UJ M2S is coming

Three weeks tomorrow, the last Sunday before Christmas, sees the holding of the traditional pre-Christmas Mdina-to-Spinola, sponsored once again by Urban Jungle.

As always, this much-loved event - now past its 40th edition - presents an ideal opportunity for all runners to have a check to see how their Half-Marathon preparation is going.

Although there are a number of 10km road races on the calendar, these do not really let you gauge how you would fare if you were to keep going at the 10km finish line and go round again.

At 17.4km in length, M2S fills the gap almost perfectly between a 10km and a 21km half marathon.

The greater distance allows runners to check endurance at race pace yet still allow time to amend their training (perhaps to include more long runs) before February comes around.

Not for walkers

Unfortunately, any individuals preparing for the Half Marathon Walkathon are recommended not to take part in the M2S. The main reason concerns safety.

The organisers (the same quartet who organise the annual Malta Marathon) do not have the same control over the roads as they will on Marathon Day. During M2S there will be no lane closed to traffic for the entire race length; there will be nowhere like the same volume of traffic police presence or even marshals and helpers that there will be on Marathon Day.

During M2S all roads will be as open to traffic as they would on any normal day. Since the safety of all participants must come first, regretfully, walkers are strongly advised not to take part in the M2S.

Running bug

I had written some months ago that when it comes to attracting new faces to running, I prefer to focus on females.

The reason for this is that experience has shown me that once the woman of the house catches the "running bug", she not only gets serious about her own fitness, but the changes she makes also have a great impact on all others at home.

Since the wife does almost all the shopping, suddenly she begins making more healthy choices in the supermarket, and these have a knock-on effect not only on her health, but on the rest of the family.

I was at Marsa recently watching a cross-country race and got talking to Mario Grech, husband of Anna, who had taken up running only last year and completed her first Half Marathon in February.

While Anna was running around the route apparently enjoying every minute, Mario remarked that following his wife's lead, he himself had taken up running and could now manage one hour as his longest run.

As I congratulated him, he stated that his aim was to take part in the Half Marathon in February.

Not only that, but he had also lost 10 kg in weight. I could not have found a more perfect example to support my claim. I look forward to seeing them both on the Half Marathon startline.

Come to think of it, perhaps we should have a husband/wife prize, too. We have so many prizes, so why not one more? It's always satisfying to see the joy on people's faces when they win a prize, or age-group award, especially if they are not used to being a winner.

Don't expect this award to appear for 2010 (it will probably require a software update to link the times of husband/wife pairs), but I will pass on the idea to the others in the committee and see if we might incorporate it in future events.

Global warming

The jury is still out on whether this is actually occurring or not.

A major story this week concerned a hacker who leaked some emails from a leading climate-monitoring institute in a UK university that appear to show them guilty of "massaging" their temperature data to fit the claim that global warming is a fact.

What is true is that it has been unseasonally warm in recent weeks and the high temperatures appear set to remain for some time.

While no-one in Malta is complaining (although many in Europe are experiencing flooding) I would urge all runners and walkers to be especially careful on their long walks and runs tomorrow.

Make sure to be well hydrated before starting your training, or carry water or energy drinks with you. Don't just drink more water, but be careful to take in the extra minerals commonly lost through sweat, for example in an electrolyte drink. Ask for advice at a pharmacy or a health food store if you are unsure.

Be careful out there and enjoy your training.

johnwalsh42195@yahoo.it