Thus, went my group SMS to my beloved MPG runners, boss, officemates, and friends about an hour after the Adidas KOTR race at The Fort last Saturday morning. I couldn’t yet send the same message to my parents or my father will surely scold me for overstressing my legs in running a 10K distance (I would know because he already showed a perplexed reaction when I told him I joined a 5K race before. Parents will always tend to overprotect their children, which is just understandable.)
First time 10K Finisher. Yebah!
Big-time Race. The KOTR race was the biggest ever race I’ve seen this year. The race venue was literally packed with runners it was hard to locate your companions after your run. Perhaps due to exhaustion (I was almost dizzily tired!) and the scorching heat, when I reached the finish line everything/ person began to look all the same to me - sweaty runners dressed in powder blue Adidas race singlets. I anticipated to get lost in the crowd (there were about a thousand runners!) and I thought I’d have a difficult time searching for Carla and Francis until I heard them shout my name and wave ‘Hi’ while I was exiting the railings where a lady took the bar code off my race bib for my race record. Carla and Francis were in one of those long queues of runners for I-don’t-know-what freebies and I proceeded to their direction immediately. Later on, when I reunited with them in the line, I learned they were trying to get race souvenirs which weren’t actually there (or weren’t there anymore) when it came our turn to claim ours. All we got were some sweet oatmeal energy bars which I later on personally judged to be too hard and too coarse as post-race food. You should know that one of the best post-run food is ‘goto’. The rationale goes: after pounding much effort from your self in running, you need that sort of food that requires literally no, or minimal amount of, effort to eat. So Chowking ‘goto’ finished off with their petite ‘halo-halo’ is my idea of a post-race tummy treat.
30 Minutes Late! Anyway, I realized there is no race other than Adidas KOTR that could better host my first 10K. With the huge crowd of runners, good-looking race singlets, and the rather challenging route (hey, hey, hey, we crossed Buendia flyover all the way to Makati Ave., U-turn at Reposo and back to The Fort!), I’d say I had a superb run! And my training (long practice runs with MPG runners) paid off! The first 5K went quite easy for me that I ran continuously at a comfortable pace all the way to the U-turn at Reposo. The short walks in between runs began after that U-turn, when I felt I was getting dehydrated and to my disappointment (!), there were very few water stations - only three stations and two of them were practically useless to me as there were no more water when I passed by. For your information, Carla, Francis and I arrived in the race venue 30 minutes late(!) so by the time I was crossing the Buendia flyover, I met along the 95% of runners who started on time and were traversing the other side of the street going their way back to The Fort. Had I got some great deal of exposure! I am sure there were still other runners behind me but most of the time, I was the lone person running my pace. That is why, all the time I felt that the runners distribution on the right and left side of the street was 99:1. I didn’t care what they had in mind (“oh she’s so slow she hadn’t got to the U-turn yet…”) as I know I was 30 minutes late (even 42 minutes as was indicated in the clock at the starting line).
Bravely sticking to the Plan. Truth is, I was even tempted to go the 5K route instead, for fear of getting lost in the 10K route since almost the entire pack of 10K runners has already gone ahead (way ahead of me!) so I’d be doing the drama of a lone runner clueless of which way to go and which turns to make. But I braved it to pursue the 10K as I psyched myself, ‘man, I’ve been doing long run practices for this in the past two weeks, and now for nothing?!’ And this explains why I ran tall, figuratively and literally, and pretty relaxed the entire run - despite the situation. I was setting a personal record for myself. I was there to do my first 10K. And to finish it with a decent enough record. And with God’s goodness, I did survive my first 10K race - and 73 minutes isn’t bad! Yahooo! Honestly, I had initially prepped myself to get it 80 or 90 minutes, as this is really what showed in my 10K run practices. But the training, the carbo-loading the previous day, and the eagerness did me good! And most likely, the tardiness in coming to the race venue did, too! What else can make you run faster than the knowledge that most of the other runners are ahead of you – better put in Tagalog, ‘na napag-iiwanan ka na…” ? And that knowledge even pops before your face as you meet along the 95% of the pack who are already going their way back to the finish line. Pressure! Pressure!
My race companions, and hosts - Carla & Frans.
