Liftoff

Summit Ave. is tougher than it appears...mostly due to its location. It can be conquered. Hope your weather this year is better than the two times I have run this race.

Good luck! Keep up the good training.

Jeff, one question I'd ask - from the elevation chart it looks like the climb is over by mile 23.5, but I've seen a lot of race reports that describe the climb as continuing almost to the end. What's your take?

The climb pretty much goes all the way up the Cathedral of Saint Paul. There is some areas that flatten out a bit, but the climb is long. The last 0.5M from the cathedral to the finish line is a fast downhill though!

That profile does seem deceiving. I sometimes Google Map and "walk" around but that tends to be deceiving as well since you can't really judge grades unless they are quite steep.

I found the following. I doubt it will tell you much but it does show a well run race slightly faster than your goal pace and how this fella tackled the harder late miles (he ran around 6:00-6:05 and 5:48 overall). As I ran my cursor over the late miles it seems the elevation jumps up and down around 915-930 feet

https://www.strava.com/activities/210892923/overview

Thanks Jason - that's extremely helpful! A lot to take away there. That guy did run an excellent race - very much in line with the approach I'm hoping to be able to bring. At least one paper, the hill in mile 2-3 is not much steeper than the hill at mile 21, but it seems like most people blow through the early hill like it's nothing. It seems like it will be important to get to mile 20 with a good reserve in the tank, and then just concede some pace from 20-23. Hopefully get back on pace for the final ~5k like that guy did. Sounds so easy from an armchair!