Two Races In Two Days
It’s been a month since my last race at the Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon, so this weekend it made a nice change from a long training run on the trail to put on the racing flats and take part in a couple of road races. Saturday was the Neptune Festival 8k in Virginia Beach and on Sunday I ran a 5k at The College of William & Mary as part of a bone marrow drive fund raiser.
Both events were a lot of fun, and with near perfect weather conditions, I was happy with how I fared. I’m not quite in the kind of form I was in this time last year, but with 4 weeks to go to the Marine Corps Marathon, I’m confident of a good race and hopeful I can match or better last year’s finish time of 2:53:56.
My 8k time on Saturday was 29:52, which is an average pace of 6 minutes/mile. According to the well respected McMillan Running Calculator, I can expect a marathon time of 2:56:39 based on this 8k performance.
According to Sunday’s 5k time of 17:52, my predicted marathon time is 2:54:11, which is more in line with what I’m expecting. Conditions on Saturday were very windy and this probably slowed me down by about 30 seconds, so Sunday’s time is probably a better indicator of my current fitness level.
With 4 weeks of my training plan remaining, I still feel I can eek out some more speed and improve my endurance slightly. The next couple of weeks are therefore crucial to my success at Marine Corps…..
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