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One Day to GO… anxious still ?

With roughly 12hrs to D-day, I can feel as if tomorrow’s race will be my first marathon… nervous?? excited?? pressured?? or maybe thinking too much on how I will perform with this race. At my age, I have to cross the finishline at 3:50 hrs to qualify for finals in Dec.

Marathon Finish Time ???

Looking at my previous marathon races, I have broken 3:50 hrs 3 times; at Singapore Marathon in Dec 2009, Cebu Marathon in Jan 2010, and Condura Marathon last Feb. I know though that these will not guarantee a good finish time as there are other important factors to consider. Quite honestly, I looked at those past marathons only as a reference and as learning events for future races. Based from my experience, here are some of the factors runners need to consider in predicting marathon finish time relative to their previous performances, and perhaps this is a list of things that can affect run time during the actual race.

1) Training – the training you’ve undergone will at least  give you an idea on the range from where you will finish the race, your training will more or less give you a general feel of your fitness level. You can also consider the race/s you’ve participated leading to the marathon day.

2) Weather – This is a big factor !!! cold ? hot ? humid? wet ? raining hard? Well, whichever that maybe, safe to say this can make or break your race day.

3) Route – hilly terrain?? flat?? Every race have their unique feature so to speak. Condura for instance can be identified to skyway rolling terrains. Now with Milo, this will be a totally different route vs the last 3 years. Obviously, my past performances on Milo cannot be compared apples-to-apples to this year’s edition.

4) General Conduct of the Race – Organizer plays a major role on this one. From my perspective, this is all about the general safety of the runners . Enough and strategically-positioned hydration/food stations…, marshalls on critical turn/s or turn-around…  or management of runners traffic… to name a few things that needs to be perfect during the whole duration of the race. Lapses on this can cause you a valuable minutes from your time, or worst DNF’ed ; imagine getting lost along the route; say running extra km, or get hit by dehydration because there’s not enough water/powerdrinks.

5) And lastly, Strategies – a race plan, for execution. Some guys have their Plan A / Plan B… A plan based on your current assessment of the things listed above, and from your past experiences. This may include anticipation of “unlikely event” that can happen.

OPLAN: MILO-12345

My strategies for tomorrows race. There will be no big difference in terms of execution plan compare to my last 2 full marathon run (Cebu & Condura). The only difference was the baseline from where I designed my training plan which dictated more or less my baseline finish time.

Finish Time – Plan 1: finish in 3:35 hrs, a new PR, I believe my training should be able to deliver this if some the factors I mentioned above will be on my favor. As BR mentioned in one of his post, this is a prestigious event and therefore deserved to be treated as such… I will be there to give my best !!! Plan 2: finish the race in 3:45 hrs, 5-mins faster than my age qualifying cut-off.  These 2 plans would mean I need to run within 5:05 to 5:20 mins/km pace during the whole duration of the race. OR roughly  “52-52-52-52-12 minutes in 10-10-10-10-2km splits” …. well, more or less….

Fuel / Hydration – As what I have been telling to my runner friends; on the assumption that you followed a training plan, or should I say you trained hard-enough, it will all be about fuel and hydration management during (and day-prior) the marathon day.. 3 tactics, 1) Carboloading 3-days prior with an all-day pasta meals day before, 2) slowdown/walk @ drinking stations within 2.5 to 3.5 km range. I tested this strategy several times in the past and it worked for me 3) powergel 15mins prior, then every 45 mins after gunstart. I will also bring my race belt and tuck 2 bottles of sports drink.

Running Partner/s – Find running partners to make sure the “3-boring-loops” will be enjoyable, and at the same time get a “pull” from them when the going gets tougher especially towards the last 12km. Historically, this is where I normally slowdown bigtime relative to 1^st 20-30 km. Alfred (elkyoshi), Totoy Santos, and Wilnar are the usual suspects as we are more or less within the same pace range (they are actually faster than me)

Anything can happen during the race… I just hope that things will be in order OVERALL … Before, During, and After the event…

So that’s OPLAN MILO-12345 – Finished at Plan 1 or with a new PR… if I cant, go for Plan 2 at 3:45 hrs at least… in short,  finish within 3:35 to 3:45 hours.

ALL THE BEST EVERYONE.. SEE YOU AT THE STARTING LINE…

the new milo marathon playground (photo - from milo website)

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