Lung Strong 15k Course Preview

With the Lung Strong 15k, the last race on the RFYL GP Series for '09, slated for this coming weekend. It is time for my final course preview of the year.

For those of you that are not aware, the Lung Strong 15k will be using a different course from last year when it finished at Michael Waltrip's Race World. Instead, this year the course will be starting and finishing in the parking lot near the Harris Teeter just off of Jetton Road. This is the same course that has been used in the years previous to last year.

As a course refresher, a few of us went out this past Saturday morning and did a couple of loops on the course.

In short, don't look for a PR on this course because it is not a PR course.

At best, the course can be considered rolling.

In the first mile, you have a long downhill which is followed a long uphill. Crossing the Jetton Rd, you will make a loop through Jetton Park before continuing out Jetton Road. After making a left John Connor Rd, there a number of neighbor loops and turns after which you will pickup Jetton Rd again and head back to the finish.

The first 6 miles are very much rolling, but after 6 you are going to feel like the last 5k is almost all of uphill and it pretty much is. Because the course is a key design, the 7 mile starts with an uphill pitch and gets steeper as you near the 7 mile. Miles 8 is rolling and mile 9 comes back up the hill in front of the Harris Teeter which makes the finish doubly tough.

As far as tips and notes about the course, if you are strength runner and love hills, you will be in your element on this course. Also if you are directionally challenged, I would suggest checking out the course map beforehand. During our pre run of the course, we noticed that there were no arrows on the road. I have an email out to RFYL with asking about arrows along the course and will post their response.

-btw my warm up will start at 7:05 for a couple of easy miles if anyone is interested in joining me. The warm up will begin at the starting line. Also, my plans are for a few miles of warm down afterwards if anyone is interested.

 

Best of luck to all racing this weekend,

 

Tales from the Road