Hay Is In The Barn

This week is the last of a 16-week training cycle, penultimately ending with the Milo Marathon Manila Elims leg on Sunday morning.

Whatever I've done for the past 15 weeks will have to do to help me achieve that ever-elusive sub5 hour goal. Will I make it? As per my training logs, the average weekly miles will not be enough although my 21k race times have been the fastest (sub-2:20) that I've run since I started joining races last 2009. Based on the McMillan calculator predictions, a sub5 is possible. A hopeful target is still sub-5 although a more realistic one would be to improve my 5:23 PR set Feb last year.

I believe I've trained better now compared to my past marathons. Just waking up before 6am to do my scheduled workout, and almost always doing them to the letter. Just going thru the intervals, not stopping at the latter part of tempos, and just going thru the long run at a better pace, helped me to believe that I did enough to make me ready for Sunday.

I have learned to prepare myself mentally for the challenges that will come after 21k. "HTFU!" was such a battlecry for me during this training cycle that I will surely use it on race day, especially in those moments when I'm tempted to lose my pace or walk. I'm even contemplating on getting a (henna) tattoo on the inside of my left arm just to remind me of it during the race. Hmmmm.....

But a sub5 finish? I really can't say at this point. But I will be damn sure to give my all.

To all the other participants on Sunday's full marathon, let's run our best. There's a bigger prize aside from the humongous medal waiting for us after traversing 42.195km of pavement:

GLORY.