Okay, so I know this is in the archives somewhere but I’m having a hard time finding it. I’m trying to run a 250 at CIM...maybe can come close to 2:45 if it’s a fast day with good weather.
Can you please give me your best course strategy?
Thank you!
Okay, so I know this is in the archives somewhere but I’m having a hard time finding it. I’m trying to run a 250 at CIM...maybe can come close to 2:45 if it’s a fast day with good weather.
Can you please give me your best course strategy?
Thank you!
Average 6:29 min/mile pace
Run a ton of rolling hills between now and early December. As in, everyday.
The weather will be good, it will be a good day. And there are tons of pace groups, so you just find one of them and hang on. All you have to do is prepare yourself for 12~14 miles of non-stop rolling hills at the beginning. And that it's not as downhill as everyone makes it out to be.
It's the hilly Berlin of amateur marathon running.
UA Runner wrote:
Run a ton of rolling hills between now and early December. As in, everyday.
The weather will be good, it will be a good day. And there are tons of pace groups, so you just find one of them and hang on. All you have to do is prepare yourself for 12~14 miles of non-stop rolling hills at the beginning. And that it's not as downhill as everyone makes it out to be.
It's the hilly Berlin of amateur marathon running.
I've never run it but looking at course profile, it still looks like a lot of elevation loss with a few slight uphill especially in the first half. Are they steep ups or just gradual ups?
* Line up on the right-hand side, since the first turn is to the right. Have a good idea of when the road is going to turn right or left and run the tangents. Most runners will follow the crowd down the middle of the road, you want to be up on the shoulder of the road on each turn:\
https://www.slowtwitch.com/Training/Running/Math_of_Tangents_1257.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8tH7KtP7NM
* There should be a lot of pace groups. Tuck into the middle of the 4th row of a pack. If you can feel wind, you're not drafting.
* Ask the RD if you can get your water bottles on the elite table, since you're trying to run an OQ time. This way you can avoid the runners that stop to drink at the aid stations.
Tron wrote:
I've never run it but looking at course profile, it still looks like a lot of elevation loss with a few slight uphill especially in the first half. Are they steep ups or just gradual ups?
Gradual.
The elevation profile is misleading. I think it runs about as fast as a flat course and POTENTIALLY faster if the wind is right, but it's more "difficult" in that the hills introduce the opportunity for pacing errors, and if you don't do any running on hills, you may find it's slower than a flat course.
Don't be ahead of pace the first 10-12 miles.
Hold yourself back on the descents early on and don't push the uphills. If you can be just on pace or even slightly slower in the first 1/2 you will have a great race.
I'm from Sacramento have raced or paced CIM multiple times recently. Much of what the above people said is accurate.
Don't just look at the elevation profile and think it will be a easy downhill the whole time. People make that mistake every year! You need to prepare for small but numerous rolling hills. None will take more than 30 seconds or so but there are small hills that don't show up on the elevation profile. The hills are such that for somebody running 6:15-6:30/mi, none of your mile splits should deviate from your average by more then ten seconds.
In fact...I've created a spreadsheet for CIM mile splits that will use a goal time as an input and create ideal mile splits for every mile of the race based on the hills. It works very well and helped a letsrunner in 2017 to run 2:17, but it's not so good that you would want to leave a nice group to try to hit my splits, especially if you end up trying to run 2:45 in which case you'd obviously just run with the 2:45 group.
let me know if you want my split sheet, it's an excel doc or I can send a screenshot
Hi Reed,
I'd love to see that Excel sheet with your data on CIM mile splits.
Thanks!
reed wrote:
In fact...I've created a spreadsheet for CIM mile splits that will use a goal time as an input and create ideal mile splits for every mile of the race based on the hills. It works very well and helped a letsrunner in 2017 to run 2:17, but it's not so good that you would want to leave a nice group to try to hit my splits, especially if you end up trying to run 2:45 in which case you'd obviously just run with the 2:45 group.
let me know if you want my split sheet, it's an excel doc or I can send a screenshot
Hey Reed. I'm doing CIM too. It would be great to have your split sheet. Can you please send me a copy to
jestrada400@yahoo.com? Thanks!
Aim above the upper lip and be close in.
Wear Vaporflys.
Hey Reed, if you're still willing to send out that spreadsheet I'd love to play with it! My email is jlt94@mchsi.com. Thanks in advance!
Hey Reed, I would also like to use the spreadsheet. My email is yitzi1119@gmail.com. Thank you so much!
Very accurate. Deceptively hilly although there are no big ones. I feel like the first 4 or 5 miles were pretty easy but then it got tougher until around 18 where it was mostly flat. But I only have run it once. I'd put it on par with a relatively flat course. Of the marathons I've run with courses ranging in of Grandma's (fastest) to Carlsbad (slowest) it is in the middle between twin cities and Long Beach.
Just to add to the above, run the last half mile before the finish the day before. Know that you'll (1) run by the Capital, (2) make 2 lefthand turns, and (3) finish in a different area than the men:
https://cdn2.sportngin.com/attachments/photo/2998/2834/CIMmapcolorwrelay.jpg
Thank you all SO much. Incredibly helpful. Any thoughts on the last 10k? Truly as pancake flat as it looks?
One bridge that is maybe a 10 ft gradual climb. Otherwise, pancake flat or very gradual downhill.
Is CIM a good first-time marathon or should you have a bunch of 'thons before you do it?
Different meaning wrote:
Aim above the upper lip and be close in.
POD
That right there is funny.
Is there a rule against attaching a helium balloon to yourself while running a road race?
How rare is it to run a sub 5 minute mile AND bench press 225?
Jakob Ingebrigtsen has a 1989 Ferrari 348 GTB and he's just put in paperwork to upgrade it
Am I living in the twilight zone? The Boston Marathon weather was terrible!
Move over Mark Coogan, Rojo and John Kellogg share their 3 favorite mile workouts
Mark Coogan says that if you could only do 3 workouts as a 1500m runner you should do these