It's over, man. Let her go.

It's good that you can practice the course beforehand. Now you can strategercize. I recommend holding back so you have enough to finish the hard on the hill.

Good idea to practice the hills - that uphill finish sounds nasty. I learned that lesson late, I think. Like yesterday.

Yep, I think holding back will be the tough part, especially with a mile of downhill before it. I need to do some consistent hill work so I'll be strong enough to attack at the end.

The last 5K I ran the road in the last mile dipped under a cross street, then back up to level, then slight uphill to the finish. It was brutal, I am no good at hills.

Hey Flat - yeah, that would be brutal. The 10k I did last weekend had an uphill from the street below to the bridge, but then it was a downhill to the island, then a slight incline back to the walking bridge, then downhill on the walking bridge which was a 3-4 turn switchback to the trail. I was happier when I was on the flat...

The funny thing is that I have much better form when I'm going up an incline. I tend to pull the arms in a little tighter and use them more, I focus better, and I'm obviously lifting my knees higher, extending more, and pulling through the entire stroke to push off. I've thought of hopping on a treadmill, setting it to some high incline and a reasonable speed, and just running a few mile long "hill" to try and train my body to run that form all the time. Even when I'm "running," I look like I'm walking - I don't have high-ish knees, I don't kick my feet up at the end of the stroke, the wind isn't blowing my hair back. I can only really fix the first two, so I'll focus on those. I know that sprinters have that type of form, but that's not really what I'm talking about. If I watch guys that are running sub-6:00 pace, they definitely look like they're running by those distinguishing characteristics.

I have a high enough cadence (80-90/min) usually, so I really need to get comfortable with, and train at a longer stride, still landing mid-foot, though. When I try and increase the stride, I tend to tire real quickly and I'm thinking that this may be because the muscle groups that I use when I run with a longer stride are slightly different from the ones that have been strengthened by my normal running stride.

I may have to search the forum to see if there's a similar question...I'm just rambling and avoiding getting started on my work... lol