What's the course like? 23:16 is obviously quick regardless but he won by so much and some of the other times look a bit slow. Is it hilly, rough terrain etc?
What's the course like? 23:16 is obviously quick regardless but he won by so much and some of the other times look a bit slow. Is it hilly, rough terrain etc?
Griak is NOT an easy course. No huge hills, and mostly firm grass, but there is nary a flat spot for the entire race! A few years back I ran 26:20 at Griak and 25:40 at one of the "grass racetracks" in wisconsin a few weeks later. Granted I'd dropped my mileage a bit and was in a bit better shape, but still.
The course is a grinder. No overly steep or long hills, but it's better than 90% up and down. The only flat is the start, so you probably get 500-600m total flat in an 8K. If there's any rain in the days before the race, it slows down even more. Shoe sucking mud everywhere if it's rained. I ran there three times, and was always 35-40 seconds off of my flat course times.
I believe Roy Griak was a decent runner, but I was not around to see it. I would guess he was reasonably fast. I think he had a kid who was good in high school.
Like others said: mostly decently packed grass the whole way (a few spots of gravel and some asphalt crossings, but MAYBE 5%, more like 3%).
500-600 meters of flat sounds correct.
This course is just rolllllllling. At 2800 meters to 3300 meters is a large hill, and in the 8k race, the 5k has a funky hill. Its just a very hilly course, with all different kinds of hills displaying themselves (short, long, steep, shallow, rolling bumps that make you coast, and kick little moguls are all present).
As for the rain: anything within 4 days of the race and certain spots will get VERY muddy (this is compoounded by the problem of having 10 races in the day with at least 250/300 in each race. That makes the muddy spots get churned up even more). In addition to having mud pits at 3 or so locations, the rest of the course will just get frustratingly soft because its almost all grass.
This year (2011) the course was dry, very dry, and the conditions were rather perfect for running fast (not too cloudy, not TOO sunny, tempature hovering around 50-55 until the high school races, dry course).
If you can run sub 25 here for the 5k you are IN SHAPE. 45 seconds to a grass track sounds about right. in the 5k for high schools my times were about 30 seconds slower.
You are dumb as sh*t.
Bump
Never understand why people think griak or even rim rock for that matter are so hard. 30-40 seconds off ur PR is still pretty fast. Come to PA or upstate New York we have actual hard XC courses here, that run 2-3 minutes slow.