Monday, June 15, 2009

3 Days of Freedom (from work, that is)

Day 1

I dropped by Botak in EDSA Kamuning last June 12 and registered. It’s been a long time since I’ve been here – I think it was in 1989 when my classmates and I were looking for jerseys for the school's volleyball team. I was accommodated right away by Mark and ultrarunner Ian Alacar, project director of the Botak run on June 28, was there too to entertain my questions. The 5 mile run will start from UP Diliman’s Yilnan Road going out to Commonwealth Avenue. A quick turn right at Robinson’s Supermarket and Mercury Drugstore will lead runners to the Old Balara Road. It’s a short uphill and then a steady run towards Tumana gate. Then everybody goes back to Commonwealth and back to Yilnan Road. Ian said this will be the first time that the two lanes of Commonwealth will be closed for a race. And this will be my first time to run it - can't wait!

Day 2

While everyone was at the trail run in San Mateo, I decided to do a long easy run from MOA to Luneta Park (which I later learned is Kilometer 0) and back to Home Depot Macapagal with Rockenrun. Started at 5:30 am and paced at 8/km, it was quite a cool morning and the breeze helped me a lot in maintaining my pace and consistently running that stretch. Even had ‘small McKinley hills’ at the Film Center and the PICC where we ran up and down the driveways. We bumped into a lot of runners wearing different race singlets and I find myself thinking – looks like everyone’s getting ready for a long race! A lady in Mizuno singlet, a man in Earth Run, a couple of guys in Milo and another guy in Botak. After a quick meal at Jollibee Home Depot, we dropped by Rizal Stadium and checked out the Oval Track and the swimming pool - hmmmm, I like!

Day 3

Rest Day! My thighs were killing me after that long run and I found it difficult to go up and down the stairs so I pigged out on pasta (my personal reward for finishing almost 13km on a consistent pace - that is, no walk breaks! Hehe).








Wednesday, June 3, 2009

IE8…I came…I conquered

(My first 8mile...)

Imagine that - the rain didn't hamper my recent addiction, but the thought of how far the race I have registered to this time gave me apprehensions. I knew I would be running (or walking) on thin ice when I noticed that almost all 8milers were seasoned runners! "What the hell were you thinking?", “You haven’t even trained for this!” repeatedly banged, whacked, knocked, pounded my head. Unfortunately for me, I was wearing a Kevlar helmet. Besides, I need to break-in my new pair of NBs…hehehe. It’s now or never – anyway it’s just a few kilometers after 10 km and I was able to finish a 10km trail run just last weekend. So, it wouldn’t hurt to go an extra mile, so to speak. Ha! Spoke too soon.


My new pair: New Balance Acteva

At the 6:00 am gun-off, I took off faster than my usual pace and tried to keep up with the runners. Bad move - I was already huffing before I made the turn to the Kalayaan flyover. At this point, I had to thank the rain for keeping me from dehydrating but I had to do a mixture of run/walk until I reached Makati Avenue. My watch read 30:49 when the traffic officer at Makati Avenue stopped us because traffic was getting heavy on both sides and he had to let them pass – great! Jogging in place to keep the momentum, we resumed after two minutes and I tried to keep up with my target (or targets, as I keep on losing each one of them every time...hahaha, that’s how slow I was!)

When I reached the Makati post office, I tried to look for the turnaround and noticed that the runners before me were still running far off in the distance. Uh-oh…looks like I won’t make it to my target time! Past the Pasong Tamo intersection, a runner in pastel green overtook me and I tried to keep up with her pace until I reached the turnaround at the railway station. I wasn’t worried that I might slip from the rain puddles near the rails (not with the new shoes! hehe) and ran until the next aid station - which was just a few meters from the turnaround. Drinking water and walking for the next block, I noticed that I lost my new target (again!) - the runner in pastel green.

On my way back to Makati Avenue, I noticed a lot of spongebobs in pink, blue and white colors blocking my path. Looks like the runners before me had a blast with the water sponges. I made it near the Kalayaan flyover at 1:18 and was surprised to see the AS here offering Coke! I sipped some to give me my much-needed sugar boost and was still working on the run/walk pace and keeping up with new targets along the way until I reached the finish line at 1:46 (unofficial).

After drinking more water at the finish line, I felt a shooting pain on my right foot, just near the thumb area. But of course, this didn’t deter me from waiting for my bib number to be called for the laptop raffle and taking pictures. But when I reached home, I knew I had to do something to remove the pain. I tried all means of relief – ice, stretching, rest, massage, biting, cursing, chanting…to no avail. Looks like it’s the doctor’s appointment next week then, that is, after the Mizuno Infinity Run – haha!

Still trying to figure out how I finished my longest race so far (while promising to myself that I will finish a few 10kms first before another 8 mile race), I learned that I actually ran 13.4 kilometers! (thanks takbo.ph for the info) - imagine that!


My 1 year old niece, Candice, wearing the IE8 finisher shirt - my son thought it looks better on her