Run for the Diamonds Preview

We are camping somewhat close to Berwick, so I decided to do my long run on the Run for the Diamonds course.  This is my favorite race ever.  I ran it back in 1999.  The course is tough, the crowds are great and the weather is unpredictable.  I signed up to run it last year, but wasn’t healthy enough to do so.

Berwick was actually farther away than I thought.  It took me almost an hour to get there from Hickory Run State Park.  It was still closer than the two hours that it is away from home.  I’d like to get there again before the Thanksgiving Day race, but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to.

When I woke up, it was cloudy and freezing cold.  I was in no rush to get running.  That is for sure.  I considered running in long sleeves and I brought one of those shirts along.  By the time I got there, it was actually getting quite warm.  It was sunny out now, but there was still a strong breeze.

I wore a singlet and knew that would be an excellent choice.  The temperature wasn’t high, but it was very humid.  I first toured the course in our SUV.  I almost didn’t run this 9 mile loop because it seemed dangerous.  I decided that I didn’t want to drive all the way back and then run, so I headed off.

I parked a few blocks from the start and began my warmup.  The course is 9 miles in length.  I’m cutting back this week, so the plan was for 11 miles.  That made for a mile warmup and a mile cooldown.

I ran around Front Street.  The town is into high school football and that was evident with all the streamers throughout town.  I saw that stadium and it looked neat.  When I got to the start line of the race course, I was only about .4 miles into the run.  I had to add some length to get to the start.

South of the town is the Susquehanna River.  There was a pedestrian walkway next to the road bridge over it.  I ran a short out and back along there.  A woman was walking with her kid and he stepped in my path right as I was about to pass.  I avoided him though.  I came back and was at the start of the race course.

The first mile is on Market Street.  I watched some video of the start to figure out exactly where the race begins.  I took off at Front and Market.  Even though the road is wide, it was busy on a Saturday morning.  Therefore, I ran on the sidewalk.  I don’t like the unevenness of sidewalks, but it would have to do.

This course has a brutal climb, but at least it starts with a mile of flat before that.  It makes for a nice warmup.  I was already quite hot in this first mile of the course (2^nd mile overall).  I went along at a comfortable pace on Summer Hill Road/Foundryville Road.  I was wearing my minimal shoes.  I was a little unsure if that was a good choice since I don’t run on road in them much.  They did work out though.

Normally when you run on roads, you should face traffic.  On steep climbs, I usually like to run on whichever side is going uphill.  Today, I just ran with the side of the road that had more of a shoulder.  In the beginning of the hill, that was the right side of the road.  Up most of the hill, I ran on the left side.

The second mile of the race course is a gradual incline.  This wasn’t too bad and I still moved along.  Things really got tough at Mile 3.  That’s when the big climbing begins.  It is far from the steepest climb that I’ve ever run, but it is very long.  One nice thing is that the course is still marked at each mile.  My GPS was quite accurate throughout the run.  At most, it was off by .02 miles.  That’s not much of a difference.

The climb isn’t straight up, so you can’t quite tell how much longer you have.  I was only going uphill for about half a mile and I was already thinking that I wanted to quit or turn around and go back down the hill.  Having run the race before, I knew it wouldn’t be too long until I was at the top.

A dog barked at me, but luckily didn’t chase me.  The hill was tough enough; I didn’t need an animal to speed me up.  I thought getting up to Summer Hill would be a relief, but that wasn’t quite the top.  The main beef of the climb was this 2 mile section.

One nice thing is that around the 4 mile marking on the course is fresh pavement.  Up to this point, the shoulder was decent and so was the road.  The paved section made it better.  The course seemed to flatten out and drop at this point.  I thought the worst of the climbing might be over.

After speedy drop, it was back to climbing again.  This wasn’t anywhere near as bad as the earlier climb, but it was still difficult.  Slowly, the hills were taking their toll on me.

There is another wonderful drop before turning onto Kachinka Hollow Road.  There were some spectacular views of the surrounding mountains in this section.  Turning onto Kachinka Hollow Road was depressing because it involved more climbing.  It was another gradual climb through farmland. 

It was out in the open and fairly hot.  That’s one thing that sucked about this course.  There wasn’t a lot of shade.  That won’t be as big of a deal in November as it was today.

Kachinka Hollow Road was hairy because it had no shoulder.  I had to just run along the road.  I didn’t have any close calls, but a lot of cars had to slow and go around me.  One of them was a cop.  I was about 5 miles into the route and it was finally time to cruise downhill.  Earlier in the run, I questioned why I wanted to do such a crazy race.  Flying downhill after a tough climb makes it all worth it though.

