Forums >Running 101>What does 500 feet of elevation gain in four miles look like?
Did we win?
I'm training for the New River Marathon in Todd, NC in May. The map shows an elevation profile and it looks like we'll be climbing a huge mountain, beginning at mile thirteen and continuing until 17.3 miles. I'm a little concerned about it, but my math says it's only a 1.3 degree incline. What does this look like to a runner in a race? Should I worry about doing hill workouts or just improving overall endurance? Is it really almost flat?
Fortunately, the same profile shows ten miles of slight downhill before "the mountain".
Thanks,
Jim
2014 races"
Heart & Sole Half-Marathon, Goldsboro, NC, Feb.8, 2:22
Umstead Trail Marathon, Raleigh, NC, Mar. 1, 5:48
Johnston Health Champions 5K, Smithfield, NC, 26:53
Rattler Trail Half-Marathon, Sanford, NC, 2:52 (wow)
2013 races:
Heart & Sole Half-Marathon, Goldsboro, NC, Feb. 2, 1:56:40 (PR)
New River Marathon, Todd, NC, May 4, 4:59:32 (PR)
Triple Lakes Trail Race (40 mile), Greensboro, NC, Oct. 5, DNF after 31 miles in 7:48
I'm doing the half, and it doesn't look flat at all. I'm also concerned because the area where I live is flat. So my hill workouts were on a treadmill. Read the reviews at marathon guide. That should give you an idea on what to expect.
I'm training for the New River Marathon in Todd, NC in May. The map shows an elevation profile and it looks like we'll be climbing a heuge mountain, beginning at mile thirteen and continuing until 17.3 miles. I'm a little concerned about it, but my math says it's only a 1.3 degree incline. What does this look like to a runner in a race? Should I worry about doing hill workouts or just improving overall endurance? Is it really almost flat? Fortunately, the same profile shows ten miles of slight downhill before "the mountain". Thanks, Jim
I'm training for the New River Marathon in Todd, NC in May. The map shows an elevation profile and it looks like we'll be climbing a heuge mountain, beginning at mile thirteen and continuing until 17.3 miles. I'm a little concerned about it, but my math says it's only a 1.3 degree incline. What does this look like to a runner in a race? Should I worry about doing hill workouts or just improving overall endurance? Is it really almost flat?
an amazing likeness
No, not flat, that's a climb. You'll want to shorten your stride, focus on staying upright (picture a rope tied around your hips and pulling you up)and running to effort level rather than pace for that section.
Add hills to your workouts regardless. Hills are speed work in disguise.
Acceptable at a dance, invaluable in a shipwreck.
The average is only 1.3% but it looks like it gets very steep near the top from mile 15.8 to about 16.5 (over 10%). That will be a bitch of a hill after a long gradual climb to soften you up.
Have fun!
Runners run
The race is too far from me to go take a look. I'll have to find something local that is similar. I have a whole seven weeks left to get ready :-)
Good Bad & The Monkey
heh
I'm running somewhere tomorrow. It's going to be beautiful. I can't wait.
Poor baby
Read the reviews at marathon guide.
I almost wish I hadn't. Thanks for the tip, though. It helped.
The average is only 1.3% but it looks like it gets very steep near the top from mile 15.8 to about 16.5 (over 10%). That will be a bitch of a hill after a long gradual climb to soften you up. Have fun!
+1
It all comes down to how well you handle hills which is usually directly related to your training. The bright side is that it's only a short section that looks like it's about 10%.
The long gradual descent before the uphill will probably be felt as being able to go faster at the same effort than you would on flat. You may not perceive the topography by the angle of your feet. (that means, when you're going up 15% hills, your feet will be dorsiflexed when flat on the ground. When on 1% slope, you may not detect it by the amt of dorsiflexion) Again, depending upon your training, this may or may not impact your quads before you get to go up.
Enjoy!
PS: Note that there's a claimed total of about 1750ft of uphill and that much downhill.
One of the road hills I start my long runs on early in the year has about 1200ft in 3.75 mi, but it's fairly constant slope.
I'm training for the New River Marathon in Todd, NC in May. The map shows an elevation profile and it looks like we'll be climbing a huge mountain, beginning at mile thirteen and continuing until 17.3 miles. I'm a little concerned about it, but my math says it's only a 1.3 degree incline. What does this look like to a runner in a race? Should I worry about doing hill workouts or just improving overall endurance? Is it really almost flat? Fortunately, the same profile shows ten miles of slight downhill before "the mountain". Thanks, Jim
Typically, 500 feet in 4 miles is basically nothing; in the hiking world hills don't get much attention until they get to the 1,000 feet/per mile area.
As for elevation profiles, they all look scary, but that's because of something called Vertical Exaggeration. It has to be that way or you wouldn't see the inclines. Basically what that means that you can't scale inclines the same as linear distance.
For example, say you have a map that has 1 inch represent 1 mile in linear distance. That's fine for distance, but 1" cannot represent 1 mile in elevation change, it just doesn't work. So they do Vertical Exaggeration, where 1 inch may equal ~ 600 - 700 feet of elevation, depending on the exaggeration scale. So the result is a really scary looking profile. But it's almost never as bad as it looks. http://geology.isu.edu/geostac/Field_Exercise/topomaps/vert_ex.htm
Do you want a visual from the real world?
The cross slope on most roads is between 1.5 and 2 percent slope. Cross slope is the slope from the center of the road to the outside edge of the traveled lanes. .In MN, roads are designed with a 1.5% cross slope with a typical maximum super elevation slope (on high speed curves) of 6%.
The pain that hurts the worse is the imagined pain. One of the most difficult arts of racing is learning to ignore the imagined pain and just live with the present pain (which is always bearable.) - Jeff
2014 Goals:
Stay healthy
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That's onlt 120 feet gain per mile, that's no bad at all.
2017 goals:
sub 1:30 half
Tessa
Go out front and measure off 42 .25 feet of sidewalk. Make a mark at each end.
Put something that is 1 foot high at one end.
Stretch a cord, hose, whatever between the 1 foot high object and the mark 42 feet away.
That is the average slope if you're gaining 500 feet in 4 miles. (5280 feet / 125 feet)
In other words...a very gentle slope.
In general, I'd agree that 500 feet of elevation gain over 4 miles wouldn't be a very gradual incline, but looking at the profile itself, it looks like there are really 3 uphill components over that 4 mile stretch. First, there's about 150 ft gain over about 0.7 miles, then a downhill, then about 200 feet over a about 1.8 miles, and then a big pitch at the end of about 275 feet over a half mile.
So really, you have two tough climbs in there, and hillwork certainly won't hurt. I've been doing hill workouts over the past couple of months, and it's definitely helped me to get the effort right so that I'm not killing myself going up. And in the last race I did, I was passing people on the hills. :-)
Right on Hereford...
Typically, 500 feet in 4 miles is basically nothing
Hmm, it depends on how you define, "nothing." Take a look at the runworks.com calculator to see how much it would affect your pace compared to a flat course.
According to the calculator, if you can run 9:00 per mile on flat ground, or 36 minutes for four miles, adding 500 feet of elevation gain in that same distance will slow you down to 10:23 per mile, adding a total of 5.5 minutes. Sounds like "something" to me!
[...] I was passing people on the hills. :-)
I always pass people up hills. Of course, they're the slow people anyway, and most of them catch back up later...