrow, has the opposite situation. Wylie Belasik, the top Maryland finisher in Chicago event last year, remembers the race well.
"If you ever run in this general area of the country, you can think you're on a pretty flat road," Belasik said of distance training in the Mid-Atlantic. But on the course in Chicago, "it's incredibly flat. It feels like you're running around on an airplane runway. It's a great course in that you're able to really get into a rhythm."
Belasik is a vice president for programming at Back on My Feet. He's now training for an Ironman, having switched to focusing on triathlons this year, after tendonitis delayed his marathon plans.
Before the tendonitis hit, however, he had been signed up to run Chicago again, and he hopes to return someday.
"The coordination, the enthusiam, the support were really second to none in terms of any event like that that I've experienced."
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The Chicago Marathon starts at 7:20 CDT Sunday. The Steamtown Marathon starts at 8 a.m. EST.
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I like slightly, slow, steady uphill grades during my runs. What's your topography preference? Does it even matter much, or are other factors like weather and crowd support more important to you? Let us know.
Comments
I never really thought I liked hills, until I did a week in Ocean City on vacation. I did a few long runs on Coastal Highway, and the sheer monotony of it being completely flat was terrible (I then did some barefoot beach runs, which were much more enjoyable).
Posted by: Josh (or jwiv) | October 8, 2011 2:15 PM