Seoul Marathon – Race week

I’ve arrived in Seoul last weekend with the Seoul marathon this Sunday 19th March and very much looking forward to this race that I have trained for as my first goal race of 2017.

My training has gone very well for this race with no injury or illness throughout my preparation needing me to change course at any time. I was able to get through all my planned long runs and key sessions as planned. My last two long runs were very good for my confidence. These were a planned long run to simulate race fatigue of 3 x14km (1 hour) runs at race pace with a 20 min rest between sessions. this was a session I was nervous about completing but managed to get through at race pace up until the last few kilometres and gave me the confidence to be able to push my desired pace well into the later stages of the marathon. The last long run I completed about 10 days ago was a 30km run where I started the first 10km at 5 min/km, 11-20km at 4:30min/km and the 10km between 21-30km at 4 min/km. Being able to push the pace faster on the last 10km then race pace when fatigued was another great boost to my confidence.

A few days before leaving Australian shores I started getting a head cold. This developed quickly and has been with me for almost a week and has me still with a runny nose and cough. It is something that I am confident of getting over before the race on Sunday but also an unneeded hiccup on the way.

Travelling to Seoul was problem free despite a 11 hour direct flight from Sydney to Incheon. Jet lag isn’t really an issue with this route as the time zone only changes by 2 hours. Going from the end of a record Australian summer to the end of a cold Korean winter has been a bit problematic and acclimating to the cold weather has been a challenge and not helped me rebound from a head cold. I am using my last taper runs to acclimatise to running in cold conditions and aim to be ready to run in these conditions by race start.

The rest of the week we will spend sight seeing and enjoying the food and culture that the Korean capital has to offer. A visit to Lotteworld  theme park yesterday was great fun with my family.

Looking forward to racing this marathon on Sunday. I feel I am as fit as I have been going into a goal race and ready to run a good time over a course conducive to running a fast marathon on Sunday. If I can go sub 3 hours i will be ecstatic, much of this will depend on the crowds and how easily i am able to get up to running my desired race pace. If I can do this inside the first 2km I feel i’m ready to run a good race.