Ready To Go

So it is just 6 days until Chicago, and this training cycle is pretty much over. Did a 13 miler on Sunday and all I have left is some easy runs and a couple of marathon paced miles on Wednesday.

Then all I need to do is run 26.2 miles in less than 3 hours to make the last 4 months mean something!

This training cycle has been good. I kept the higher mileage element of my Edinburgh 2008 training (which helped me a lot in the last 6 miles) and the speedwork element of my Ottawa 2009 training (which helped me a lot with making 6:52 feel like a comfortable pace).

I am hoping that the combination of the two is going to work out. I compared the various training components from the three cycles and most of the numbers show I should be able to go under 3 if I don't do anything dumb, such as running first 5k in 19:30 and not the planned 21:10 like I did in Ottawa.

Mileage has been solid, with a couple weeks peaking in the low 90s. Not quite where I was for Edinburgh, but I am trying to train without the need for post-race surgery this time around.

Weather forecast is looking pretty much ideal, with temps forecast to be in the 40's, with light winds and partly cloudy. If that holds it's looking good.

I have a start in Corral A, which should get me over the start within a minute of the gun, so I have no excuses about crowding and having to weave through a bunch slower runners.

The course is pancake flat so the pacing plan is pretty simple. I'm planning to go for 2:59:00, which is 6:50 pace, so I'll pretty much start out at 6:50 pace and stay there for the next 3 hours. Not quite sure if I will start with the 3 hour pace group (6:52 pace) for the first few miles and then pick it up once I've settled down, or if I'll just go out on my own from the gun. Guess I'll see how the start goes, I added an extra 10 seconds to mile 1, so that is 6:59 followed by a bunch of 6:49/6:50s.

I am going to take a sports bottle of Gatorade for the first 5-6 miles to A) avoid the inevitable chaos at the early water stops, and B) get some early calories in. Usually in marathons I don't handle race nutrition too well, so am thinking the extra 150 calories of Gatorade early will help me in those last 3-4 miles when the wheels are starting to fall off. I did that on a number of my longer runs this time and they seemed to end better than the others.

It's a big race (40,000+) and if you look at the times from 2006, a 3 hour finish should be round about 1,000th place (last 2 years were crazy hot so far fewer broke 3).

Splits should automagically appear on my blog as I cross the timing mats due to the wonders of modern technology. I'm not sure exactly which splits will show, or if they are gun time (time since the start gun went off) or chip time (net time since I crossed the start line), but if things are going well my chip times will be around these splits:

• 5k 21:19
• 10k 42:28
• 15k 1:03:38
• 20k 1:24:50
• Half 1:29:29
• 25k 1:46:02
• 30k 2:07:14
• 35k 2:28:27
• 40k 2:49:39
• Finish 2:59:00

So that's the plan, pretty much nothing else to do now but run.