CIM is, in fact, a joke of a course

You guys are pretty pathetic complaining about courses and what not

Crybaby wrote:

You guys are pretty pathetic complaining about courses and what not

He probs wore the next% too to fit in

I just ran and I didn't think it was that bad. The rolling hills really do exist and I don't understand people who argue they are not there. Overall yes I felt the downhills more, but the course is legit to me. Fast, yes, but not the degree that people make it out to be.

Not very scenic, I agree with that. Understaffed, I'll agree too. And the seeding system is terrible. They really should just assign everyone a corral.

CIM is for people looking for a fast time, not for people looking to share stories on instagram.

When I ran CIM my GPS said the grade adjusted pace would have been 17 seconds slower than a perfectly flat course. I haven't run Chicago but would guess they are pretty similar. It's obviously faster than New York, but the 10 minute difference is mostly from you just running a better race today.

Wolf's Bane wrote:

CIM is for people looking for a fast time, not for people looking to share stories on instagram.

You clowns looking for 'scenery' Go take a walk around a national park. Crowd support, medals ... whatever. CIM is for racers.

Nobody is claiming CIM is a slow course. The argument is that it is basically equivalent to a totally flat course, because the slight net downhill balances out with some moderate rolling in the first half.

I also never saw anybody here claim that it is scenic. It a road marathon going through basically featureless suburbs and then ending up in one of the ugliest downtowns of any city on the West Coast. The only nice features are the points where you go past the river, the river has nice trees.

So you ran 10 minutes faster than NYC. What was your overall time? If you ran 5 hours, 10 minutes is basically meaningless. You also ran back to back marathons, so you are introducing some weirdness to comparing them.

Anyway, we all agree that NYC is a slower course than CIM. Congrats on that, you managed to correctly state the obvious.

Wolf's Bane wrote:

CIM is for people looking for a fast time, not for people looking to share stories on instagram.

What do stories on IG have to do anything? Are people running world marathon majors for IG? "I didn't want to run the marathon but I thought it would look cool on IG." Uh....OK, is you say so.

If you needed a BQ or OTQ, fine. But bragging about a CIM time is something silly enough it should only be an IG story.

Drainthefecesswamp wrote:

So you ran 10 minutes faster than NYC. What was your overall time? If you ran 5 hours, 10 minutes is basically meaningless. You also ran back to back marathons, so you are introducing some weirdness to comparing them.

Anyway, we all agree that NYC is a slower course than CIM. Congrats on that, you managed to correctly state the obvious.

3:05 -> 2:55. Probably took a BQ spot away from someone who actually deserves it.

Definitely not the equivalent of a flat course.

fractiouskat wrote:

Wolf's Bane wrote:

CIM is for people looking for a fast time, not for people looking to share stories on instagram.

You clowns looking for 'scenery' Go take a walk around a national park. Crowd support, medals ... whatever. CIM is for racers.

How about just doing loops in the sewer? Won't be crowded there. But sure, ugly courses are for races brah

Just Average wrote:

Drainthefecesswamp wrote:

So you ran 10 minutes faster than NYC. What was your overall time? If you ran 5 hours, 10 minutes is basically meaningless. You also ran back to back marathons, so you are introducing some weirdness to comparing them.

Anyway, we all agree that NYC is a slower course than CIM. Congrats on that, you managed to correctly state the obvious.

3:05 -> 2:55. Probably took a BQ spot away from someone who actually deserves it.

Definitely not the equivalent of a flat course.

Nice humblebrag, but 2:55 is still lousy.

Lebowski666 wrote:

Just Average wrote:

3:05 -> 2:55. Probably took a BQ spot away from someone who actually deserves it.

Definitely not the equivalent of a flat course.

Nice humblebrag, but 2:55 is still lousy.

Lol. Classic Letsrun poster.

Q: What was your time?

A: 2:55

Q: OMG THATS SO SLOW WHY ARE YOU BRAGGING ABOUT THAT TIME???

Uh, I didn't. He asked.

My point was not fast I am but how absurdly fast the course is. Glad you're paying close attention to what this thread is about.

