Ancient Oaks training run

[Matt Mahoney]

After the Chain of Lakes 5K, Jeff Gleacher and I ran about 10 miles on the Ancient Oaks 100 course at the Enchanted Forest. We wanted to try out the new course and see how it compared with the old one. Previously we ran 29 laps of a 3.495 mile loop. The new course was supposed to 37 laps of a 2.75 mile loop according to the map on the race website at http://www.fleastcoastrunners.com/Races-Ancient_Oaks.html

But now that I look at the map, it has been changed again. A few days ago the map showed a straight line from the paved entrance road going east on the Tortoise trail to the start of the Magnolia loop. That is how we ran it. Now the map shows that we leave the trail to go south on the ridge trail to the coquina quarry and back. The website says this is now 30 loops of 3.416 miles. Well, I am not so sure. The original course differed from this in that at the corner where we turn right from the ridge trail onto the tortoise trail, we used to go straight north to the first intersection with the biodiversity loop, left to the visitors center, north on the (concrete) enchanted crossing, east on the northern biodiversity loop, then south on the mesic trail to intersect the tortoise trail, then resume the course as shown. So all of this adds 0.079 miles (417 feet)? I don't think so.

But anyway, our lap times are as follows:

Lap 1: 3.495 mile loop in 30 minutes, including 1.5 minutes for a wrong turn. (Instead of turning right at the start of the magnolia loop, I turned left until I saw the boardwalk, then turned around).

Lap 2: 2 minute rest, 2.75 miles in 19 minutes and a few seconds (7:00/mile).

Lap 3: 7 minute rest, 3.495 miles in 28:36 (8:10/mile).

Jeff and I are pretty evenly matched for speed. We both ran the Chain of Lakes 5K at 8 AM, then drove to the Enchanted Forest right after the awards and started our run about 10:30 AM. Jeff ran 19:53 in the 5K. I ran 20:03. The temperature was about 70 F for the 5K and high 70's for our training run.

The new course has less soft sand, so maybe we did run 7 minute miles. It felt like it. It would be nice to maintain this pace. 100 miles at 7:00/mile is 11:40, about 12 minutes off the world record (which was run on a track). At least the first 95 miles would be in daylight. Even 8:10/mile (13:36) would be nice.

Monica Scholz has the course record at 19:19 in 2005. Her first few laps were around 37 minutes. In 2007, Joe Ninke won in 21:06 after running the first 2 laps in 38 and 40 minutes. Last year David James ran the first few laps in 31 minutes and won in 20:42. This was his first 100 mile race. I ran with him for the first lap and advised him (as a sage, experienced ultrarunner) that if he could hold this pace as long as he could, then he could win. Silly me to think that it would actually work.

-- Matt Mahoney, matma...@yahoo.com

[Jim Schroeder]

It seems The AO 100 course has settled out ... guess we should be spending a few Sunday mornings up there now ... hmmmm, but come to think of it I'm pacing marathons 11/129 and 12/6 so we're out of Sundays already! :(

BTW, Melton finished the Ragnar 203 miler solo in 79:31 ... pretty amazing.

http://blogs.tcpalm.com/treasure_coast_running/2009/11/mike-melton-finishes-2031-mile-ragnar-relay-solo.html

Jim

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"If you're not living on the Edge, you're taking up too much space."

[Matt Mahoney]

I don't think it's settled yet. I carried a GPS dongle on the AO100 course. The 3.495 mile loop came out to 3.199 miles, and the 2.75 mile loop came out to 2.215 miles. I know the long loop is accurate because Stu Gleman measured it with a wheel. GPS rounds off all the little turns. But I would expect the 2.75 mile loop to be closer to 2.5 in that case. I don't believe we ran loop 2 at a faster pace than loops 1 or 3.

The new route is advertised at 3.416 miles but that is clearly wrong. I checked the out and back to coquina quarry (instead of going straight east on the tortoise trail) and it add 0.3 miles on http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/ . The route is advertised as only 0.079 miles shorter than the old loop that went back to the visitors center, but it looks more like a mile shorter.

I wrote to Stu Gleman and Mike Melton about it yesterday. I'll understand if Mike doesn't get to it for a few days.

 

-- Matt Mahoney, matma...@yahoo.com

---

From: Jim Schroeder <jameses...@gmail.com>
To: wickham-pa...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Mon, November 23, 2009 10:01:47 AM
Subject: [Wickham Park Marathon] Re: Ancient Oaks training run