The course
I mentioned in a previous post from March about having a look at the propfile of the course and the below image shows the profile from Garmin Connect.
All in all, it looks like a good undulating course. Some notes for me are below:
- There are two hills near the start. One right at the start and one 1.5miles in. This is probably a good thing as it will force me to go off relatively steady.
- It's then fairly undulating but nothing too taxing from about 3 miles to 18. 12.5 to 18 tends to a downhill slope.
- At 18 it looks to be an undulating/uphill section until 21.
- From 21 to 24 it tends to a downhill.
- Finally from 24 to the end it's slightly uphill but nothing major.
If (and it's a big if) I can get to 21-ish in reasonable shape it looks like a good run in to have a crack at. Like I say, that's a big if though and I may be just hanging on by then.
Race instructions
The organisers have released some final instructions available off of this page. The important points to note seem to be:
- Race registration is on the morning of the race and opens at 7am. For me, I expect this will mean leaving the B&B to get the race number and then heading back the B&B for final preparations etc. There are two numbers (front and back) with the front number having a detachable strip for a kit bag.
- There are water stops approximately every 5K, with water bottles being available at 9.5miles and 22.1 miles.
- Personal drink stations are set up where I can leave my own drinks. These are at 12.45 (20K) and 19 (30K) miles. I'm currently not sure how to make use of these of these yet as my wife has also offered to stand on the course at around half way.
- There are mile markers as well as 10, 20, 30, 40K and half marathon markers.
Race strategy
I think this will remain to be seen and I'll see how I am on the day. At the time of writing this I think I am probably 80% sure I'm going to do the event. I'd be absolutely delighted to get sub-4 and my current thought is to go out at just over 9min/mile and see how I am after 20-miles or so.
If I am on target, this would bring me in under 4 hours with a little bit to spare. With 09:09 bringing me in dead on 03:59:59. I wouldn't want to be that close as a) the Garmin may not be that accurate and b) I'll probably ending up running slightly more than the 26.2 miles I don't expect I'll be exactly on the racing line for all of it. This is why I've settled on targeting the 9min/mile as a first target.
If after a few miles it seems obvious that this isn't going to happen, my secondary pre-race target would be 4:30. Regarding paces, these are the main ones for me:
9min/mile - 03:55:58
09:15 - 04:02:31
09:30 - 04:09:05
09:45 - 04:15:38
10:00 - 04:22:11
10:15 - 04:28:45
10:30 - 04:35:18
10:45 - 04:41:51
11:00 - 04:48:24
If before the race I don't think that 4:30 is possible due to injury I expect I'll pull out. If I make it to the start though I'll endeavour to finish no matter what the end time.
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