My Milo Marathon 2016 story part 1

I was adverse in joining this race due to the strict 6 hour cut off time.  The last time I attempted this was in 2013 and sadly, I didn't make it to the cut off time.  All the time on the road was all for naught as there were no finisher medals to show my hard work.  It was my second time to do Milo Marathon.  The first time I was able to get a finisher medal as made it 5 minutes before the cut-off time.

I joined other local marathons (Subaru and RUPM) due to more lenient cut off time. And yet in both races, I still finished beyond 6 hours 30 minutes.

And yet I was enticed for Milo Marathon as it is celebrating its 40th edition.  But I didn't have high hopes for it as lacked mileage for it.  

I changed my strategy this time and incorporated a lot of speedwork. So shorter weekly distances but more effort due to faster pace.  Because of it, I was able to bring my 10k below one hour (three times this year) and 21km below 2:30.   

One setback for me was when I did the Run United 32km as a test run for my endurance.  It did not turn out well.  In fact, it was horrible as I finished at a time of 4:30 and pace of 8:25, which is too close pace wise for a sub-6 hour marathon.  I was discouraged once again and debated whether I should continue with the Milo Marathon or veto it all together.

In the end, I decided to push through with the Marathon as I had already registered for it, with my personalized

name on it and "21" next to it to signify that this will be my 21st marathon.

But I still wasn't convinced that I would do well here and thought of quitting when I reach BGC and just run/walk home.  But Per told me to finish the race regardless of the outcome as I had never quit before and I shouldn't start now.

To which I agreed to her point and will try my best for this race. I was able to do one more 32km solo run and whose results turned out well.  It was taper time after this and I did one fast 21km race (Takbo.ph Runfest) as final long run before Milo Marathon.