Guide to an Eight-Hour 50K Ultramarathon

On Saturday, January 23, 2010, the second running of Bataan Death March (BDM) 102 Kilometer Ultramarathon will be having its “test run” for participants to familiarize themselves with the first half of the infamous route which will be faced on D-Day in darkness. The route will be from Km 0 in Mariveles, Bataan to Km 50 in Abucay, Bataan and the run to start at 6:30AM.

For those who are a little concerned about finishing the 50K Ultramarathon within eight hours, I made a time of arrival list that should be adhered to strictly to make it at the said target time. An eight hour 50K run has an average pace of nine minutes and 36 seconds per kilometer (9:36) so there’s so much room to do walk-runs (often referred to as the Galloway Method). At this pace you should complete a marathon in about six hours and 45 minutes. Here is the list:

K	ETA
1	0:09:36
2	0:19:12
3	0:28:48
4	0:38:24
5	0:48:00
6	0:57:36
7	1:07:12
8	1:16:48
9	1:26:24
10	1:36:00
15	2:24:00
20	3:12:00
21	3:21:36
25	4:00:00
30	4:48:00
35	5:36:00
40	6:24:00
42	6:43:12
45	7:12:00
46	7:21:36
47	7:31:12
48	7:40:48
49	7:50:24
50	8:00:00

To make this plan successful the time listed under ETA should be the latest time of arrival. A faster arrival time would of course result in a much faster finish time but if you want to take it easy you can wait to just before the ETA to reach your target.

To the participants, please refer to the guidelines of the test run.

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