Welcome back to my series of daily posts providing insights to how to run the Crim 10 Mile course. Each day is a new mile. Today is Mile 5, and the first of the famed Bradley Hills! These series of hills are probably second only to the Boston Marathon’s heartbreak hill. Like heartbreak, these series of hill truly test the runners fitness for the race and often are a decisive factor in how each runner performs at Crim.

Each hill is not all that difficult for even the average runner, but the secret to the Bradleys’ is that they do not really allow a runner to recover before the next hill. Hopefully, my brief narrative will help you the runner.

Mile 5 

You are now moving thru a little better area of Flint, not only for the houses but also for the welcomed shade. Most of mile 5 is downhill and meanders thru several streets. Despite the Bradley’s that lay ahead, this is not any time to slow to rest for them!  Keep the faith and keep running hard. To help you keep that faith, there is a gospel choir as you make your right turn onto Sunset before heading to Bradley!  Somehow this group is very appropriately placed J

Up next, the Bradleys’!  You can’t miss them. First, you will undoubtedly overhear other experienced runners talk about the Bradleys’ as you approach them. Second and impossible to miss is the giant blue entry balloon gate. The Crim tracks runners for 1 mile of the Bradley neighborhood. Next, one quick left turn and before you know it you are facing the first of three rolling hills.

The first is actually the toughest, in part because to the uninitiated you mentally break down thinking they all are this bad!  Not really, stay to the left side of the road and use the people cheering you on as motivation, remember the arm and upper body action, keep your head up, and visualize flattening those hills with each foot strike. Pretend your legs and feet are a steam roller rolling down the size of each hill.

As you reach the peak of the first hill you may think, is that it? For it seems like just as soon as you hit the first hill you are headed down and to the actual 5 mile mark.  Congrats you are halfway home!

Thanks again for following my posts. Tomorrow, the balance of the Bradleys’ and what faces the runners afterward!
Coach Lee