"The slope of Luong Son pass decides the race to win the MetaSports Marathon Nha Trang championship"

The MetaSports Marathon Marvelous Nha Trang 2023 running route has a poetic but challenging landscape. Full marathon runners will face more than 10 km of Luong Son Pass, an average height of 60 to 70 meters above sea level, located in the second half of the race. The road along with the hot and windy weather of Nha Trang made the athletes in the final ranking group be cautious.

At noon on August 11, right after taking a flight to Nha Trang, former national track and field player Truong Van Tam went to the square of April 2 (Nha Trang city) to receive Bib. He received the race-kit early to take the time to rest and maintain his strength for the race.

Having run through the Nha Trang road, he understands the difficulty of the slopes and bends on Luong Son Pass. For the past few months, he has been looking for roads with many bridges to practice slopes, and at the same time, prepare a strategy before entering the starting line.

"For this terrain, on race day, my strategy is simply to stick to the pace in the first half of the distance, distribute the power properly through the pass. Keep your head cool so you don't get excited or clingy. Chasing someone who runs too fast compared to the target pace. Make sure you can accelerate when you are near the finish line, "said Tam and said that the 42km championship race would end soon as soon as he went down Luong Son pass.

Two national players Trinh Quoc Luong and Hoang Nguyen Thanh also agree with this. Quoc Luong arrived in Nha Trang 3 days before the race to familiarize himself with the weather and survey the road. "After surveying, I calculated that there were about 14 km of continuous ramps in the second half of the race. It was a huge challenge both physically and mentally," Luong shared. He thinks that if you go fast from the beginning and exert yourself when entering the slope, it will make your legs stiff, prone to cramps, and quickly worn out.

Thus, "do not exert yourself to go uphill" is the advice elites insist. Hoang Nguyen Thanh said that with the Nha Trang route, he will run the first 20 km under the target pace from 10 to 20 seconds. Then compensate by running about 5 seconds ahead of your target pace on flat and downhill sections. However, going downhill quickly does not mean letting yourself run with inertia, accelerating uncontrollably. The most important thing he notes for runners is to control breathing and cadence to avoid cramps and injuries.

He advises runners if they run for the first time and have time to come to Nha Trang early, they should go survey the route. "When determining what slope and slope will help the runner not be shocked and overwhelmed when entering the race. Surveying the route is to calculate tactics, distribute strength and adjust the target so that it is most reasonable" , the male athlete said.

In addition to distributing strength and running with correct technique, nutrition is also an important part, determining success when entering the race. "Getting enough gel, salt and water is a key factor to avoid 'hit the wall' when racing," Truong Van Tam said. He said, runners should only eat a light meal with a little protein and starch about at least 1 to 2 hours before starting the race to have enough energy, not have a heavy belly, hip shock, when running.

In particular, high-performance runners absolutely do not use alcohol before entering the tournament at least 2 weeks to 1 month. Alcoholic beverages are diuretics, making runners dehydrated. A 2% decrease in body water will affect the ability to run.

On the track runners should also load salt, gel and water. Normally elites split every 7 km using gel, salt once. Particularly water is something they do not skip any station.

MetaSports Marathon Marvelous Nha Trang takes place on August 13. This year, the track runs optimally in all aspects, significantly increasing the number of water stations. In which, the longest distance has two one-way water stations and 12 two-way water stations. On average, nearly two kilometers a runner will arrive at a water station. Health station is increased from 6 to 8. After each water station and medical station is a toilet. A total of 15 toilets are arranged, an increase of 2.5 times compared to only 6 stations in 2022.

All four distances start from 2/4 square. Two distances 21km and 42km will run from the Square to the north of the city. The remaining two distances run south. The running routes of all distances pass through the most beautiful coastal routes in Nha Trang, providing the experience of both competing and watching the scenery of the city in the early morning.