Jamie Fargen's Weblog

Even though this was my third 5k this year, it was the most difficult to complete. There were two reasons, first I didn’t feel great, the second reason was the bridge. This race starts by climbing the bridge which is listed as 74 feet clearance above the waterway, this means the decks is probably 86 feet at it’s peak. This was a huge shock to a Florida boy, 5k’s are suppose to be flat. So you climb this bridge almost immediately, you go up a cork screw, which I think lessens the gradient a bit in the beginning, then once on the bridge you continue upward, here the pack was pretty tight and people didn’t start spreading out until we started going down the bridge, you finally get to start coasting down the bridge, and the next 1.5 miles is a flat stretch along the causeway. Then you turn around and make a 1.5 mile return along the causeway back to the bridge. You must climb the bridge again, the second time was of course much harder, fighting a strong wind (it had been storming most of the day, but cleared shortly before the race). After cresting the bridge for the second time it was all down hill, back down through the corkscrew and then 150 meters or so to the finish line. All in all due to the elevation change, which I had never experienced in a race, this event was extremely difficult. My rank was 47 out of 62, the bottom 25%, hopefully after dropping some pounds I can at least make my way into the 50th percentile.

http://www.coolrunning.com/results/14/fl/Mar29_Capito_set2.shtml