Many excellent runners have answered this question by advising you to run an even split for both halves of the race. They strongly advise against trying to bank time. Although there is a lot of downhill at Steamtown, especially during the first eight miles, there are several challenging uphills in the final three miles. Going out too fast in the early part of the course will put tremendous strain on your quad muscles and will use up the energy you will need to tackle the tough uphills. First time Steamtowners would be wise to attend a presentation about the course given by our race director and several other runners, which will be held at 2:00 p.m. in the auditorium of the Race Expo site (Scranton High School).
Please visit our training page for more information about running Steamtown’s course.
We will have several bike clubs patrolling the course searching for runners in need of assistance. We will also have sag wagons (Lackawanna County vans) stationed at points along the course. If you cannot finish the race, flag down a bike volunteer or tell the volunteers at an aid station. They should be able to call a sag wagon to your location. As a sag wagon gets a few runners on board, it will proceed to the finish line.
Also, we will have about one dozen ambulance companies available to help runners in need of medical assistance. The ambulance copies and sag wagons will be coordinated through the 911 system.
Yes, we are USATF-certified and an official Boston qualifier. In fact, on average, 28% of Steamtown finishers qualify for Boston. Once our race results are made official, we forward them directly to Boston’s registration department. Click here for more information about Boston qualifying.