Austin Marathon Race Plan: Part Two

 Miles 9.75-12.5: The Dragon’s Back                                                                                          

Turning right off Lake Austin Blvd. onto Enfield, you enter the rolling portion of the course. You’re on the dragon’s back, but decide you’re in control. He’ll writhe up and down, but you’re going to hold on, maintain your form, keep your confidence, and ride the hills. Take each hill as an individual challenge –  that’ll break the run up for you, and make them go by faster. Remember, your day is going to be about winning a series of battles, and your job is to take them one at a time and win them. Don’t worry about your time here - this hilly portion is just a couple of miles out of 26.2. Don't burn yourself up now, when you could be conservative and have more in the tank later.

Over three-quarters of a mile on Enfield, you’ll get two gradual climbs, the first being the steepest, with a dip in between. This stretch only climbs a total of 60-70 feet, but it can wear on you. If the sun’s out, the middle of the pack will be running straight into it. It’s a pretty time of the morning in a nice, quiet, tree-lined neighborhood, with good crowd support.

At Exposition, 10.3 miles in, marathoners take a left, and half marathoners continue back into town. It’ll get less crowded. Run the crown of the road, away from the slopes on the sides – a good idea all day long.

On Exposition, there’s a short downhill, and a longer uphill to Windsor. There, it flattens out for a couple of blocks, before a long downhill leading into a hill that is going to look really intimidating. It is not as bad as it looks, so don’t let it shake you.  Just get up the hill, balancing your pace and your energy output. Keep your head up, and your hips pressed into the hill. Roll all the way through your foot with every stride, and keep your arms moving –your legs will follow.

When you get to the top, relax, shake it out. You’ve got a block of flat, then a downhill, and another challenging hill going up to the right turn onto 35^th. There’s an incline over the Mopac Expressway, but after that, it’s downhill to the left turn onto Jackson, and you’re through with hills for a while.

Miles 13.5-18.7: Where the Hell Am I, and What the Hell Am I Doing?

By this time, the initial excitement of the race has worn off, and you've gotten through the successive challenges of the hills. You can't lose purpose or discipline here – your priority is to get back on pace. Don’t think you’re home-free. The course is still mostly a very slight, uphill grade for the next three miles, followed by the weirdness of Great Northern Blvd. You won’t get long, significant flats or downhill slopes for another six miles. And, there's that other thing - you've got 14 miles left to run. 

So, use these next three to four miles to see how you feel getting back on and staying on your marathon goal pace. If you dropped a bit of pace in the hills, that's OK - be patient, and work on picking up just a little time on each mile until you get back to pace.

You'll turn right at 41^st for a block, then left on Bull Creek, just shy of the halfway point. All the way to Hancock, this is mostly “false flat” – it seems flat, but is really just a very slight uphill. I really advise taking a look at the course elevation map. You’ll take a right on Hancock, into a nice downhill, then a short uphill, up to the left turn onto Shoal Creek.

Shoal Creek is a pretty stretch – decide to enjoy yourself. Try to stay on the flat parts of the street, off the camber. It the sun's out, stay in the shade. Stay relaxed.

You’ll turn left on White Rock, running slightly uphill to Great Northern, where you enter what Douglas Adams might have called "the long, dark, teatime of the soul." The mile-and-a-half of dead-straight road wavers very gently, with bits of uphill so slight you’ll feel, but not see, slight difficulty. This road can be numbing, even discouraging for some people, here in the "middle miles" of the race. This is a good test of where you're at with your pace. If you hold pace well here, and you get through mile 17 and up to the turn at Foster, and still feel just outstanding, then you’re in pretty good shape.

On the other hand, you might start to doubt your ability to maintain your pace. If you’ve held on up to now, don't let Great Northern decide the rest of your race. Just hold on, and try to run comfortably – a little past 18.5 miles, the course gets noticeably easier.

If you feel things tightening up, change things up a little - butt kick lightly for a few strides, pull the knees a bit higher for a few, run slightly stiff-legged, kicking lightly out in front of you a bit.

After turning right on Foster, you should see some great crowds, and you’ll know that soon, you'll be heading home. If you're considering upping your pace a little, think back to your training runs, and ahead to the final miles, and carefully weigh your decision. If you feel like picking up the pace, do it by a reasonable increments, hold that pace up to mile 20, and reassess it then.

You’ll make a right turn onto Northcross. Across Burnet Road, the street becomes St. Joseph’s, then Morrow (don’t ask). You’re still on a slight incline, but just ahead, you’ll make a right turn back downhill towards home, and the course starts to yield up its gifts.

Austin Marathon Race Plan, Part 3