Apples to Apples wrote:

When I ran CIM my GPS said the grade adjusted pace would have been 17 seconds slower than a perfectly flat course.

Oh come on. That's ridiculous.

CIM drops 340 feet from start to finish. That's a 340 foot drop!!! And the hills are hardly anything.

CIM is much FASTER than a perfectly flat course, for example like the Chicago Marathon.

But if you don't train for the downhills, you're screwed.

Here's the map and course profile.

http://assets.ngin.com/attachments/document/0013/2670/CIMmapcolorwrelay.pdf

dunes runner wrote:

Apples to Apples wrote:

When I ran CIM my GPS said the grade adjusted pace would have been 17 seconds slower than a perfectly flat course.

Oh come on. That's ridiculous.

CIM drops 340 feet from start to finish. That's a 340 foot drop!!! And the hills are hardly anything.

CIM is much FASTER than a perfectly flat course, for example like the Chicago Marathon.

But if you don't train for the downhills, you're screwed.

Exactly. I've run Chicago 4x, CIM is way faster IMHO.

Just Average wrote:

Drainthefecesswamp wrote:

So you ran 10 minutes faster than NYC. What was your overall time? If you ran 5 hours, 10 minutes is basically meaningless. You also ran back to back marathons, so you are introducing some weirdness to comparing them.

Anyway, we all agree that NYC is a slower course than CIM. Congrats on that, you managed to correctly state the obvious.

3:05 -> 2:55. Probably took a BQ spot away from someone who actually deserves it.

Definitely not the equivalent of a flat course.

Not sure how your times are indicative of CIM being a "joke course"? I thought NY was 6 minutes slower than a flat course like Chicago (adjusting for your pace). So you were in 2:59 shape and managed a 2:55. 4 miutes? What a joke!

kmaclam wrote:

Just Average wrote:

3:05 -> 2:55. Probably took a BQ spot away from someone who actually deserves it.

Definitely not the equivalent of a flat course.

Not sure how your times are indicative of CIM being a "joke course"? I thought NY was 6 minutes slower than a flat course like Chicago (adjusting for your pace). So you were in 2:59 shape and managed a 2:55. 4 miutes? What a joke!

A 10 min marathon drop in 5 weeks. Does that sound normal to you? Improving your marathon time by 10 min in a month? I negative split NY so it wasn't like I bombed that race.

A 10 min diff year-to-year-- yes, nothing. But in a back-to-back? Come on. CIM is the Vaporflys of marathon courses. The fact that it's ugly, understaffed and overcrowded doesn't help.

I ran today. I did ok. Undertrained, but was able to execute a good race for my fitness. The uphills did get to me after the 15k. I live in Flatland, USA.

The course was boring. Pretty boring. Crowd support was ok, but that has nothing to do with the race.

Mango nuun? Yuck. Idk who’s idea it was to have mango nuun? I almost vomited. I ended up sticking with water.

Post race was def a snooze fest. It didn’t seem very “cool.” Expo was ok. I was satisfied, but there’s major room for improvement. I’ve been to much worse expos.

I’m happy with my experience. I would not run the course again, though. I can’t give a strong answer on the whether it’s fast. The hills zapped my legs, but I was able to hang on. So maybe it’s fast, maybe it’s not. Depends on your training.

I’m sure this is just my experience, but the runners themselves seemed boring. I was trying to be jovial, crack some jokes, have a good time , but everyone had their serious face on. Bunch of party poopers.

It sounds like you used New York as a training run if you were able to come back and run another marathon five weeks later. And the logistics of NYC is a lot more stressful while the race is insanely crowded as well.

And with runners over three hours, sometimes they read an article in Runners World about how smelling peppermint makes them go faster or they had a pretty dope playlist while listening to their AfterShokz headphones.

But every course and race is different. I had a friend race CIM last year (which had better weather) and run nearly three minutes faster on a flat course this year, running an OTQ.

Another friend ran CIM two years ago, was beaten up by the hills and has run seven minutes faster on a flat marathon since then (down to 2:20).

Instead of flying to marathon all over the country, try spending some of your cash on Prozac.