Kenny’s Gettysburg North-South Marathon Report
Get ready. This might be a long one.
After a harsh training winter, it was finally time for the Gettysburg North-South Marathon on April 27. The race was fairly small; there were 465 finishers this year. Over a hilly course, each runner chooses a “side” to be on (North versus South). The top male and female times for each side are added, and each member of the winning side gets a mug (spoiler alert: the North won).
I had done the best that I could with my training this winter, and I felt that this race would be my first legit shot at a sub-2:30 marathon. Fitness-wise, I felt that I was there. However, the nature of the course would definitely present a challenge. Here is a link to the map. The course generally ascends early in the race, reaches its highest point soon after 7 miles, ascends once more before mile 11, then descends for the majority of the second half of the race.
I always try to have a few goals going into a big race. My top goal for this one, if everything went perfectly, was to run under 2:30. This would be a stretch, so my next goal was at least to PR, which meant running faster than 2:35:30. I felt that this would definitely be doable, but in case something went horribly wrong on the course, my final goal was to be faster than 2:40. This would at least convince me that my time under 2:40 from last year was not a fluke.
Read the rest at https://sciencerunrepeat.blogspot.com/