Comparing the Elevation of the TC 10 Mile to the Moustache Run Half Marathon

People often say how challenging the TC 10 Mile course is, but I've always loved it. Most recently, I mentioned in this post that the 2nd place finisher (who finished in 50:00!!) noted how rough the 2nd half was. I mean, I don't deny that!

I thought I'd compare the elevation of the TC 10 Mile with the Moustache Run Half Marathon that I did last weekend.

Here's the TC 10 Mile map and elevation according to MapMyRun.com:

And here's the Moustache Run Half Marathon map and elevation from MapMyRun:

(It's short because I guessed at the turn-around and wasn't quite right.)

At a quick glance, the Moustache Run Half Marathon looks worse. But what happens when you make sure the elevation is on the same scale? Here they are with the Moustache Run compacted a bit to match up on the same scale, and to show the difference in length:

Notice that 0.5 - 2.5 miles of the TC 10 Mile is the same as miles 3-5 of the half marathon: they are along the river at that point and both go down to the water's edge, then climb up to under I-94 and Franklin.

But then the elevations start to look different from there!!

The Moustache Run Half Marathon has small rollers along the river from mile 5.5 to 10. But the TC 10 Mile has that damn false flat that just keeps sucking time from around mile 4 to 7.

The half marathon has the BRUTAL little climb up to mile 12, but that just sucks for a few minutes. Whereas the 10 mile sucks for nearly 20 minutes as you wonder why your splits are so slow because it doesn't LOOK like a hill.

Side note: that short climb in the Moustache Run Half Marathon before mile 12 still *IS* brutal. Last weekend, I hit mile 10 in 1:02:40, and then even posted a 5:53 for mile 11. In my half marathon PR in 2012 (on a gently rolling country course), I noted I was at 1:02:35 through 10 miles - which meant I was only FIVE SECONDS SLOWER than my PR through 10 miles at my recent race. (And after mile 11, I was actually 10 seconds FASTER than my PR in my race last weekend!!) But I still ended up 1:23 slower than my PR by the finish of last weekend's race. Why? Well, not because I threw in the towel as I was being chased by 2nd place and was running scared! It was all because of that little damn hill before mile 12. It wiped out any power left in my legs.

So that 10 mile is more brutal than I really gave it credit for. I still love that race, but I suffered a lot this year, and maybe I'll have to try another 10 mile race sometime soon.