Objective: endurance, with hills. Weather: mid 40's to 50's F during course of run, mostly clear and calm A lovely morning, with just enough clouds to keep me from whining about the sunshine as much as I do the rain. I like that middle ground; a few drops -- of rain or sunlight -- are just fine with me. On runs which go over 20 miles, there is always a great debate in my mind about Where To Go. I prefer not to repeat a lot of terrain, and I usually end up doing a bunch of loops, like a four leaf clover, around the central area of my neighborhood. Each loop is anywhere from 3 to 5 miles long. But today, I decided to act on an idea I've had for a while. I had already covered the Heights and Palisades neighborhoods and the retail area when I decided to go... (cue dramatic music)... Down The Parkway. Snoqualmie Parkway is a curvy, 2 mile hill leading to the older, flatter part of town. I often go up the Parkway in the other direction, but not for so much distance. The advantage of going down to the old part of town is that 1) it's different from my usual routine, 2) it's nice to see what it would be like to live and run in a flat neighborhood, and 3) it adds a nice chunk of mileage (total round trip for that section of the run today was ~8 miles). Those are nice benefits, but ah, the costs! The Parkway descent/ascent varies between a 3% and a 12% percent grade, with the steepest at the top 1/2 mile. Going down thrashed me, and coming back up thrashed me again. I'm sure it builds character and all, but the work-to-fun ratio was way out of balance. At the top of the hill, I still had another five miles to run and they were painfully slow. No negative split today. I have to conclude that, on the whole, the Parkway is not worthwhile in a super-long run. Maybe in 15 miler though...
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