With one less week before the Governors Cup Half Marathon comes a second installment of the long weekend run. This week we’re up to an 8 mile distance over the weekend to keep up with the training plan posted on the Pre-Blast. The route we’ve proposed is the other half of the Governors Cup race route from this past weekend. Instead of doing the lollipop midsection of the Half Marathon course, we’re headed downtown to close out the race at the Horseshoe and then start it up again a block away on Gervais.
The map below should give you the route and distance but take a moment to also compare it to the entire Governors Cup course as the intent is to make you familiar with the course and its challenges. You can see both through mapmyrun.com by clicking on either the 8 mile course or the total 13.1 mile course.
From Dreher High School, cross Devine into Shandon and turn right on Wheat Street. Zigzag up King Street back to Devine and then head down through five points, up Blossom turning right up the brutal climb on Sumter Street. Put it in gear up that hill as it’s the race finale. Our training run, though, is only halfway through so keep going on to Gervais and turn right back toward Forest Acres. Take Gervais all the way to a right hand turn onto Millwood and on to Maple Street. Turn Right on Maple to the left turn on Duncan Street. Finally, to round out the eight mile distance, run to Kilbourne and turn left, cross Devine and turn left again on Deveraux, on to Adger and finally wrap up the run in front of Hollywood Squares back at DHS.
One change of plans: it appears Saturday was best for the majority of people and so we’re only going to coordinate the DHS convergence Saturday morning. Last week it sounds like most pax hit it hard and wrapped up the 7 mile distance with time to spare. As such, sticking with the 6:45 launch time should be alright but feel free to get there early if you’re concerned about the time. I anticipate running an 8:20-ish pace which should put me, personally, back at DHS 5 to 10 minutes before the bootcamp wraps up. If you’re running over an 9 minute pace you’ll be cutting it close to be back at 8:00 am for the COT and BOM.
Last, take your hydration and calorie intake seriously. Starting either next week or the following we’ll begin putting a water station out near the midpoint of the run. If you need water in the midst of an 8 mile run, take it with you or hide a disposable water bottle along the route where you can grab it along the way. The disclaimer applies to these runs too… but we don’t want to need it. Know your own body and take care of it.
Aye!