Five Mile Challenge Course Description

M
other Nature and The NYC Parks Department have bestowed a beautiful park and racecourse to the runners of Queens, New York. The course is well maintained and it features the historic Vanderbilt Motor Parkway. From dawn until dusk runners, walkers, families and children can be found using this beautiful park. The scenery is fantastic and you forget that you are in one of the boroughs of New York City. The course is well shaded by tall overhanging trees. Hurricane Sandy created a lot of damage to the park. Along the course you will see many downed trees. These trees will soon be replaced.

The 5 Mile course challenges the mind as well as the body. The strategy to run a good race requires patience and not to be over aggressive. The race starts on ...the Vanderbilt Motor Parkway, near the finish line. This is a new course which has added more hills and removed any long, flat stretches.

The race begins uphill for the first quarter of a mile. You go under the Grand Central Parkway and when you get almost to the top you make a right turn into the upper park. The next quarter of a mile you are still running uphill. Once you reach the top you will be running down towards the baseball fields. Follow the race guides and the arrows on the road. It gets a little tricky here. A left turn and you are heading into Mile 2.

The 2nd mile is full of rolling hills working its way downward. This area has a scenic view with lots of trees that shade the course. You run around the baseball fields and head towards the Three Sisters. The Three Sisters are a set of three consecutive hills, with the first being the most challenging. You make a left turn and head towards a small loop. You complete the loop and head back towards the Vanderbilt Motor Parkway. Follow the green line on the road. You make a right onto the Vanderbilt Motor Parkway and you have a 1.2 mile run to the turnaround. The Vanderbilt Motor Parkway is well shaded and will protect you from the sun and heat.

The 3rd mile is the easiest and the most misleading of the course. It's mostly downhill and straight. You can spend precious energy by picking up too much speed and not saving energy for the same hill on the way back.

As soon as you get to the turnaround, you must run back up the hill you just enjoyed going down. You have 1.5 miles to the finish line. This is the only serious uphill, but it happens to be in the 4th mile when you are tiring. Once you get past this hill it's all downhill from there. The hill is pretty tough. The last twenty yards seem to do the most damage. The top of the hill is Bell Blvd.

The 5th mile is all downhill and allows you to pick up time that you lost elsewhere. There is no uphill and almost no flat surface. You can let it all out and empty out your reserved energy. It's all downhill with some slight turns and is well shaded. Knowing that the end is upon you will make it an easy kick to the finish line.

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