The Erie Marathon course

Out on Peninsula Drive with the field still bunched and the ground essentially level. This is the first of two identical loops, so nothing here is worth spending on.

The road tips down and hands you free speed. Take it, but remember it, because you give it all back and then some in the next mile.

Old Lake Road delivers the one climb that matters on this course, thirty five feet of it, before Peninsula Drive picks you back up. Run it by effort and let the pace sag; you meet this same ground again at sixteen.

Back on Peninsula Drive and level again. The only hill on the loop is behind you, which is the moment to quietly settle into the pace you actually came here to run.

Peninsula Drive continues with the faintest tilt upward. Not enough to change anything you are doing, and not close to enough to justify looking at your watch.

Peninsula Drive hands off to Fisher Drive on flat ground. Note the turn, because you come through it a second time when it matters a great deal more.

Fisher Drive, flat and quiet. This is the stretch where a rhythm either shows up on its own or has to be manufactured, and manufacturing it this early is expensive.

Still Fisher Drive, still level. Keep the effort boring and let this one go by without having an opinion about it.

Thompson Drive meets Fisher Drive and the elevation is dead flat. First loop is past its middle, and feeling slightly bored is the correct outcome.

Thompson feeds you back onto Peninsula Drive on level ground. Double digits on a course this flat means the terrain has stopped being a variable and your pacing is the whole story.

Level Peninsula Drive with nothing to negotiate. Check your effort honestly here, because whatever you are holding now is what you have to hold for a second full loop.

The Presque Isle Lighthouse goes by, the best landmark on the peninsula and a useful bookmark for the loop to come. Flat road, first lap nearly closed out.

Peninsula Drive, level, loop one ending. Your pace should still feel like a decision you are making rather than something happening to you.

Halfway, and the whole thing starts over from the top. A slight lift on Peninsula Drive is the only new information; everything else is a repeat, which is exactly why patience on the first loop pays off from here.

The road gives a little back, the same easy ground you ran early on. Use it, do not attack it.

Old Lake Road and that hill again, twenty two feet this time and it will feel considerably longer than it did at mile three. Concede the pace, hold the effort, collect it on the far side.

Peninsula Drive, perfectly level, and the climbing is done for the day. Ten to go on flat ground is where this race actually starts.

A small rise on Peninsula Drive that would have been invisible at mile five. Shorten the stride, let it pass, do not let it write a story in your head.

Peninsula Drive eases downward a touch. Free ground, so take it, but take it without turning it into a surge you cannot fund.

Fisher Drive and twenty done. From here it is about holding form rather than finding speed, and the road is not going to help you either way.

More Fisher Drive, flat, featureless. Pick something small to count, because this stretch offers nothing to hide behind.

Perry Monument comes up where Thompson meets Fisher, on ground that is as level as anything you have run all day. Four to go, and the monument makes a good place to choose your next target.

Off Thompson and onto Peninsula Drive, flat and completely familiar. You have already run this exact turn once today, so there is no guessing left about what remains.

Peninsula Drive, dead level, no assistance coming from the road. Whatever you have left at this point is a decision, not terrain.

The road eases down slightly one last time on Peninsula Drive. If you saved anything at all through two loops, this is where it gets spent.

Flat to the line on Peninsula Drive. Nothing between you and the finish but the number you have been chasing since the gun.