Running counterflow. And you know what’s good in running counterflow the majority of runners you’re supposed to race with? You see celebrities and other runner-friends face to face - and they can wave ‘Hi’ to you and you to them - which you wouldn’t perhaps be able to do so in that crowded race venue. While going the slightly uphill course of the flyover, I saw on the other side of the road the mestizo Ayala old man, and a little later on while descending, Paolo Abrera. I also saw my lady boss who was too concentrated in her running that I had to cross the other side of the road (to the amazement of some people running beside her) and run towards her just to say ‘Hi’. I think I caught her in shock, haha!, but I knew she was happy to see me there (she, being my prime instrument in my getting to this sport). A little later on, I caught a glimpse of our CEO who was difficult to miss among any crowd of people because of his 6′2″ height and huge built. Later on in the afternoon during the company badminton tourney, he jokingly scolded me for not saying ‘Hi’ to him. Another surprise greeting came from someone on the other side of the road who suddenly snapped his arms sideways close to me (to my shock!) in a gesture to say ‘Hi’. I didn’t see the face but I quickly figured in mind that it must have been Eric so I immediately shouted back ‘Hey!’ in recognition. A few minutes more, the surprise didn’t anymore come from the other side of the road but from behind me. Francis, who called himself a diesel runner, had already caught up with me around 200M before the U-turn. We exchanged a few words and then I asked him to go his pace as the diesel runner has already got his momentum by that time for sure. As usual, I was going my comfortable slo-mo pace trying to keep my stride short but my cadence faster.
Invincible, almost. Go MPG!
Waterless, NADA! At the U-turn in Reposo, I was disappointed to see race marshalls handing in just the plastic straw (to put around your neck as a sign that you’ve reached the first 5K mark) and NO water – nada! Note that by this time, I already finished running 5K distance and I have not yet gotten for myself any water station benefits! I thought I passed by one along the 3K mark but the water station was emptied – no one tending it and no water too! I could not be thankful enough that this time I wore a beltbag that housed a small Listerine bottle filled with sportsdrink, and funnily, some Mentos candies. The Mentos candies are surely a joke! As I was putting them inside the bag, I thought to myself, ‘what a nice run I shall have! running while chewing my favorite menthol candies!’. Anyway, one thing I realized is that you couldn’t be possibly gasping hard for breath while running and ‘chewing-your-favorite-menthol-candies’ at the same time. Try it and see for yourself that it’s not compatible, na-ah.
Pee Pressure. Okay now, for the excuses part - no one could possibly end a race recap without putting forward some excuses on why she hadn’t ran as well as she had planned to (just kidding!). But this time, I honestly have an excuse: The moment I crossed the starting line, I realized I should have peed first. I thought at first that it was something just in the mind as i was too excited; but later on, I soon realized it was something physiological and it just began haunting me. I brushed it off and just kept on running. But by the time I made the U-turn, I was already dreading three things: one is feeling dehydrated, second is the scorching heat (the sun by then shone like it does in mid-morning when it wasn’t yet) and worst of all, I felt more the ‘need-to-pee’ pressure whenever I’d force my self to run some more. The pounding motion of the body while running made my gall bladder act like crazy I felt it was going to pour if I push it too hard to keep running. And ladies and gentlemen, this is what you now call the Pee Pressure. Hahahaha!. Several times while running and trying so hard to keep the pace, I would be forced to slow down and then walk because the Pee Pressure tells me to. And that explains the walks-in-between my runs. Next time, after learning it the hard way, I shall pay a visit to the toilet before crossing the starting. And this shall be included in the ‘MUST DO’s’ list.
Acknowledgments: Thanks to Carla and Francis for hosting me and for understanding all my “eager-beaver”-ness prior to and during the race. I spent the night before the race at Carla’s home in BF Parañaque. Together, we shared our pre-race regimens and I thought she was carefully watching me do my rituals evening before a race. I told her though that I don’t have such. Hahaha! (Just pure carbo-loading, extra hydration, and good sleep) Anyway, Francis, being the triathlete that he is, was more scientific in these stuffs and he guided us in choosing a sportsdrink and buying pre-race breakfast goodies, and constantly reminded us “not to do try anything different the night before the race” – which to me just sounded so wise. Also, he bought bananas that the three of us shared and ate heartily during the evening dinner, breakfast the next morning, and moments after the race. We were running bananas personified. Hahahaha!
Posted by cathydaza 
Posted by cathydaza 