Because of my vision, I am never able to make out the course maps. I depend on my guides to let me know where we need to go, and at times what type of elevation to expect. And while I knew that there would be some hills, I didn’t realize that there would be that many. But I guess that’s why it’s a good Boston training course.
Given all those hills, what John suggested was power walking up them and running the downhills/flats. I’m extremely glad that he did, or I wouldn’t have made it through mile 1; let alone the first hill. And this was a plan to success!
As I’ve metioned in many past blogs, one of my issues is pacing. I’ll have a good 1st mile, and then it will positive split. That’s definitely NOT what I want, and something that I’ve been working hard on. For this race, I was able to achieve negative splits for at least the main 3 mile portion — I don’t remember the pacing for the last .1. This meant that I was able to shave 11 seconds off my 2020 PB, even with all of those hills!
I am extremely grateful to The Morton Arboretum for keeping this an in-person race! Even with all those hills, it was an extremely fun race. Maybe I’ll be crazy enough to do it again in 2021… 😉 🙂
David Kuhn Camp Olympia (where Camp Catapult was last year) has a 25ft platform for jumping off of. Someone got me up there in the daylight by telling me it was only 10 feet… LOL So night platform jumping was jumping off it in the pitch dark, not being able to see a single thing. The first time, it was scary, as at about the 8-10 second mark, my mind asked ‘WTF is the water’ — and then I hit it a second or two later.
I was essentially on what would be the lane divider. Several times, vehicles would try to push me out of the way and into traffic coming from the other way. I will be looking for distintive markings today, and may follow up with NPD if something like yesterdy does today. Think of it as an 18 wheeler trying to play chicken with me, and then continuing to do so even as I moved out of the way for the asshat…
