Today I decided I wanted to run the second 1/2 of the Big Cottonwood Marathon to get a feel for the course, and how to pace it. My Office is at the finish line of the race, which will be nice on race day cause I have access to the showers in the building. I drove to work and then ran up to Wasatch, the 13.1 mile point would have been about another 1.5 miles up the canyon so I just figured out where the closest intersection point would be which was mile 15, I slow jogged from my office up to mile 15 of the marathon and then started my watch. I wrote down the pace calculator along with course turns so I wouldn't get lost and carried it in my pocket, problem was it was pitch black, I had no light and couldn't read my paper at all. I had a decent idea of where I needed to be but right away I knew it was going to be hard to pace the 3:05, not cause it's to hard, but because it's too fast. Mile 15 is pretty much where the course stops going downhill and gets more challanging, problem is (if its a problem) there is a massive tail wind, I had a really hard time slowing myself down to pace even going uphill, this is going to be a very fast course if the wind is the same on Saturday, which I assume it will since it is every day. Made it to the top of the hill and then you turn down onto 4430S, which is really going to hurt, that mile was my only mile slower than pace just because I was afraid of blowing my hip out going down that hill, the hill is 3/4 of a mile then it turns and evens out. The next few miles are pretty un-eventful through neighborhoods, then you turn around and start back on Holladay Blvd. This last 3 miles is where it's going to get rough, the tail wind turns into a headwind and its a long busy road. I was still feeling good, pretty much gave up on trying to stay on pace and just ran cause I was enjoying it, the last mile is pretty uphill and I would say if you are pacing someone trying to BQ it would be a good idea to hit 25.5 a good minute or more fast cause if they were struggling just to get to this point the last 1/2 mile will tear them apart. Actually looking at the pace calculator that is the slowest mile, so maybe the calculator already took that into account, but just be warned, it's going to be hard. | Mile | Pace Calculator
| Actual Pace
| | 16 | 7:44 | 7:33 | | 17 | 7:17
| 7:18 | | 18 | 7:38 | 7:30 | | 19 | 6:47 | 7:15 | | 20 | 7:34 | 7:08 | | 21 | 7:12 | 7:13 | | 22 | 7:04 | 7:04 | | 23 | 6:50 | 6:57 | | 24 | 7:18 | 7:10 | | 25 | 7:45 | 7:18 | | 26 | 7:58 | 7:45 | | 26.2 | 1:40 | 1:28 |
Humm, after actually looking at the numbers I wasn't off as much as I thought. 1:21:40 actual time, the pace calc would have had me at 1:22:28 for the last 11.2. My watch was exactly at 11.2 where I would guess the finish line will be, so if mile 15 is correct I think the course is right on. Here is my Garmin Data!
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