As of last Wednesday, we have over 1,120 entrants for the events on February 28.

The numbers are increasing every day in a cascade of new emails and applications. Approximate numbers to date are - over 310 in the full marathon, more than 700 in the half marathon and over 100 in the walkathon.

We have never had this many participants in any previous edition of the Malta Marathon.

By race day in 2008 we had 1,098 registered and at the same point in 2009, 1,037 applications. Considering that there is still one month to go, have no doubt that 1,120 will continue to grow. Even more encouraging is that, despite the worldwide recession, we still have a large influx of foreigners compared to Maltese (617 to 504), although that may change by race day.

This has to be good news for the tourist industry.

All in all, it's a good thing that 10 days ago we took the risk and ordered more medals. That was the final date on which we could order them from the Far East manufacturer and guarantee to get them here on time.

It is costing us a fortune in courier service to get them to Malta by race day, (these things are heavy metal, just wait till you hold yours at the finish line) but given the interest in this year's event we decided it was a risk worth taking.

Here's why; we've never had more than 1,004 total finishers (the record from 2008), so buying a total of 1,250 medals was something of a gamble because they are not cheap generic medals with a standard design.

They are to our own design and all deeply embossed with "25th Malta Marathon", so we can hardly keep those we don't need and use them next year!

Pioneers

Some weeks ago I had mentioned a special offer of a free entry to those who had taken part in the first Malta Marathon in 1986.

I am pleased to note that so far we have nine entrants who are still in good enough shape to take part.

Not surprisingly we have again received applications from the three surviving "invincibles", those runners who have taken part in every full Malta Marathon from 1986 to present - making 2010 their 25th in succession - Paul Gardner, Charles Darmanin and Charles Herd.

These have been joined by other hardy 1986 pioneers, Mark Abela, Pawlu Brincat, Charles Mallia, Nicky Briffa and lone female, Cecilia Fenech. There may be others motivated to join them by race day, I can think of a few who might.

More recovery

I have been getting some comments about last week's advice to add more recovery into your programme at this time. Like pre-exam fever, seems like most people see no problem with increasing the distance or intensity as race day approaches without realizing that they must simultaneously increase recovery time to support it.

We only have to look at the training programmes of elite runners to note that only 20-25 per cent of their weekly mileage is at marathon pace or faster.

The vast majority (75-80 per cent) of their training week is run comfortably at low blood lactate values of around 1 mM or a training heart rate of 65-75 per cent HRmax.

Note that "intense" can mean long or hard, or both.

Don't be like many runners and think that a one-hour run "takes nothing out of you". You could not be more wrong. All runs come at a cost.

Also, don't get so locked into your schedule that you are afraid to miss a single training run thinking that doing so will negatively impact your race performance.

The physical adaptations you have caused in your body are not going to vanish overnight just because you took a day or two off. Nothing is better than fresh legs.

Take my advice; make Monday a regular rest day, and if you are adding in more intensity on two hard training days per week then be sure to go extra easy (and shorter, if need be) on the other recovery days.

And if you wake up one morning and your body tells you to take the day off, do so, even if it's not a Monday.

In the final four weeks it's all about doing nothing that will risk getting you to the start-line in good shape.

One saying I have used for some years is; always protect what you've got before reaching for more. Live by it.

Be careful out there and enjoy your training. And if you haven't applied already, you're risking it.

johnwalsh42195@yahoo.it