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Speaker: Speaking of preparation, let's get back to the main topic of this tape, visualization of the route. By the time you get to the park, you will have seen the course, virtually, thanks to the tour you are about to take, enough time to ease your anxiety, but it's always a good idea to scout things out in person. Try to match your memories from this video to the actual course.
If you have time for nothing else, at least study the last half mile of the course. You need to know exactly, where the finish line is. And what challenges, pitfalls and opportunities you might face during the final meters of the race. No whining afterwards that some runner passed you because you thought that the finish line was a little farther down field. And remember to check in with your coach and teammates for any last minute thoughts, instructions, strategies and maybe a final mental run through of the course.
Here’s a map of the 5K course. We have cheated a little in talking about the Van Cortlandt course because there are actually a number of different rounds of different distances. All of them though use variations of a few basic sections included in the 5K course, just make sure you know how those sections are put together on the specific course you’ll be racing. The 5K course like all Van Cortlandt routes, starts and finishes in the section called the flat. The first mile makes a big sweep of the perimeter, then starts up the cowpath right here. The narrow twisting, underlining cowpath is about 650 meters long.
A couple of the Van Cortlandt courses take a sharp left of the cowpath to include cemetery hills, but the 5K course isn't one of them. We’ll talk about cemetery hill later on our visual tour. The top of the cowpath will take you to a bridge across to the back woods or back hills section. There’s over a mile of tricky ups and down and turns here bringing you back to the bridge. It's a little over a half mile from there to the finish, back in the flat. That’s the 5K course in a nutshell.
One bit of a strategic advice about Van, with nearly a mile of flats before the hills it's easier to get pulled into a too quick early pace. You need to get in position but overdo the early speed. Save some energy to manage the hills, and that final long homestretch. Alright, that’s the course overview. Let's go to the start and get a closer look.
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