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Downhill running/racing

831 views 5 replies 4 participants last post by  PacerChris 
#1 ·
My training group is targeting the Steamtown Marathon in October. The course touts a net downhill course with a significant elevation loss early in the race. <a href="http://www.steamtownmarathon.com/course_info_main.php" target="_blank">Links to elevation profile here.</a><br><br>
Can anyone with downhill marathon experience provide training tips/ideas to prepare to race this course? All but one member of our group has run Boston in the past, so we have a general idea. It just appears that Steamtown's initial miles are a steeper and longer decent than Boston.<br><br>
Thanks in advance.
 
#2 ·
meh, the course is not that bad, not nearly as bad as people make it out to be. I would suggest hill repeats with an emphasis on alternating between hard up/easy down and easy up/hard down.
 
#4 ·
unfortunatly i had food poisoning and dropped right past 20 miles <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.kickrunners.com/forum/images/smilies/sad.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="Sad"> it was terrible. However, prior to feeling like i was gonna die, i ran a very fast race. There is a lot of downhill in the first part of the race, but also a good amount of up as well. it is net downhill though. Pocono is similar in the profile, and i have run that twice. I was soooo fast in my half at Steamtown, by A LOT. I forget details because it was a few years ago, but i was shocked i was running so fast. I think with a lot of practice on up and down hill running, with an emphasis on running the downs hard, you and your friends should be fine.
 
#5 ·
Roots:<br><br>
I have not run this race but I have a cabin in the area and run a lot there, and have run parts of the course. I would echo what merigayle said. I don't think (compared to the general hilliness of the area) that the course is all that steep. If you normally run flat, it will seem hilly.<br><br>
The only really dramatic part to me is the first few miles out of forrest city - not like you are falling off a cliff, but you probably want to to be a little careful not to go shooting off for miles 3,4,5. Otherwise I don't think the hilliness is all that, but I do run a lot of hills.<br><br>
I believe Andy Haas over on CR ran very well there last year (2:30s?). He would probably have some good insights on the course. If I remember his comments after the race last year it was something along the lines of don't go out too fast and it wasn't as much of a help as he had thought it might be.
 
#6 ·
I ran St. George last year and there were some sharp downhills in the middle of the race...I tried to lean forward a bit to keep my feet underneath my body and also made sure my leg wasn't fully extended (so my knee had a little bend to it and could absorb some of the impact) so I wasn't putting a strain on my knees and quads. I was still pretty sore given that I was only pacing.<br><br>
For Boston, my buddies and I practiced on hills, going hard both up & down. Not so much pushing the pace on the downhills, but keeping the turnover high and getting used to the pounding. It helped tremendously - I was barely sore after Boston at all this year despite running a good time, and I was able to pace a marathon 5 days later.
 
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