Course Reconnaissance

Today was a full off day. Legs felt great, but I'm still suffering a bit from a mild cedar pollen allergy (I think that's what it is). Some minor throat irritation and some sneezing, but nothing more than that. I spent today eating and drinking as I plan to do in February for Freescale (full out marathon dress rehearsal), and took a drive of the Buda 30k course.

The course isn't as fearsome as I remembered, but there's certainly a degree of difficulty to it due to its length and the rolling hills. There's a lot of spots in the last 5-7 miles where there's extended inclines, some milder than others, but a steady climbing profile heading back to the stadium for the big finish. I noted the places where I can recover a bit from the climbing spots, and eagle-eyed the mile marker locations (spray painted on the roadside) for future reference on Sunday. The course is pretty generous to about the 6 mile mark, with just a couple of uphill bumps, and then you climb out of the lowest spot on the course over a nasty little 3 part climb past a cemetery. After the mile 7 mark, we get a pretty mild section to around the 10 mile mark, followed by a downhill section to the most distant spot on the course. After that (around mile 11), we climb for a mile out of a neighborhood (multi-part climb), and then the course flattens to about 13.5 miles. After that, it's a series of uphill bits alternating with flats and a very few downhill bits. The biggest hills are between the mile 16 and 17 markers, a double decker hill with a short downhill spot in between. Then, you turn for home on a rolling mile 18. The last 3/4 of a mile is pretty much dead flat, so if we have anything left by then, it'll be a good stretch to pick it up.

It was a trip to get down to Buda and do the course drive, but knowing where the recovery opportunities are will help on Sunday. The weather looks to be almost perfect, between mid-30's to mid-40's, moderate wind out of the north (which would be at our backs for the final stretch). Race goals will be published tomorrow, but I'm confident of a PR at least.