Tag: Singapore

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.

As I complete 8 weeks of training for the 16 weeks Higdon programme, every weekend is a big challenge. What makes it even more interesting is that during this month of fasting, it adds another level of challenge to the entire experience, and with it another level of motivation which pushes me forward. As I reach 21K long runs in practice, my strategy is to do the long run in the evenings, start an hour before the fast break, break fast, eat some-drink some, do another hour of running, drink some more, and then do the remaining distance. That makes it already very late in the day, so repeating this exercise for 24K and 26K (also in the fasting period, actually the 26K would be Eid) would require some more thinking and planning on how to go about doing it. I also seem to be losing weight pretty fast, down to about 67.5 from the 70kg a couple of weeks back. But just 3 more weeks before I am back to my normal routine.