I was at the starting line at 4:50am. Stretched, warmed up, hydrated and raring to go. People near Riovana were piling up to have a glimpse of Papa P (I was wondering why, when all they had to do is look behind them and they'll see the Boo in all his glory). Then came the National Anthem and the prayer. After that, they let us look at the screen for the video presentation while the spotlights beside the screen were pointed at us, I know right?! Useless. Come gun start at exactly 5:10 am, all of us were pumped and excited. Me and Monti started slowly due to heavy traffic, there were like less than a thousand 16k runners thats why.
Approaching the 1st turn I was surprised to see a hydration station right away. I told myself that this run wont disappoint us in terms of hydration. Truly, after running 7 km, hydration stations were strategically present with water and powerade drinks.
Nearing my 8th km, I spotted this girl who had nice running form (and a pretty decent behind) and were accompanied by big runners. And then I realized that this girl might be my running crush and idol, Jaymie Pizarro aka the Bull Runner. To my delight after passing them in the 8th km, ahem, I was right, it was her and that moment gave me a bit of a push to either run with their pace and/or run faster than theirs. But I had to focus my mind on the race so I did. Going up the Buendia flyover was ok, I shortened my stride while going uphill to conserve energy and took advantage of gravity while going downhill to go faster with less effort. By this time I was expecting to see banana stations since by now some runners are probably exhausted and need that extra burst of energy from the banana to make it through the 16 km race. Unfortunately there were none so we had to rely in hydration and use our remaining energy wisely. Now came the biggest, hardest part of the race for me, that steep, long uphill climb from Buendia going back to BGC. Wait. Hold up. Rewind. Let me take you back prior to approaching the flyover, as I was about to approach the U-turn in Malugay St., I saw Monti minutes ahead of me. I had to pick up the pace and run harder. Thats why when I reached the flyover, I ran faster notwithstanding the energy I was spending while doing that. As I reached the top of the flyover, I was gased out and was about to just stop and walk. But i knew that if I walked even for a while, I might like the feeling and give in to the temptation of walking rather than running with a slow pace. So I dug deep, breathed heavily a few times and managed to get my second wind and started running with a steady pace. With tired and heavy legs, I have reached the final kilometer of the race. At the last turn, I used all the remaining strength i had to be able to sprint to the finish hoping to just cut the gap between me and my buddy Monti.
And so I finished the race with an unofficial time of 1:43:xx. I finished 3+ mins apart Monti. I was happy with my new record nevertheless. After cooling down, me and monti got our loot bags which were obviously recycled stuffs from Run United Races. Pero, mabuti narin kesa sa wala ika nga.
After that, we met up with Jeck to talk more about the race, etc. We even saw another high school friend along the way which is always cool to see old friends making the choice to be fit and healthy.
To sum it all up the run was indeed fun. Hydration stations were packed but the bananas and the water sponges were the only one's missing. It would have been better if they threw in a finishers shirt even for the 16k runners only considering the hefty price tag of joining. Besides all that, I'd say its an 8 in a scale of 1 to 10. Another year, another score, another great run for the Runrio Organizers and Timex!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Location:Bautista,Makati City,Philippines
No comments:
Post a Comment