Psalm 91:1 NKJV He who dwells in the secret place

Kory, you will love the course in San Jose as it is as flat a course as you will ever run. I ran the first Silicon Valley Marathon in 1997. It was my first marathon ever. I was 50 years old. I worked at 2700 North 1st street, which is right on the marathon route. Our lunchtime runs were on the marathon course, which gave me a bunch of confidence as I ran my first marathon in 3:37:37.

Of course the race starts in downtown San Jose and basically runs north out through the streets past many of the big high tech company names that you will recognize. Then it hooks around some of the neighborhoods and finally returns down 1st Street to the finish line. It is all very flat with one or two small rises over highway overpasses. Lots of opportunities to pee along the route next to highway columns or bushes. If you like a gentle downhill, sort of, the last few miles are basically gently downhill as you go south on 1st street to the finish line.

You are going to blast this course!!!

Thank you that really really helps. Does the course have a lot of turns in it.

Does this elevation map seem accurate to you for the course.

http://www.svmarathon.com/index2005a.html?marathon.html

I appreciate your wonderful info.

Kory, thanks for the link to the marathon. I can see by the description that they have taken the course in the other direction south through San Jose, and Campbell and Los Gatos and back to San Jose. When I ran it the course went north. Interesting.

Looking at the elevation map it looks like a very slight uphill to the half way mark and then slight downhill for the 2nd half of the race.

Back in 1996 I ran a 4.2 mile race from Saratoga to Las Gatos averaging a 6:18 pace, my fastest race of my life. You are going to smoke this course.

As far as hotels go, if you are anywhere near the light rail in San Jose, you can take the light rail right to the start line.

Paul Ivory,

Thanks again. Do you know looking at the elevation and since you know the area is the first Half have any big hills that I need to worry about. Sometimes the elevation maps are not correct. Also is the downhill second half truly a noticeable downhill? Sorry for the questions but I would really like to do well.

Kory, I do not recall any significant hill on that end of the valley. I did a look at the marathon route via the marathon web page: http://www.svmarathon.com/downloads/Lookout%20Areas.pdf

And I also looked at the street map via the link:

http://maps.live.com/?vendor=google&match_type={ifsearch:search}{ifcontent:content}&pkw=satellite_maps#JnE9eXAuUGFyaytBdmVudWUrYW5kK0FsbWFkZW4rQmx2ZCUyYytTYW4rSm9zZSUyYytDYSU3ZXNzdC4wJTdlcGcuMSZiYj0zOC4yNDY4MDg3NjAxNzQ1JTdlLTEyMC4yMjMzODg2NzE4NzUlN2UzNi40NTIyMTc2OTY0MzU3JTdlLTEyMy41ODUyMDUwNzgxMjU=

And I also launched Google Earth and zoomed in on the San Jose landscape and down Highway 17 to Las Gatos. With all 3 of those links working you can actually get a visual look at the landscape of the route. I just do not see any hill on the route.

Good luck and God bless your effort.