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Jul 2013
4:11pm, 22 Jul 2013
3,668 posts
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HermanBloom
Was on the Barnes Green half site just now, as it's my next race and I'm all excited even though it's two months away. Anyway they had the entire route to watch on Youtube if you wanted.
I like surprises. Even bloody great hills, occasionally, so for a first-time race I don't think I'd ever want to look at the route beforehand. Except maybe knowing if it was flat, or mad hilly. I guess if you were treating it as a PB race and did way more sessions/miles than me, knowing what was coming would give you an advantage in terms of pacing etc?
Obviously for some races it's very difficult to run the route beforehand, but say it was one fairly local to you so you could pop along and do it as a training run. Would you make the effort to do so? Avoid it like the plague until ace day? Something else?
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Jul 2013
4:14pm, 22 Jul 2013
2,170 posts
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Dooogs
Very good question - the next race I'm entered in runs past our cul de sac so I've run nearly every bit of it already. I think for a first race, I like the security of knowing the route intimately but once I've popped my racing cherry, I can see the attraction of trying an unknown course.
I am turning into a bit of a mapping tragic, though - my list of manually plotted routes is already cluttering up my routes page on here, and they're just the local ones... 
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Jul 2013
4:15pm, 22 Jul 2013
10,893 posts
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What The Actual Fleecy
Interesting question, I never have in the past, but I have found repeating races easier second time round, and a local 10k felt much easier as it was mostly on many of my normal training routes.
I think I'm probably too lazy to do so, but if you're looking for a good time I'm sure it would help.
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Jul 2013
4:17pm, 22 Jul 2013
2,172 posts
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Dooogs
As a side note, one thing I've really enjoyed about training over the last 9 months has been getting to know the local landscape and how the villages and countryside mesh into one another - it's probably less exciting if you've been in the same place for 20 years and know it backwards already (or if you live in a shithole )...
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Jul 2013
4:19pm, 22 Jul 2013
23,260 posts
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Frobester
I definitely check out the elevation, and look at a plan view on an OS map to see the proportion of roady stuff to offroady stuff (despite what the organisers may say, a lot of races throw in bits of road on an "offroad" race, or offroady bits on a road race. I also look at what might be pinch points.
If it's local I'll go and have a look, but if it involves driving there twice just to do a recce before the race, I'll not do that.
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Jul 2013
4:23pm, 22 Jul 2013
10,897 posts
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What The Actual Fleecy
That's not true, Doooooooogs, I've lived here 15 years and found lots of interesting places round here only since I started running
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Jul 2013
4:24pm, 22 Jul 2013
4,900 posts
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rf_fozzy
I usually like to know the route before I do a race or at least have some idea of where the hills etc are.
With road races, unless it's a target race, it's less critical, but knowing where to push, how to pace it is always helpful.
Trail races is usually a good idea again to have some idea of the route, and I wouldn't do a trail race without seeing a map of the route beforehand, but it's unlikely I'd reccie it unless I lived nearby.
Fell races, I reccie if I can or if I really need to - some you can get away with not recceing as you can follow, or it's mostly marked, but others require a reccie. I'd never do a fell race without seeing the race map or carrying it with me, unless it's a short race and I am very sure of the route (i.e. I've done it before or reccied it) - for most races, FRA rules mean you have to have a race map anyway. I am getting more confident at being able navigated fell races though, because I do a lot of orienteering.
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Jul 2013
4:30pm, 22 Jul 2013
1,091 posts
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Nelly
I find when aiming for a PB it is a lot easier on a route you are familiar with, whether that be from racing it previously or running the route in training.
Last year I ran 20miles of the Greater Manchester Marathon route as a training run, but that was mainly because the route passed within 200m of my front door, and the 20mile was a very convenient loop. The previous year I drove 15-20 miles on consecutive weekends to run the first/second halves of an off-road marathon, but that was because I didn't want to get lost in the race.
It is worth noting, however, that your memory of a previous race route can be distorted. For example, despite having raced the same route about 3-4 times I was surprised during my HM PB this spring how short and shallow the "hill" at 10miles was
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Jul 2013
4:37pm, 22 Jul 2013
6,377 posts
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Derby Tup
We're doing the Lakes 100 at the weekend and I haven't really looked at any of it. It's very rare I do
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Jul 2013
4:42pm, 22 Jul 2013
11,292 posts
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runner duck
i like to look at the course map and profile and then promptly forget everything except if it's pancake flat or mountainous!
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