A week to go to the Borneo International Marathon 2014 (BIM), and I'm sure most of the participants are eagerly waiting for the day. Most of you would have done your final LSD either yesterday or today, and will probably just run very short distances in the coming days in the countdown to the race.
Several weeks ago, I posted the route description of the full marathon category (42.2km) of the event in this blog. A visitor to this blog had been searching for more information about the course profile but couldn't find any until he stumbled upon the said article.
I had of course my Garmin Forerunner 910XT when I ran the full marathon last year, but those who know me well would know that I'm an idiot when it comes to modern technology—I didn't know how to upload the data from my Garmin to the net. Well, OK, I will admit it; actually, I've never really tried hard enough to figure out how to do it. Perhaps the manufacturer should consider coming up with something in the order of a "Garmin User Manual For Idiots". I'm sure it would be very helpful for people like me.
Anyway, yesterday I finally took the trouble to learn how to do it; and you'd be surprised to know that I managed to figure it out after all, and all on my own too! After I have uploaded my data onto an online account, I spent a few more minutes to figure out how to sort them out.
Well, to make the long story short, I have done some customization, e.g. changing the units to the metric system etc, singled out the elevation profile for the full marathon in BIM, and then saved it to be posted here. It's all done within a few minutes, but it's a huge achievement for an idiot like me!
Those of you who're running the full marathon in BIM for the first time, you'll be happy to note that it's generally a flat course except for a couple of hills. As implied in my previous posting, the most challenging hills will be those around the midway of the race, and those are within the Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) loop. Looking at the elevation profile above can be quite intimidating as it gives an impression of very sharp climbs and sudden descents. But actually the climbs and descents are quite gradual, though still a challenge for those who're not used to running hills.
Please bear in mind that there will be a very minor change to the full marathon route this year, but you will not escape those hills within the UMS loop. Neither will it be any different in terms of when you will get to those hills during the race—they remain more or less around midway through the race.
Having said that, however, I want to clarify that I'm posting this strictly on my own accord, and any inaccuracy—which shouldn't be significant, if any—is solely on me. The above elevation profile has not been endorsed by the organiser. But you can take it from me; for all intent and purposes, it is at least 95% accurate by my estimate. By all means, you can use the above to formulate your racing strategy.
Once again, good luck and all the best!
2 comments:
Perspective is everything. This comparison of two race profiles always makes me chuckle.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mkzTKw_GaX0/T51czSl2S3I/AAAAAAAABHc/6fuXhDAJzWg/s1600/western+states+versus+boston.jpg
Eric, it's rather amusing when you come to think of the Boston Marathon. It's so hard to qualify to join the race. Yet whatever achievement from the race is not even recognized for the purpose of records. I think there was once when the fastest marathon was run there, but that was not taken as the world record because there's a net loss of elevation of the course. It's such an irony, because for people like me, I doubt that I can ever qualify for the race!
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