Friday, April 12, 2013

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes...

I woke up this morning to an announcement by the Pocono Marathon Committee that the course has changed. Completely.  Apparantly, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation has decided to take a bridge out at the mile 19 mark...a location that does not have a detour available to it so the whole course has been changed.

This is the new course elevation:

the red line is the new, the blue the old
As can be expected, the facebook page is filling up with a fair amount of runner freakout. We are obsessive folks, I'll grant you that...but really, those people that are complaining about it being too hilly and a quadbuster are nuts...did they think the original elevation wwas going to be a walk in the park??? No, it is not a flat and fast course.  So what, I like flying down hills & if I have to walk up a hill towards the end, so be it.  This whining struck me as the difference between trail runners & road runners.  You don't hear much whining about hills/mountains/terrain at all during a trail race.  Heck, plenty of runners LIKE hills!

We are 5 weeks out from the race. I am impressed the organizers have been able to revamp the whole thing & are classy enough to offer deferrals to those that just don't want to run it now.

My hats off to them.

I'm told it's still a scenic course...which is important to me...plus hey, if I get tired, maybe I can just lay down and roll a couple miles ;)

Hope it's a fraction of this scenic....Thing 1 & 2 of his buddies running the beach in Costa Rica last week...a classmate took 3 pictures and blended them...she calls it 'Ghost Runner'.  Thing 1 is the 'Ghost'...
Don't you think this is 'Rave Run' worthy????








7 comments:

Michelle @ www.movinitwithmichelle.com said...

Yikes!!! You will rock it!

Rachelle Q said...

I love the idea of rolling down a few hills;) Love the last pic!

Frickin' Fabulous at 40 said...

I probably would be oblivious to any course changes. Not obsessive yet!

Suz and Allan said...

I never look at a course map before I run a race so I wouldn't care one way or the other but I've got friends that have the course elevation and turns mapped out in their head long before race day and they would freak.

Ransick said...

The RD must have been freaking out about the late change. I agree it's cool they are allowing people to defer if they want. Good luck at the race in a few weeks!

Jamie said...

You're still going to do great! I wouldn't be too worried, just take the challenges as they come!

Coy Martinez said...

To me, that chart looks kinda fun! :)