Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Austin Marathon Course "Re"visited

This morning with Steve's Rogue Performance Project we had a marathon pace run that covered part (the hilly part) of the new proposed AT&T Austin Marathon course. We ran the leg starting at Pecos&Enfield and ending at Edgemont, 3.5 miles out and 3.5 back

Before we ran this leg the theory was that these hills wouldn't effect the marathon time for the course too much ... theory debunked. This section is tough and now just like Boston people need to figure out a race plan that is specific to each portion of the course if they expect to meet their goal.

For the course itself you'll have some rolling hills before you hit Pecos and Enfield. The next mile (N or Pecos, R on Windsor, L of Exposition) is pretty gentle, low grade inclines and declines.

The 2nd mile is up and down exposition and just off 35th when you turn left ... holding MGP isn't difficult because of the long uphill and downhill sections, the toughest hill is the one leading upto Westover. The thing people need to figure out is what effort to run at where you aren't pounding your quads on the downhills but not loosing too much time.

The 3rd mile (Along 35th, R on Balcones Woods, R on Edgemont) was an eye opener. You go down on 35th and then hit Balcones ... at this point the hills are just nuts. My quads were really feeling it today and I wasn't even running the whole marathon distance. The turn right onto Edgemond is where you hit the 3 mile mark and then the .5 miles till the road T's is brutal, up-down-up-down

If you're planning on running this marathon in '07 and the course stays the same, run or at least drive this section so you can plan for it and train to take the course into account ... just like you would for Boston.

1 comment:

Kamran said...

The course has changed. The hell of balcones is no longer: http://www.attaustinmarathon.com/