Taking those ‘hill’ run chances

The Thanksgiving Holiday is past and if a person ate more than a normal meal those extra pounds have now settled in for the long haul. For runners this usually is not a problem because they run those extra second helpings of food off on a daily run. I remember being at gatherings of holiday celebrations with a group of runners and was always amazed how these ‘skinny’ runners could eat all that was on their plate. The one incident that I recall is at the Houston Marathon and lining up for the pasta supper that the organizers had before the race. The favored woman runner was Patty Catalano and she was in front of Ros Hill and me. We thought we would see what she ate and follow her plan. After her second or third helping of spaghetti we gave up. She beat us by a number of minutes so it must have been those extra helpings of pasta that did it for her.

The Jingle Bell 5K is next weekend and will be a good start to running off those extra pounds you put on this week. This race is probably the largest and one of the most popular runs in San Marcos. The fact that it is part of the Sights and Sounds celebration is a good draw for runners to enter. It is fun to look back many years when Darrell Rhodes talked the San Marcos telephone company into sponsoring the race. We held it at the Courthouse Square and followed most of what is the present course. Between the festivities and the number of runners in costumes it is a good run to take off extra calories.

The one comment I am seeing on social media circles is runners talking about the hill on Endicot Street. The race is considered a flat course except for that one short, but steep, hill about a half mile from the finish. When the race was at the Courthouse the race was a certified distance and used for almost all the races in San Marcos. When the start and finish was moved to the entrance of the Sights and Sounds we needed to re-measure the course to make it accurate. Instead of running the entire length of San Antonio Street we turned at Bishop Street. Needing a little extra distance David Alexander and I added the hill at Endicot and turned right to Scott Street and back to the original course.

When runners talk about the race and they mention the “hill” every runner knows what they are talking about. I am not always at that intersection but I am guessing there are a number of runners when first seeing that steep uphill and looking ahead one block and seeing the runners just a short distance away decide to bypass the hill and continue on straight. It only takes one runner to continue on the straight and level course to entice a few other runners to follow them. The volunteers at that intersection will do their best to turn the runners toward the ‘hill’ but there will always be a few that opt for a flat run.

When I started seeing the comments about the “hill” I started to think of other races that had a “hill” that every runner knew about. The Decker Challenge had a long hill on the backside of the course and when runners talked about the hill we all knew which hill they were talking about. We used the Double Decker (running the course twice) for a pre-marathon training run of 22 miles. I used to tell runners that if they could do the Double Decker there wasn’t any marathon they couldn’t finish because of that hill challenge. It was a great training run for the runners that were planning on running the Boston Marathon and its famous “Heartbreak Hill.” When runners mention ‘Heartbreak Hill’ they all know what race and hill they are talking about.

For the Better Half Marathon here in San Marcos starting at the Tanger Outlet Center when runners mentioned the ‘hill’ everyone knew they were referring to that long hill on Center Point Road that seemed to go on forever. The one part that made that hill famous was the length of the hill and the fact that after reaching what a runner thought was the crest of the hill there was one more short hill to run before the course leveled out again.

While that hill was the most talked about of the course, the one that I seemed to have trouble with was on Old Bastrop Highway heading back to the starting line. It wasn’t a hill so to speak but more of a subtle gradual uphill. The fact that it was several miles of gradual uphill that seemed to take most of a runner’s energy.

The best part of the hills on the Better Half Marathon was the last mile is a nice downhill a runner could use to look good at the finish.

It seems some runs are known more for the “hill” on the course than any part of the rest of the race.