I received an email from the organizers of the Frederick Marathon with that title. WOW!
It also mentioned that there were a few minor adjustments to the course due to road construction closings. I have barely looked at the course yet - so I have a question to those of you marathon veterans (or just race veterans - whether it is 5K, 10K, Half Marathon, etc.). Do you scope out the course before the race?
I believe I did drive the course before my first Half Marathon...but I'm not sure it helped me much.
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This morning I did hit the gym for my 4 mile easy run. I had woken up in the middle of the night and heard strong winds, so I planned on the gym. However, I probably could have run outside without any issue...oh well. An ounce of prevention, right?
I still had some Jethro Tull on my iPod shuffle, so I listened to Stand Up and Benefit. They're both on the mellower side, which was good for a nice mellow run.
For the first two miles, I don't believe my HR was over 150. Then I started to push it a bit, but once I hit 160 (halfway into mile 4), I backed down my speed to bring my HR down. Overall, I ran a 10:43/mile pace at an average HR of 146.
Even though I had run on Saturday, it felt like I hadn't run for a week. This past weekend was difficult - with all the guests and lack of sleep. Add the fact that my carb intake has gone way down, it was tough to run. Luckily this is a taper week :-)
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I'm kind of torn on scoping out the course. For Nike, I didn't and I was actually glad for that because the hills were actually far more challenging than I had realized and I think that had I driven the course the day before I would have just been a lot more anxious (and at that point, I was as prepared as I was going to get).
But for my race this coming Sunday, my friends and I did 2 of our long runs on the most challenging part of the course. I think that will help me because I feel better prepared and the course will be somewhat familiar. (I'll let you know for sure on Monday!)
Either way, I know you're totally prepared for next week and you're going to do great!!
I have mixed feelings about scoping out the course too. On the one hand, it's good to feel comfortable with the course and know what's ahead. On the other, it's kinda nice not knowing just how far you still have left to go and how many hills there are. I was pretty familiar with parts of my marathon, and not so much with the others. I think either way is fine.
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