The first time I ran in Alleppey, the air carried the smell of jasmine and diesel and frying coconut oil. November. Just after dawn. The backwaters were not yet awake. I remember thinking that this was the wrong place for a marathon and the only place for one. The Kerala Backwaters Marathon is a quiet race. It does not shout at you. It hums.
The race is geography. Train for the geography.
Kerala in November is not Mumbai in November. The temperature stays in the high twenties. The humidity sits at eighty percent. Your sweat does not dry. Your shoes get wet from dew, then from the sweat that runs off your shorts, then from a sudden squall that did not appear on the forecast. The route from Alleppey toward Kumarakom is flat. Deceptively, generously flat. But flat is not the same as easy.
Train for the heat first. The pace second. The flat third. I learned this the hard way in 2022, training in Pune winter for a coastal Kerala race. Pace looked clinical on paper. Reality showed up at 28 km in a haze of sweat-blindness and cramping calves. Now I tell every athlete who asks me about this race: respect the air more than the distance. Read the heat and monsoon guide before you write your first week.
The base months
For a November race, base building runs from May through August. This is monsoon in most of India, which means you train wet. Hilarious if you have never tried it. Liberating after a few weeks. Five days a week of running. Forty kilometres in the first month. Sixty by the third. Long runs creep from 18 km toward 28 km. Nothing fast. Nothing memorable. Just kilometres on kilometres on kilometres, until your body forgets that running is a special activity and accepts it as breathing.
I always tell my friends, the first hundred days of a marathon plan are the ones you will not remember. They are the ones the race will remember.
The specific months
September and October are when the marathon plan starts to look like a marathon plan. Long runs reach into the thirties. Tempo runs appear. Twenty minutes at target marathon pace. Then thirty. Then a continuous block of forty-five. You learn to hold an effort that is uncomfortable but not painful. This is the most honest pace in running. It does not lie to you.
Add a marathon pace block inside your long run. Twenty-eight kilometres total. Sixteen easy. Eight at marathon pace. Four easy to finish. This single session will teach you more about your race day than ten standalone tempos.
The hydration question
In Kerala November, you will lose about a litre of sweat an hour. Maybe more. You cannot replace all of it on the run. You can replace enough. Practise drinking 500 to 700 ml an hour during your long runs. Use a mix of plain water and electrolyte fluid. Add a salt capsule if you are a heavy sweater. Train your stomach to take fluid at marathon pace. That last part is non-negotiable.
Plug your numbers into our running calculators to estimate sweat rate and pace targets. Most runners underestimate one and overestimate the other. The result is a sad 36 km mark.
The race rehearsal
Two weeks before the marathon, run a dress rehearsal. Same kit. Same shoes. Same nutrition. Same start time. Twenty kilometres. Marathon pace. This is a small ritual. A way of telling your body that race day is a familiar thing. The unknown is what blows you up. The known is what carries you home.
I have a friend in Kochi who runs his rehearsal at 5:30 am on a Saturday because that is when the November race starts. He maps the route to be flat. He eats what he will eat on race day. He even tucks the same number of gels into the same pockets. I used to think this was over the top. Now I think it is the difference between a marathon and a personal best.
The taper
Three weeks out, drop volume by twenty percent. Two weeks out, drop another twenty. Race week, drop again, hold one short workout for sharpness. Most runners do not believe in the taper until they have ruined one race by ignoring it. The taper is where fitness becomes form. Trust it.
Race day in Alleppey
The start line is quiet. You can smell the water. The first 10 km will feel like you are floating. You are not floating. You are spending. Run the first 10 km at goal pace plus ten to fifteen seconds per kilometre. The second 10 km at goal pace. The third 10 km at goal pace if your gut and your legs are still talking to you. The last 12.2 km are honesty. They will tell you what you put in the training.
Take fluid at every aid station. Take a small sip even if you do not feel thirsty. By the time you feel thirsty in November Kerala, you are already losing pace. Keep your shoulders low. Keep your gait short. The backwaters will pass you. Do not try to outrun them.
What I learned from missing it
In 2022 my coach asked me to skip the race and finish my comeback marathon block for January. I sulked for a week. Then I trained better and ran a personal best in Mumbai. The lesson was small but useful. You do not need to run every race you can. You need to run every race you trained for. If your body is not ready for Kerala in November, choose the one in January.
Your next step
This article gives you the shape of a plan. It does not give you the plan. For that, use our STRIDD plan generator and select the marathon distance. Or start from the standard marathon plan template and adapt it for Kerala's heat. If you want to read more on Indian race strategy, browse the STRIDD Running Lab archive. The race will be there. The training has to start today.