BALD PEAK HALF MARATHON PREVIEW

Oh wow, I have a half marathon tomorrow. Imagine that. Why haven't I been freaking out about the race and contemplating a new PR? Because there is no way in hell that is going to happen. Bald Peak is a notoriously hard half marathon and you get bragging rights for just completing it. Nobody PRs there unless it's their first ever half marathon!

It is kind of nice to be able to go into a race and not feel any pressure to hit a certain time. While I can look at the course on MapMyRun and try to visualize it all I want, I don't really know what it's going to be like until I am running it. Many times I am able to Google Street View a large portion of my races... not the case here. I'm running blind other than the knowledge I'm going to have to climb a mountain and almost half the race is on gravel.

A ton of people I know will be there so it will be fun to see them and hang out with them afterward. When you finish there is a large pancake and bacon feast, which will be an awesome and much needed reward after such a grueling race. One of my goals will be to beat my friend Glenn from running group... I think we'll have a friendly rivalry and may even run a lot of it together, but I'd like to cross the finish line before him. He's actually been practicing hills in anticipation and I have not...so we'll see how that goes, he might end up smoking me.

The race takes place in rural Washington County but thankfully is only a 25 minute drive from my house. It starts at 7:30am, which seems a little early, but I guess that makes sense given that we are almost in summer now. Almost immediately after crossing the start line you start climbing 800 feet in two miles. What an introduction. Morning mother fuckers!

Course map with elevation for funsies.

I've never done anything this hilly before. Not in a race, not in training. The closest I have come is probably the Zena Road Runs race back in January of 2013. That was a 600 foot gain over three miles. This is 800 feet over two miles. Which, if you do the maths, is twice as steep as Zena. So I am woefully unprepared for this climb. I'm usually good with hills, but this is more than a hill, this is more like a mountain. The strategy will be to take it VERY easy, 9:30-10:00/mile or so, and just slog up that hill. Twenty minutes of torture.

Once you are up the hill it looks like it stays relatively flat for three miles. I'm told not many parts are actually flat, it's a lot of gentle rolling in places, so hopefully those rollers aren't too bad. Some of this might be gravel, I'm not really sure. That will slow me down even more and I have no idea where it is. The website says six miles are gravel though. Ugh. We do get a nice downhill during mile six. I'll try to bank some time there.

After that downhill there is two miles of relatively flat, then a mile of gentle downhill, then a half mile of gentle uphill, then a mile and a half of downhill, putting us three hundred feet below where we started. After a flat mile we have to climb that final 300 feet in half a mile. In gravel. A 300 foot gain in a half mile. On gravel. Got it? It's legendary. Most everyone ends up walking.

This looks fun.

Finally it flattens out for the final twenty feet or so and you finish. Some great finish line shots are taken here (NOT!). After you catch your breath, there is plenty of pancakes and bacon for all. A pretty good deal including tech-tee for $45!

GOALS:

"A" Goal: Finish under two hours.

"B" Goal: Finish.

"C" Goal: Survive.