Want to
know what others have said about the Hershey course? Thanks to our twitter
followers, we got some solid feedback from runners/coaches who shared the
following quotes with the site. If you have thoughts of your own, feel free to
comment them and continue the discussion!
“In my opinion, the new state course
is much more manageable than the old one. You go through almost all of the hills
(excluding poop out) in the first 2.5k and then have mostly flat. Also, doing
the Alohas backwards makes them much less steep and breaks up a few. There are
some pretty crazy steep down hills though. Also, the added 1200mish loop at the
end was pretty muddy which slowed things down a little bit.”
“So the start is the same but you
go into the Aloha hills at about the 3/4 mile mark. You do aloha hills
BACKWARDS (much easier) and then go down to poop out like you normally would.
When you get to the bottom of poop out you are at about the 2.2 mile mark. You
bang a left and go do a loop in the flat field and come back to finish up poop out.
The first mile hill is totally cut off. In my opinion the course is 15-20
seconds faster for the top guys. The course gets the hills done early so I
guess it is up to the type of runner you are to see if that plays to your
advantage.”
“As a coach, it was easier to get
around and catch the finish. First two miles are still tough, but that last one
is fast. It was honestly the most I was able to catch of a Hershey meet ever as
a coach.”
“Still sucks … but seriously it’s
certainly faster. The uphills are longer but flatter and the downs are steeper.
Also having the alohas earlier in the course makes them more doable. Last mile
is fast as mentioned.”
The new Hershey course is about 10 seconds faster than the old one, tops, in my opinion. I'm not a fan of this course, in fact, I do not like it at all. Other than the initial run across the field at the gun, there are not many places to make moves within a pack in the first 3/4 mile, when the pack is the tightest. No long wide field before the 1600 mark like on the old course. Also not a fan of the netting on the ground before the hairpin curve at about the 3/4mile mark (very dangerous to the runners), nor a fan of the hairpin curve and the tight bridge span that comes right after it. In a word, I think the new course is "inappropriate" - it is not a good fair course for an important championship event like state finals. I hope the PIAA moves it to Big Spring or some other course that allows for stronger moves by runners at most places on the course, especially early in the race.
ReplyDeleteI noticed the issue of sharp curves and tight bridges as well. This makes racing extremely difficult (especially the bridge). I am not sure if they should change the location of the course, but maybe they can do something about widening the bridge?
DeleteAlso will there be a "part 2" for this weeks analysis?
The old course was absolutely awful for spectators. There was no way to get out on the course at all and still see the finish. At a place like Lehigh you can easily catch the start, the one mile, the two mile and the finish area. Unfortunately it's on the eastern side of the state so not ideal location for a state championship
DeleteThere's still enough land there at Hershey to make it a fair course without dangerous turns. The Hershey location is prime for the state championship. Not sure why its so hard to layout the course.
Penn state.
DeleteFYI, the Part 2 is up. I posted it a couple days back, but hid it from the front page to keep our discussion going strong there. You can see every post that goes up by clicking the side bar archive of posts and keep up with all the coverage across the site.
DeleteMy first prediction of the year: Etrain hits 600,000 views over Paul Short weekend.
ReplyDelete- JEB