Dilworth Four Miler Recon

Time: 35:04
Distance: 5.00 miles
Pace: 7:00
Map

I did a little recon this afternoon over the Dilworth 4 Miler course. I had heard the first mile was all up hill so I wanted to check it out for myself. The study of the race map must not have been good enough as right out of the gate I made a wrong turn. Take a look at the map to see how I turned left onto Ideal Way instead of running through the first intersection. Thus, my 4 mile recon mission turned into a 5 mile sweatfest.

The first mile was predominantly uphill like everyone had told me. It's not steep, just long. There is also a decent downhill and uphill on Lyndhurst which is a slight detour from year's prior. The construction on Euclid forced the alteration to the course. I found the stretch along East to be ridiculously long. It kept going forever before hooking a right on Charlotte. The good news is once back in the neighborhood it's shaded. However, it's also a slight uphill on Worthington and another fight up the hill on Lyndhurst before racing to the finish. I haven't been running downhill portions too well this summer and I hope to get back some time the final 1,000m of the race which is essentially all downhill. I think my left hamstring is a little tight which keeps me from really opening up during the descent.

I ran some strides near the start/finish line with flats on to wake up the legs and get them ready to run hard in the morning. I had dreams of running close to 19:00 on the course before previewing it. Now I'll back off to a goal of 19:30. I know the fitness is there to run 4:52 pace, now I just have to go out and do it.