Today, I was going to be in Syracuse anyway, so I planned to head to Green Lakes State Park and check out the course. I've been to Green Lakes a few times before. This is a pictures from Google Earth of the area and the course. (via gleruns.org)
The race starts at the end of the long lake and goes down the bottom. The trail around both lakes is packed earth with some finely ground lose gravel. It's shaded and beautiful. The lakes really are green and crystal clear. As you get toward the far side of the round lake you hit a wooded section with some more technical trail and some climbing. Once you get out into the open areas, the trail is a single worn track into a wider mowed grassy trail. There are some sections that dart back into the woods for a bit, which is nice to break up the time in the direct sun. It is a pretty mild trail course without a lot of elevation, so I think it's a really good choice for my first ultra. I'm pretty confident that I can at least finish, and that's all I'm going for. (Which is actually bullshit, I really want to hit 5 1/2 hours.)
This is the elevation profile.
I've been putting in a lot of pavement miles, since I have to drive a bit in order to get to an area with more than 5 or 6 miles of trails. So I hadn't really given much thought to trail shoes. I've been running in Brooks Cascadias, but those runs have been pretty short. Once I put a few longer runs in with those shoes, I realized I was in trouble. They were feeling tight, giving me hot spots on the bottoms of my feet and rubbing on my smallest two toes on my left foot. So I've been on the search, but haven't had a lot of luck. I tried Eastern Mountain Sports and Dicks Sporting goods in my town. EMS had nothing in my size and Dicks had no trail shoes at all. My next stop was the local running store. They had a variety of models, but nothing in stock in my size. I tried on a bunch of shoes, but they were all mens models. I ended up ordering a pair of Altra Superiors, but looking back I don't think I'm going to like them as much as I thought I would. So today I tried some stores in Syracuse and ended up getting Salomon Shifts and Saucony Excursion7s. They both felt comfy and roomy as I walked around, so we'll see how the hold up tomorrow.
I have been playing around with a pair of New Balance Minimus, but I'm not sure if I'm cut out to run in a minimal shoe. For pavement I've been wearing Brooks Ravenna 4s and Brooks Pure Cadence 2s. I started with the Pure Cadence after my knee injury and a few rest weeks in January. I really like them, but I don't get many miles on them before my legs start feeling shot on 8-12 miles. So I've been rotating them depending on my mood and the run I have planned. I really haven't found a favorite shoe yet, though I like both Brooks Shoes better than the Asics 2100s that I used to run in.
Tomorrow I have planned 3 hours of trails. I'm going to split the run in half and switch shoes so I can try both pairs out.
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