The Hills

My half marathon experience still lingers in the back of my mind...I did so many things wrong at that race...no iPod, no gels or blox, cotton shirt (last minute wardrobe emergency).

Oh, and not to mention the intense and unexpected HEAT.

Since then I've been training in the heat and been smart about my race fueling.

I've also worked the hills like crazy!

Here's the elevation map for my 15 miler:



All of my "long" runs (8+) are based on this route. FLAT is not a term in my training repertoire.

Which is good, when you consider THIS:

Hatfield/McCoy Elevation

Kentucky Derby Festival Elevation

Behold, dear bloggies! The Hatfield/McCoy Marathon elevation map on top, KDF Marathon with the park hills on bottom for a little compare and contrast.

I didn't have the privilege of running the second set of park hills at the KDF (I was a left-turner)...and I'm glad I didn't have to do that.

But hey, let's focus on the race at hand...check out Blackberry Mountain at mile 4-7!

This is one of the staples of this race and I will treat it with the utmost respect. Not gonna mess around with that monster...it's like a seismic blip!

(But word on the street is the little roller at mile 23 is the real killer)

Goody, goody!