Of Mice and Marathons

Good line of thinking, all around. Running in the cold is probably easier/safer than just drinking antifreeze.

But not as sweet!

At least getting used to the cold is somewhat easier than getting used to the heat, and performance in the marathon shouldn't be affected as much. How cold are you talking for next weekend?

It's between a cold front and a warm front. Lower 30s but possibly higher depending on whether the low is in the morning or at night. It's going to be lows in the twenties this week. 35-45 is perfect for me.

Cold is much easier to get used to.

If you get a day around 40, that's perfect. Right now it looks ideal.

Looks like 34 degrees for the low on Saturday (hopefully the low occurs at night). Otherwise it's going to be too warm already at the start line (50).

Supposed to be rainy and upper 50s for the high, but I think that means the low of 50 will be later in the day because a warm front is coming through early in the week.

I guess 50-55 wouldn't be terrible, but I sweat a lot and still have a far amount of insulation despite running 70+ over the year with many weeks 80-93

50 isn't bad... that's what Chicago was... but there's a reason every WR (and most of the top times in general) have been run ~40 degrees. Hopefully you get that low in the 30s. Philly still starts early (7am if I remember), correct?

Yes. Too early :-), but I think the temps should be perfect. I hope.

Any course tips? I know the course fairly well, actually better than I know the Monumental, which is strange because I've run it twice and this is my first time on this course (run parts of it though in the half). But I'm always shopping for advice.

I don't remember it super well, but I think miles 7-10 (or maybe 8-10) were a little hillier than anticipated. But that was still early enough in the race to have the legs to press through and not lose much time in that section. In hindsight, it might have been smarter to take that section a little easier and be certain your legs are there in the last 5-6 miles (which, in theory, should be easy!).

Weather.gov has 36F @ 7am and 47F @ 10am, overcast skies, light winds. There should be some kind of option to "lock in" a forecast you like. I'll contact the weather gods and see if they can hold it there for you.

That's helpful. Those miles are in West Philly and they look like 7-10. I'm not great at running up hills but I have run a ton more since I moved here. At Sugarloaf I had hills at a similar point and I think there was about 300-450 feet of gain over the first 10 miles. Just tried to run by effort, which is what I will do next weekend.

I like the lock in idea. You could take a gamble and get something better if you just waited but you couldn't be certain. But I guess the course would have to have individual weather simulations for what each person locked in at. Or something.

ahh, weather stress. not a fun part about race week. i like the lock in option. even better if it was set up auction style, and the highest bidder got their favorite forecast and everyone else just had to deal. i feel like this could happen if hillary clinton were pres.

good luck this weekend. i hope the forecast goes in your favor, but even if the conditions aren't ideal, i think you're ready to battle through anything.

Thanks, Allie. As long as it isn't as warm as Boston I'll work though. Or as my Dad says, "You gotta dance with who ya brung." Grammatical headache aside, I think the advice is good. Make do with the situation, equipment, and tools (or skills) you have. Incidentally, this little bit of advice came during a particularly tough golf shot not dance chaperone advice :-)

What grammatical headache?