Change of course -- Go! St. Louis Marathon update

They changed the course of this year's Go! St. Louis Half Marathon & Marathon. They're doing major construction on 40/64 (St. Louisans called Interstate 64 "40", I don't like it) and that seems to alter the course somehow. I don't know how since we weren't running on the interstate at all. But the good news is that the course doesn't meander through Forest Park as much. There's a lot of hills in der dat Park. But once we leave the Forest Park is where another big hill comes in. When I ran the half marathon in November, we ran into Forest Park and then back out on the same road as the one in the marathon so I know what to expect all ready. A nice long gradual hill. F-U-N!


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In fact, here's the elevation chart that I also got from mapmyrun.com. It's doesn't seem that bad except for that one long gradual hill. There's even a 2% grade uphill followed by a 2% downhill when we start running back towards Forest Park.

click to see bigger! you MUST click on this. INSANE!

I also downloaded a file from the mapmyrun.com/Google Maps version of this route that allows me to open it up in Goggle Earth. What a program that is! Anyway, I turned on the 3D buildings and of course downtown St. Louis is full of them and it even shows the Arch in 3D. At first I was just looking at it from a complete overview. Then I zoomed in and moved the "camera" to give me a better view of the Arch & buildings from the start of the race. I've seen on other sites, where you can do a fly-over of other marathon routes. I tried creating it but I wasn't very good at the turns. And you'll have to download the file and open it up in Google Maps to see the flyover. So I'm not going to post it. (click to see these bigger in a new window)

The start of the race heading towards downtown & the Arch! The Drury Inn at the bottom right is where I'm staying at the night before. Gonna be nice to be within a 15 minute walk of the start & end!

The entrance into Forest Park. My Mom's hospital is one of those buildings right north of the route.

The Finish Line. YAY! You can see the rest of the route in red in the far back.

I booked a hotel a while ago just in case (not soon enough, the 2nd to last one available!). My friend lives in Ballwin (about 35 minutes from downtown St. Louis) and said that we won't need to stay at a hotel. But the race starts at 7am. That means we would have to leave at 5:45 to get a parking spot (where ever that would be) deal with traffic & road closures. I just didn't want to take the chance. It's expensive and all I got was 1 King sized bed but I think being able to walk out the hotel at 6:30a have a 0.7 mile jog (to warm up the system) or a 14 minute walk, will be FANTASIC! We can leave the car there since I'll be done by 11:30a. I'm going to talk to the Hotel people beforehand to see if we can have a late check-out and I can shower or something.

What I have noticed on the Course Map provided by Go! St. Louis is that it doesn't mention any water stations and/or gel stations on the map. How can they not prepare us for that? I did find information on the website about how there's 10 medical stations but no mention of how many water/Gatorade stations. So I left a message on the Facebook Fan Page (they have been really good at getting back to those that leave questions on their wall) asking about this. I received a comment back saying:

"There are 17 fluid stations along the course - at approximately 2 mile intervals until mile 18, and then every mile thereafter. Stations will serve Gatorade Endurance Formula and water. The gel will be Hammer Gel, and it will be available near miles 14 and 23 (23 is mile 10 on the half marathon course)." (they've now updated their website with the updated information on aid stations)
I might bring some water with me in the race then. I made sure to drink water at every station at every mile in the Memphis Marathon but won't have the option this time around. I have ran long distance with my hydration belt but would really like to have a handheld water bottle that will lock onto my palm but since there's not a store around here that I could buy one, I won't be able to practice with it. And you never want to run a marathon with something new on race day. So I either risk it with every 2 miles until mile 18 or I take my belt. Tough choice.

Another thing that will be different with this marathon as opposed to my first, my family was along the course at 3 different spots after the start line; Mile 3, Mile 13.1 and Mile 14. This race, I only have a friend going and he'll see me at the start and maybe at the start again as I pass it again, which I think is around Mile 5.75. Then I won't have any people for me again along the course until the finish line. Apparently there are ways for spectators to get around using the MetroLink and the info is all in the Spectator Guide, available in PDF on the website but I don't know how accessible it will be. There's a stop at Forest Park but I don't have the map of St. Louis Metro compared to the St. Louis Marathon course to see how it's laid out.

Update: What was nice with the Memphis Marathon, is they offered text messaging updates for spectators to follow their runner. This marathon doesn't offer it (even though it's a lot LOT bigger). So since I have a Twitter, I signed up for TwitterFone. TwitterFone will transcribe voice into text and post it to Twitter for me and will include a link to the audio. So I will hopefully take my phone with me, phone in and let you know when I reach certain points in the race. I hope it works out. Follow me on Twitter or just check in on my Twitter webpage to follow my updates.

Also, won't have anyone running with me to help me along at a few parts like I did in the first marathon. So I'll sign up with a Pace Group and will stick very close to the Pacer. Since I don't plan on seeing anyone along the course, I won't be stopping to talk & take pictures with my family either so I won't be pausing and using up my time. The 9:44 min/mi, 4:15 marathon goal time is led by Ben, from Chicago, age 28. NICE! Sounds like a perfect match for me! I wish I was that speed. I would stick VERY CLOSE with him! ;-) Unfortunately, I think I'll go with Charles, age 51 for the 10:18 min/mi 4:30 marathon goal. :-(

The race starts at 7am so I should hopefully be done well before noon! A week before the race, the weather forecast is 62*F and isolate thunderstorms. But it's a week out, I'm not too worried about the weather yet.

So there ya have it. An update the course/race.

They also sent out an email a few weeks ago with clothes that you can buy at the Expo (besides your free shirt). I'm not really digging any of the selections; either for Men or Women. The Men's shirt is cool with the Arch but I don't like how the Women shirts says Family Fitness Weekend but the other option is just horrid. Here are a few that have an OK by me:

Categories: Go St. Louis Marathon, Google Maps, pictures