Forums >Racing>Midwesterner Racing at Elevation?
Are we there, yet?
Great idea! I just ran the Mount Desert Island Marathon in Maine to celebrate my 70th birthday. As for concerns about altitude, I missed a cutoff and DNFed the HURL Elkhorn 50K in Montana earlier this year in my first attempt at racing at altitude. However it was more the combination of vertical gain, roughly 8000 ft in 50K, and altitude (5000 - 8000 ft) after training at 200 ft elevation that did me in. Take away the vertical gain and I don't think I would have had any problems. I was fine on the flatter shortcut to get back to the finish.
2024 Races:
03/09 - Livingston Oval Ultra 6-Hour, 22.88 miles
05/11 - D3 50K 05/25 - What the Duck 12-Hour
06/17 - 6 Days in the Dome 12-Hour.
This might help.
http://www.runningintheusa.com/Race/MapShot.aspx?Rank=Month&Month=8&Special=marathon&Region=&Page=2
Anyone that says it won't affect your running hasn't spent much time at altitude, or gone from sea level to altitude and raced.
The net downhill will be in your favor because flats and downhill offset the altitude. However you will feel it if you have any hills, even a slight uphill grade will slow you down more than at sea level, you just have to ease up a bit through those parts.
Expect to be 10 to 20 seconds per mile slower, depending on your marathon pace, overall fitness, and course profile.
Arriving 3-4 days ahead is actually the worst timing you can have. Either get there the day before, or 5-7 days out. That 2-4 days is when you will feel it the most.
Stay hydrated.
Arriving 3-4 days ahead is actually the worst timing you can have. Either get there the day before, or 5-7 days out. That 2-4 days is when you will feel it the most. Stay hydrated.
Everyone is different by I've found my sweet spot to be 1-3 days before a race at altitude.
This is not enough time to acclimate (I read it can take weeks to fully acclimate) but rather gives me a window before my body kicks into acclimatization overdrive.
"Famous last words" ~Bhearn
Yeah, I made several trips from sea level to Leadville this summer. I learned all about the "3-4 days is the worst" rule and the science (or at least science-y sounding logic) behind it. So I tried not to do that. I got there right before my adventure. And it sucked. Which was also my experience last summer at the Leadville 100.And then, on one trip, I happened to get there exactly 3 days before. I felt much better.So I basically repeated that for the next trip... arrived 4 days before. Felt good.My personal conclusion is that isn't as simple as "right before or two weeks out" and I had zero issues in the supposed bad time. Basically, it was much simpler. I felt the worst the first day, and it got better from there. Not linearly better, but better.
Interesting observations.