 posted Oct-09-2007 04:18 PM
   
Ran this one 10/7 My Darling Daughter is a student at MIzzou so I drove down there on Saturday and "Crashed at her pad" We ran it together.Race started at 8:00 you were supposed to get chipped at 7:00. This part was well organized and went smoothly. Miles 1-2 the course started with gelty rooling hills through the center of the Mizzou campus. It ran past the stadium. The leftovers from Mizzou's thrashing of Nebraska (ended at Midnight) were strewn everywhere. Tail gate Trash and a few tail gaters. It was a nice warm up felt on track. Mile 3 The course than left the pavement and went on a bycyle trail. that switch backed down to the grindstone creek valley. I am guessing about a 75-100 ft elevation drop. Once again nice scenery and good trail. Mile 4 was an uphill run through a neighborhood probaly about 75 feet gain also the first challenging uphill. The course than spends from mile 4- 7 along a major road with rolling hills generally trending up. I call this sort of terrain in Mo "steps" you run up a little than down a little than up again with the crests going higher each time. 7-10 The course than departs the pavement again and goes into the Grindstone Nature area on well maintained gravel trails. First you lose the elevation gained and end up in the Grindstone Valley again. There is a fair amount of flat and you run in wooded shady ares crossing several old bridges. Nicest part of the course. Mile 10 -11 goes back to the mile three course and switchbacks back up the hill. I deem this to be the most challenging part of the course based on it's placement late in the race. Mile 12 to finish. Back through campus. The tail gate trash is being cleaned up and Tail gaters are showing signs of life. Before the finish line the race detours to the center of the Mizzou campas going by "The Pillars" a nice touch. I finished with a time of around 2 hours 22min which was what I expected to finish at. This is the first Time I have raced since 2003 and since than I have run inconsistently and really started on the come back trail in July. So I view the race as a major personnel accomplishment. It is also an age group PR. The race is very well organized from registration through aid stations and into the post race activities. Columbia is a great place to run. The weather was extremely hot for October Temperatures approached a daytime high record and the race was hot and sticky. I also think Pace 2 Race and Lofcaudio where there but I didn't run into them
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