This article was written by John Walsh a few years ago, the week after the Mdina 2 Spinola race.

Walsh was addressing his writings to runners only as in those days the Malta Marathon was not catering for walkers. However much of what he wrote still applies to walkers who may very well become runners after having done their first walkathon.

The following is another select piece of Walsh’s sterling advice to road-running enthusiasts.

“I (JW) have discussed, in recent weeks, the optimum training proven by sports science to build mitochondria in both slow, intermediate and fast muscle fibres.

“Specifically, this requires plenty of slow runs at a pace of 60-70 per cent of V02max, plus about 8-10 per cent of your weekly kilometres run as 1,000m repeats at 5km pace to build mitochondria in your intermediate and fast-twitch fibres.

“There remains one more vital ingredient for a successful training schedule; raising your anaerobic threshold.

“I will leave discussion of that till next week, because a number of you ran the Mdina-Spinola race last Sunday and I would like to discuss what you think about your own performance.

“We have all read or heard sayings like, “winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing”. Or, “first is first and second is nowhere”.

“There is often an enormous amount of pressure on a successful athlete to remain successful. To handle the pressure, a successful athlete not only needs to be in top condition, but mentally adamant that they will not be defeated.

“But what about the rest of us? I personally am unlikely ever to be near enough the front to actually win a race. Is there no pressure on me, then? How can I motivate myself to perform to my limit?

“In pre-race discussions with runners, I find many of them content to “do their best”. I don’t feel this is a strong enough mental commitment. It is not precise enough and too open to interpretation.

“Previous results have convinced me that despite being much longer, at 17.4km, it is possible to run the Mdina-Spinola at your best 10km pace, due to the downhill nature of the course.

“Examples include: Kevin Zammit’s Mdina-Spinola record of 53.47 which, at 3.07 minutes per km, equals his best track pace for 10,000m in 30.59, which is 3.06 per km. Or Carol Galea’s recent 59.59 Mdina-Spinola (3.42m/km), which matches her track 10,000m PB of 34.25 (3.43m/km).

“Note, however, that these 10km PBs were set on the track. The fastest 10km times always are on track, since there are no hills and the surface offers a better energy return to the runner.

“Zammit never ran that time on the roads in Malta, his best being, I believe, 32.07 (3.21m/km) in Marsascala, 14 seconds per km slower than his Mdina record.

“Galea ran a road 10km in 35.02, but that was in Scotland on a fast course. She ran 35.34 (3.53m/km) in Marsascala in 1998, 11 seconds per km slower than her Mdina record.

“Robert Attard had won the Għajn Tuffieħa and Maqluba races in 32.57 (3.26m/km) and 32.48 (3.25m/km) respectively. He also won Mdina-Spinola in 55.34 (3.18m/km). Again, there seems to be an eight-second differential between the race paces.

“So, let’s try and put this all together. If you ran Mdina-Spinola at your recent road 10km pace per km, you can honestly claim to have run well.

“I believe that to be able to perform to expectations, every runner must put themselves under pressure with a target time, or an athlete to beat. Aiming to “do your best” is no longer enough.

“Top athletes win because they expect to win. They are unable to be content with anything less.”

So, last Sunday’s M2S saw another record number of participants with 667 finishers. This is the seventh year in which there was a record number of runners taking part.

Last week we showed a picture of the 1983 start with 18 participants, this time we are showing you last Sunday’s start.

The new system which we adopted for the distribution of numbers at registration worked well and the flow of registering participants was quite fast.

The delivery of the baggage from Mdina to Spinola by DHL also worked efficiently so both systems will be adopted for the 2015 Vodafone Malta Marathon.

Starting the M2S at 07.00 helped runners encounter less traffic as they headed down from Mdina to St Julian’s.