Jeju 20K

Race strategy

Run the climb at race pace, build your speed on the downhill, and go all out at the finish.

• Start easy and control your HR up to 8.0km.
• Hold your race pace up to 8.8km, but stay in control.
• Final 357m descent. Save your legs to go all out on it.
• Ease into the early runnable section, then run your race pace, and start the final descent from 8.8km under control, then go all out near the bottom.
• Start · 0.0km–1.8km · Race-day nerves push your heart rate up: don't follow the crowd, find your own rhythm.
• Settle in · 1.8km–8.0km · Ease in: hold back more than feels necessary. The race is still ahead. Running pays off here: run wherever you can.
• Work · 8.0km–8.8km · Climb of 123m, high point 460m. This is where the race is built: steady, solid effort. Climb by heart rate or breathing, not pace.
• Home · 8.8km–19.2km · Descent of 357m averaging 3%. Build to the finish: leave whatever you have left out on the course. Very long descent: first half under control, then even, let go only near the end.

Course

The course climbs 508m+. With 25m/km of climbing, this is a rolling, mostly runnable course. By gradient, 11% of the distance is uphill, 27% downhill and 61% flat. The longest climb runs 0.8km at an average 14.8% grade (123m of vertical). The longest descent runs 10.4km at an average 3.4% grade (357m of vertical). The steepest descent drops at 24.2% over 0.3km. Surface: 53% trail, 24% road, and 7% smooth.

Poles

The course is runnable enough that trekking poles are not needed.

Quad damage

There is too little runnable descent to damage the quads: plan the race around climbing and fuelling.

• Ease into the early runnable section, then run your race pace, and start the final descent from 8.8km under control, then go all out near the bottom.
• 8.8–19.2 km · 357 m D−, -3.4% · 0.0 km ahead → even, first half under control, let go at the end