Run 18 – Loop-the-Loop. 29/06/2019.
Is there really a hometown advantage? And are familiar courses an advantage because you have run them before? I decided to test this. Elsternwick Park is only 500m from my house and with a running track that is 1.5km, it would require 13 and a half laps to do my half marathon.
With each lap I run it would become more familiar and therefore I would get faster.
The theory held up for the first 12 km (8 laps) but then something happened, I got tired. Then I got bored, and then I got slower. Seems the more familiar I got towards the end, the more tired I got and my ability to keep speeding up disappeared. Myth busted – more familiar doesn’t make you faster.
I also noticed that the one small incline on the course seemed to get bigger and steeper towards the back end of the run. This must have been as a result of the earthquake last week and a delayed shift in the tectonic plates during the run. That makes sense.
The thing about running multiple laps is that not much happens of interest. I nearly tripped over a dog at one stage – that was it. But I did notice another metric on my watch – turns out to be heart rate. Feels like an opportunity to see if there is a link between heart rate and running. Will keep an eye on this over the coming runs. Ran a respectable 1:45:54 with maximum heart rate of 163 (for what it is worth).
My Three Learnings
Multiple short laps might make you familiar but it doesn’t make you faster.
Dog parks are not an ideal additional to a half marathon course.
Seismic activity can make hills steeper and longer.