At one point while I was going downhill, I ran by two women running.  They were going the wrong way on the road.  It made for tricky passing as a car was coming.  When I was driving the course, I saw a women running uphill and three guys running and a woman on a bike near the end.  I’m guessing a lot of locals run the course throughout the year.  It makes for a nice loop.

Of course any time I thought it was all downhill, I’d come across another uphill.  This happened just before I turned onto Martzville Road.  That was with about 2 miles left on the course.  It was so much fun watching my pace drop and drop and drop.  I was going easy, but putting in miles well under an 8 minute pace.  I think at the top of the hill, my pace was something around 8:38.  By the end of the run, my pace went all the way down to 8:14.

Martzville Road is fast and mostly downhill.  I cruised by a huge house with giant “S” signs everywhere.  I saw somewhere that it said Sophie and there was a race car there too.  I’ll have to look into what that was.  There was a golf course on the opposite side of the road too.

I had to move out of the way for a couple on bikes coming my way.  I ran in the grass briefly though as I was now in a residential area.  A few people were walking their dogs or by themselves along this road.  It was odd because there weren’t any sidewalks.

Martzville Road flattens out at the bottom.  It is funny because I was so used to the downhill, that this seemed hard.  It isn’t like I was climbing or anything.

Most of the final mile is on Market Street.  That was difficult running on sidewalks again.  I was also feeling beat.  I still put in a decent mile.  It was good to be done with the course without running too hard.

The cooldown mile was brutal.  I was so beat.  It was humid and I was chafing.  I ran what seemed like a slow pace and it felt like it took forever.  I ran to my car and did an out and back from there.  I still had over half a mile left when I got to my car.  Even though it felt slow, the mile was still 9 minutes flat.  Eventually I was done and very happy.  I stretched and walked to the store to grab a Gatorade.

I was quite impressed with my time considering that I didn’t push and that the weather wasn’t the best.  Of course on race day the weather might be terrible for other reasons.  I ran the course part of this run in 1:13:17.  That comes out to an 8:08 pace.  My slowest mile was 9:14 and my fastest was 7:33.  My time when I ran it back in ’99 was 101:13.  My training is better now that I was then, but I also had more natural speed when I was 19.  For the race, I’d love to go under a 7 minute pace.  That would be 1:03.  That could be tough.  I’d like to at least break 1:05.

I’ve been on flat rail trails a lot lately.  That’s good since my half marathon is on that terrain.  However, this race is only a few weeks later.  I definitely need to start sprinkling in some more hill training.  Maybe I’ll do a hill week, where I run uphill for three straight days.  I should do hill repeats sometime.  The best place for me to simulate race conditions is South Mountain near Lehigh.  That elevation gain is about the same.  The tough part is that that is shorter, but steeper.  This run for the Diamonds course is more gradual.  Maybe I can find somewhere else to run around there.

I can’t say enough about this Run for the Diamonds race.  When I ran back in 1999, I felt miserable and struggled up the hill.  I got a side sticker part way up.  It was cold and rainy.  I wanted to quit, but I pushed through and flew through the last half.  It was my toughest race to that point and I persevered. 

The crowd support and history of this race is what makes it very unique.  They have run it over 100 times.  It began in 1908 and is one of the oldest races in the country.  Back in the early years, the best marathoners in the world would show up.  Many Olympians and Boston Marathon winners were there.  It was quite the spectacle.  The crowd used to bet on who would win.  It is now just a big regional event.  It doesn’t have the prize money that would attract the professional runners.  That is too bad.  It would be cool if some big names showed up every now and then just because of the history.

What else makes this race so cool is how old school it is.  The entry fee is still only $25.  It is a hidden secret in running.  Even with that cheap of a price, it still only gets a couple thousand people.  That’s a perfect size for me.  Big city races are so overrated.  There isn’t even any online registration.  It is all still done by mail.  I hope things just continue this way for a long time.  If it does, I will be there almost every Thanksgiving Day.  I can’t wait to finally make it back.

Tomorrow will be my usual weekly off day.  Then it is back to running a regular week.  I’d like to either do hill repeats or a tempo run on Monday.  I haven’t done either in a while.  I’m looking to put in 50 miles this week, with a long run of 16 miles.  I asked Flo if she is interested in doing a night run this week.  That would be fun.  Either way I’m looking forward to continuing my improvement and hopefully enjoying some more fall weather.  I also need to start searching for a job soon.  I need some income and my health now seems good. 

11 miles – 1:31:24 (8:19 pace)