I decided on the 5k at the Blythewood Labor Day race tomorrow, and I wanted a short, easy day today to keep the rust off. I am very familiar with the 10k route, as my training group did it a million times last year prepping for the Richmond Marathon. That preview: constant rolling hills. The 5k route had some familiar parts but had a section I’d never run before.

The start is pretty far back on Longtown road east, at the first school speed limit sign coming out of the longtown loop. First quarter mile is almost flat on Longtown Road East, parallel to Blythewood middle. Then follows a turn on to Rimer Pond Rd for the next 0.75 miles, which is a slight incline, but not significant enough to slow you down too much. First mile mark is almost at the right hand turn onto Adams Rd, which contains the only real hills on the course. There’s a quick up and down hill in the first .25 of the second mile. At 1.33 there’s crazy road sign #1, Gurganious St, which is the cue for the pretty nasty quarter mile hill on Adams Rd. Finally levels out at crazy road sign #2, Lois Lookout Rd, around 1.53 miles. I kept looking for the right turn to Langford Rd after this, but there’s a fakeout intersection at Allen Kelly Ct. The eventual turn on to Langford is about 1.7 miles or so, and continues briefly on a flat stretch of Langford for about a quarter mile. Mile marker 2 is just before the right turn on to Trading Post. Trading Post Rd is mostly flat to a slight decline, which goes more downhill towards the end of the roughly 0.8 miles. Warning to Diesel, at 2.5 miles you will get barked at by Cujo and his vicious looking friend. Turn right onto Round Top Church Rd at 2.81 miles, and time for a blue shoes style kick. There’s a slight rise on the stretch of Round Top, which crosses over Rimer Pond again and takes you back to the parking lot of Blythewood Middle for the finish.

In all, a pretty PR friendly course. Just plan for the brutal Mt Gurganious-Lois Lookout. After that its all flat to downhill. For those that did the 5k course here last year, this new course is much easier.

Here’s the Garmin data , for Trophy to mock my blazing speed:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/111827657