In this article, we take a look at a second possible alternate course for the current state meet venue.
Once again, this alternate course assumes that it is desirable to remove the big hill from the state meet course. Click here to download a larger image of this alternate course.
This configuration would set a start line just south and west of the community garden site at Bear Creek Regional Park. Racers would go more or less due east from the start, down The Boulevard, and past the current mile mark.
The course would continue on, angling right at the turnout for Little Willis, then up Little Willis, and head south to the T-junction at the base of Big Willis. Next, however, instead of heading up Big Willis, the route would turn left and complete a loop around the east end of the park property. Eventually, this would take competitors back past the current mile mark in a westward direction.
Shortly past the current mile mark, the course would bend left and take racers across the park on a climb to the current two mile mark. From there, the remainder of the course would follow precisely the same route as the current course, ending with the familiar stadium finish.
Features of the current course that would be retained, for good or for bad, would include:
• A creek crossing
• A stadium finish
• Little Willis
• The entirety of the finish from 2.0 miles forward
This configuration would embody substantially less vertical gain and loss than either the current course or Alternate Course One while still retaining a “rolling" feel. The biggest climbs on this configuration would be Little Willis (roughly 40 feet of vertical) and heading west from the current mile marker to where the configuration merges with the current course at approximately 2.0 miles (roughly 90 feet of vertical). There would be a net elevation loss of about 65 feet between the start and finish of the course.
There is a little bit of elevation gained and lost around the east loop, but considerably less than the two climbs already mentioned. It would be important to run the east loop in a counter-clockwise direction to avoid taking Little Willis as a downhill segment.
Easily the most attractive feature of this configuration would be a more or less straight start over a prolonged distance, eliminating the bottlenecking, congestion, runner contact, and whatever else takes place with the current barns-and-stream-crossing start to the race.
To do this, however, would require El Paso County Parks buy-in to skinning off and/or putting in grass over an area large enough to accommodate a start for 25 teams, plus individuals (5A). Some of this widening would have to extend as far as the early (west) portion of The Boulevard. My initial sense says County Parks would not go for that, but they did eventually sign off on a lot of clearing of a riparian area (much more ecologically sensitive) to widen the current creek crossing, so who knows?
There would also be a much longer traverse from parking to the start line of the race. This would impact both spectators and team camps. It's not immediately clear where team camps might end up under this configuration. The configuration would definitely shift some parking from NPEC to BCRP, but County Parks has made it clear at the Doherty Invitational that they intend to keep parking on their property very limited, so the bulk of the parking would have to remain at NPEC.
Perhaps a shuttle between NPEC parking and the start line? I'm not sure if that idea is practical or not.
Spectator friendliness might rate a little, but certainly not much, higher than the current course. Presumably a large crowd would gather from the start line most of the way down The Boulevard to see the beginning of the race. A few of the swiftest spectators would be able to catch the runners at the top of Little Willis. All would be able to see runners coming back from the east loop. At that point, spectators would have to make a decision about watching runners (at some distance) go around the west loop or get across the creek before things shut down for the racers and make their way to the stadium for the finish.
Google Earth pegs 5000 meters for this course squarely inside the stadium. Although the course length would need to be ground-truthed, slight adjustments at the start and finish should easily be able to square the distance up to 5000 meters.
An alternate version of this course could take the runners back to the general area of the start line for the finish of the race. NPEC parking would still have to be used, but a 5K layout would still be doable and it would enhance the overall spectator visibility for the race. This arrangement might also reduce some of the rental costs of the NPEC facility since the stadium would not be in use.