Less that a month remaining (26 days to be precise) for my second full marathon. I skipped an entire week’s of practice after the Delhi Half marathon on Oct 28th. Did a 27K run last weekend though I was planning to do a 30K. But with no running all of last week, my legs were not up to it and I had to stop at 27K which I did in 2:59.
I took my calculators out after the run and it seems that with this pace I would run the 42K in about 4:40. A lot of that depends upon whether my legs are able to continue running… since any walking, like my experience from Mumbai 2005, and the timing goes out of the picture. I think I would be satisfied if I am able to do this in below 5:00 hrs, atleast I want to cross the finishing line with the event clock below 5:00 (which may mean a net running time of 4:50 given the fact that it may take me up to 10 minutes to reach the starting line will all the runners (10,000 full marathon runners) ahead of me.
I also read in some of the blogs that Singapore marathoners are released in groups categorized as runners with target running times of 3:00, 4:00, 5:00, etc. I think I would stick to the 5:00 group in that case. I am not sure if there are any pacing groups for every half hour, like 4:00, 4:30, 5:00 finish. It would be great if I am able to find and run with people with similar time goals as that would surely help me a lot and keep me motivated throughout the run.
Next weeks target is the most important. I am targeting a 35K run. This will be the final long run, and would be a great indicator of how ready my body is for doing the 42K.