Looking to run Smart and negative split for a 2:22. Where would you go?
Looking to run Smart and negative split for a 2:22. Where would you go?
Duh! Vegas of course. Are you drunk?
Vagas is the way to go down hill baby
check spelling vegas down hill.
Neither....
I would train hard all summer and save up for a ticket to the land-of-negative-splits......BERLIN!!!!
Alabama will have some good comp, ie. people to run with...and is also down hill (aprox. 300 feet). For me a few hills wont matter much but I'd hate to run alone.
NOBODY will be negative splitting 2:22 at birmingham...
Don't forget to include Austin Motorola, early February, in your decision process. Fast course always good competition. There will definitely be people there trying to qualify.
I'll pile on with the Vegas answer so...
VEGAS!!!
I keep seeing names that are running Birminham but haven't seen the names of people running Vegas. Both courses will fast and you said you don't want to run alone. Look at the fields. Good Luck.
Have any of you actually recommending Vegas ran it before? I STARTED it back in 2000. It SUCKED. I only made it about half way because I had a severe side cramp from the start. But, it is like running through the desert by yourself. There is NO crowds and absolutly NOTHING around you. It doesn't touch anywhere near Vegas. Before last years race they lost their major sponsor. Don't know if anyone will show up to run fast. Don't really know about Birmingham, but here are some others to consider: Derby Festival (KY), Valley of the Sun, and LA.
Man, look at the Las Vegas Marathon elevation map:
Austin is fine, but almost all of the downhill is in the first half (actually 1st 15 or so miles). It's a really good races though, and in general, produces fast times. There should definitely be people under 2:20, (and probably others shooting for 2:22).
Most of Vegas Marathon is in the middle of nowhere, but the weather was great last year, and I seem to remember we had a slight tailwind. Wish I'd taken more H2O in the week before the race. I dehydrated and cramped around 18. Fast course. Wish I was that swift, I'd definitely pick this one.
Remember Birmingham has TWO races this year. The championships on Sat, where all the fast guys should be, is on a criterium course (3 loops plus some extra at the start/finish). If you plan to go there, make sure you can get in this one. I'd expect the citizen's open race to be much slower. It's course is one loop of a fairly hilly course. (Not sure how hilly the crit course will be.)
Run well !!
I remember when runners wanted to EARN an HONEST qualifier. What's up with all these downhill marathons? Legal cheating if you ask me. Kinda like the dumbing down of the SAT's for college board scores.
Seaman wrote:
I remember when runners wanted to EARN an HONEST qualifier. What's up with all these downhill marathons? Legal cheating if you ask me. Kinda like the dumbing down of the SAT's for college board scores.
The same analogy came to my mind. Of course, people will come up with all kinds of specious reasons that performances at these "marathons" are as good as, or better than, performances in legitimate, unaided marathons. The reality is that race organizers are simply selling what their customers are eager to buy -- an athletic ego boost.
Most of the major marathons have a net downhill. Should we avoid all of them? Should we be seeking uphill marathons? Because I would struggle to find a marathon that is perfectly flat. Or maybe we should run marathons on the track?
Miles and Miles wrote:
Most of the major marathons have a net downhill. Should we avoid all of them? Should we be seeking uphill marathons? Because I would struggle to find a marathon that is perfectly flat. Or maybe we should run marathons on the track?
Actually, at the international level, the great majority of the "major marathons" are on unaided courses. Within the U.S., I'm not sure which races you consider to be major marathons -- I certainly wouldn't consider Vegas to be one -- but it's really not difficult to find respectable marathons that are run on unaided courses. (A few that I've run are Chicago, Marine Corps, Houston, and Columbus.) It is, after all, generally easier to set up a race that starts and finishes at roughly the same place.
It is kind of interesting to see the increase in the number of downhill marathons in the U.S. Of course it started with Boston - but that one wasn't for 'competitive advantage' since they didn't even have a proper distance at first. And the ups and downs slow more people than they help.
Now there are some that promote themselves as "fast,downhill" unabashedly (Las Vegas, St. George, the new 3,900 ft drop one) and some that are much more discreet (Sacramento, Austin, Tucson.)
I can see Birmingham wanting to have as fast a course as possible due to the logistics of US Olympic qualifying. And in fact maybe this time around more guys who squeak in from a downhill race may be able to duplicate the time at the trials.