Sundown Half Marathon Race Review

On Saturday, the Sundown Half Marathon was to prove to be an experience that i am likely to cherish for quite some time to come. My fundamental objective for the race was to run below 2hrs and my stretch target was to run 1:53 (for 2 reasons - 1:53 converts to a Mcmillan sub 4 marathon, and also i wanted to go below 2hr by as much as my current PR was above it 2:06:xx). As it turned out, i ran a 1:55:59. And i am pleased as punch by it !!

I had carboloaded reasonably well having had pasta for dinner on Friday and again as lunch on Saturday. Knowing the traffic snarl that was likely in getting to the race site, i left home at around 4.30pm and after an inordinate amount of time crawling through the Aviation Park Road, i parked my car at 5.30pm. Saw the 10km kick off and then found some of my HM friends who had also reached the venue by then. (The three friends who i met ran 1:30, 1:33 and 1:45 respectively !!!)

My first lesson of the day came from here - i should remember to carry something to munch if i felt the need just before a race. At the start line i was actually quite hungry as i hadnt had anything to eat for more than 3 hours. Other than that, I was feeling quite positive and was excited at the prospect of actually "racing" i.e. putting a solid effort out on the road. My plan was to run the first 2-3kms at at 5:45 pace (advice from Roonz) and then pick it up to about 5:20 and hold it there for as long as i could. About 20 minutes from the start of the race, there was a call for sub 2 runners to move to the front and i sheepishly made my way up there, not knowing if i was deserving of rubbing shoulders with other runners who could stake a legit claim to be there.

The race started right on time at 8pm, and because of the speedy gonzales' around me, i ran a 5:34 for the 1st km, and in fact managed an average pace of 5:30ish for the next few kms. On one hand i was ruing going out too fast and on the other, since i had already warmed up by then, i figured i would keep the pace there and keep going. The first 11km went relatively smoothly, coming in exactly at 1 hour. My scheduled gel break was for the 13km water point and it was from there on that my walk breaks at the water points became progressively longer. I knew i was slipping off my pace target, yet when i wasnt walking, i was running pretty well. ECP can get pretty desolate and i found myself running alone for most of the race, either being overtaken or passing others by but not many running at the same pace as i was. I was steadily going out of gas, but since it had been my plan to push it all the way, i tried to run as fast as i could despite my side stitch at the 17th and 19th km as well as a bit of abdominal ache. Probably if i had to pick the worst point in the race for me, it had to be the 21st km, where with less than 700m to go i was reduced to a walk for a brief 100 metres or so due to the stitch. Sprinted the remaining distance and was super ecstatic to see the clock read 1:56:02 (later found out that my time was 1:55:59, position 186 overall, 153 amongst men).

It was a splendid race for me - i set a target which i thought was a tough but realistic one, and managed to hit it (for most part atleast). I also know that if i can keep my training consistent and not get injured, i will be able to run faster and longer. Which is the whole point of my running anyway. :)

So thats 4 races this year, 4 different distances and a PR in all of them. Will i ever be able to do this again?

Passion Run 25km Race Review

I am just leaving a placeholder here for the moment - will update this soon enough.

Pondering in perpetuity ..

My April running calendar looked like i had hung up my shoes for good. I ran 55kms in the last week alone compared to the 45kms i had run in the 3 weeks prior to that. Obviously this does not bode well for my sub-4hr marathon ambitions at Gold Coast. Since i am trying to make the best of what remaining training time i have, i have stopped looking at my excel training plan for about a month now and decided to just run a mix of tempos, LSDs and general aerobic runs while maintaining a weekly mileage of 50kms atleast. I am kinda hoping/praying that this will atleast get me to a 4:15 finish if not a sub-4 finish at Gold Coast.

I have absolutely loved the last couple of weeks where i have run with my newly acquired garmin 310xt. Its a fantastic watch to have for geeky runners. :) I also did my first run with Team Fatbird as part of Operation Kookaburra, a training program for the GCM. It was a night run of 25kms. I did ok the first 17 and then stopped short of falling flat on my face several times in the remaining 8 kms.

I am at an interesting stage of training - i am wondering whether i should cut my losses and not aim for a sub-4 and just go there and have an enjoyable race outing or if i should go for broke and just go hell for leather. I dont think i will know the answer until i get to the start line. The other thought thats daunting me is that i need to run a 1:53 HM if i want to do a 4hr full .. and i am running a HM in just about 4 weeks time. Find it hard to believe at this point in time that a 5:21pace for 21kms is going to be realistic .. but then again, i didnt expect to run a 4:26 at Tokyo so i will still play my cards.

Note to self - Update this blog more frequently.