7th Mak Challenge: Great Run, Cozy Afternoon Stroll, plus! Eerie Night Stay

Call me an eager beaver, all right. About three weeks before the race, everyone in my running team were already registered and paid (well, that was really due to the organizers’ instructions to us to get advance reservation). At that time, I was assured of having 13 people in my list. Since they all have paid already, I thought no one’s gonna dare backout anymore – Heck, you don’t go to the street and accidentally pick up stray bills summing up to P350! See there’s plenty of economic principles at work in advance reservation/ registration matters. But two in the team had had to ignore that for some really valid reasons: We missed you in the run, Brian and Nelson!

Anyway, as for the rest of us who pursued and decided to brave the Makiling hills – two thumbs up to us pips! I know you all enjoyed as much as I did. REALLY, I ENJOYED THE EXPERIENCE SO SO MUCH. (Now I’ve got plenty of superlatives to spare from my system today eh!)

The Super Eleven: From left to right: Ryan, Jihan, Dree, Cathy, Rommel, Carla, Mark, Charity, Ivy, Pao, & Francis

This out-of-town race once again affirmed the many cool and funny things that happen to backpackers and that the backpackers, themselves, are able to make happen. Some interesting real anecdotes before, during, and after the race:

Pre-run Preps. I constantly reminded the team to do their own practices as I’ve learned by experience that the race offers an unwanted pressure on the runner – eventhough you’ve already prepped yourself that you’re not really there to compete and you’ll just have fun. Come on, you shouldn’t be surprised to learn that it’s instinctive for human beings to be competitive (not necessarily in a negative way) – if not with others, at least with oneself.  This is true, at least for me. I know I cannot really win and get medals nor bring home the cash prizes.  In the races I’ve seen, the ‘real athletes’/ professional runners are always present to claim their lot in the game.  So everytime I do practice run and join races, what’s really up in my head is to outdo myself, do better than my previous run, and constantly look forward to doing even better.  In the real race we call LIFE, that’s really what matters -  to keep on believing that we can be ‘better’ and actually practicing to be ‘better’. 

Anyway -  so much for the profound thoughts! -  my constant buddy in the running practices in UP was Dree, who patiently waited for me until past 8 PM since I would be coming from my time-hungry job in Ortigas.   So we would begin circling the acad oval about 8:30PM on Thursdays then finish after a little less than an hour.  Thu is  the decided practice day because it’s supposed to be time when the Happy Feet runners would also do their practice runs -  so at the very least we can be sure there would be other runners in the vicinity even at that late a time of the day. 

But my last practice run before the race was with Cha and Pao and that was on the Friday before the weekend race.  We finished two rounds of the acad oval and Cha was constantly teasing me about my running style.  Now you don’t ask me or Cha what the style is, if you want us to remain friends.  Ha ha ha!

Backpack trip to Laguna:  Saturday came and as I rose from bed, I knew there were so many tasks lined up for me to attend to and on top of it was the fixing my backpack set.  We were supposed to leave Cubao by 1PM and ride a bus that’s gonna transport us straight to the UPLB kingdom.  I was in Cubao about 12:59PM (Pressure!  Everyone going with me were already there – Dree’s gang (Ivy, Rommel, & Mark), and the Cha&Pao tandem.  Sorry guys, I made you wait.)  So, it was the first time I met the Kalay dudes/ male friends of Dree from Kalay dorm.  

We reached the ‘College’ (that’s UPLB’s codename among the bus manongs) after about two hours.  We hired the jeepney to take us around the campus and bring us to ATI-NTC dorm (our supposed to be shelter for the night).   The dorm is located in the more foresty and secluded side of the campus.  Alright, spell secluded now.  I tell you, it really is, to the point of being eerie.  This explains my having a sleepless night before the race.  Funny to the max.  It’s true I took seriously the one of extra liquid intake and carbo loading, but heck, I didn’t get any sleep at all before the race – not even a pretending nap!  But well, I wasn’t really in bad shape for the next morning’s run.  I guess I was too excited and happy about the race to be in bad shape.  Mind over matter.

For a quick rewind, we strolled the UPLB grounds that afternoon and busied our cameras.  But before that, we put down our backpacks at our rooms in the dorm and immediately went out to take a hurried walk to catch D’tri’s carabao milk products.  We weren’t sure it would still be open when we arrive because they usually close down early on weekends; fortunately, it was.  But after we bought our stuff – two liters of choco carabao milk and the store’s last three cups of carabao milk yogurt -  the store put down its shop windows already.   Good luck was with us. ;D  

The milk-drinking sessions became semi-laugh trips because people began to joke about us getting milk overdose and suffering its aftereffects while racing the next morning.  The thought of it still makes me laugh while I type this.  Ha ha ha!

After D’tri were the leisurely walks and the many photo ops.  No doubt, we had more pre-race pics than the actual and post-race happenings.  Later that night, Mark and Ivy went out to party (Oh yes, party the night before the race!) with high school friends while Dree, Rommel, and I got treated by Roy (Dree’s MBA classmate) to LB square for some more carbo-loading and a quick drive around the campus to check the next morning’s race route.  The Carla-Francis tandem arrived past 9:30PM to join us spend the night in that eerie dorm.The Race:  More than 700 runners registered to the race and we wore really nice maroon singlets.   The race was declared an official UP centennial celebration event the week before the race.   So, I just say, Que Suerte!  The Jihan-Ryan tandem arrived around 5:30AM in the race venue.  They were with another friend, Eric, who’s also Ryan’s fratmate. 

About seven minutes past 6 AM, the gun shot was fired to signal the start of the run.  And the rest is history.  Ha ha.  We started doing our own thing and after sometime each one of us would be clueless as to where another member of the Super Eleven is:  there were too many runners and we were all busy catching our breaths and forcing our leg muscles to not-to-die-out-yet.  What with the steep uphill course!

I finished my 5K in 41 minutes, which is 7 minutes shy of my Davies race record of 34 minutes.  Good thing I could always point to my sleeplessness the previous night and the steep incline as my excuses!  Ha ha ha!  My practice running buddy Dree did better at 39 minutes.  She thought she was just gonna do a “porma” run but she actually did well -  finished first among all females in the our group who did 5K.  Burger!  Burger!

For our brave 10kers – Jihan, Ryan, Mark, Rommel, and Eric – hats off to you guys!  Did you know I was beginning to have guilt attacks while waiting for you guys at the finish line – and you took a while ha!  (Ha ha ha!  Just kidding!  I know the route was no joke; rather, it was a joke for beginners, ha ha!)

Well, I should have more stories to tell, but…   Anyway, I’ll post the pictures real soon and it should tell more stories. 

Here’s looking forward to run more races with you pips! ;D