Same gang, same venue. Racing in OctobeRun yesterday was sorta reminiscent of my first ever race in 5K Davies Paint Fun Run last August. I was with the same company – Jihan & Ryan - and same race venue (but different race route this time!). This couple are gracious, gracious persons. My ride arrangement for the race was made easy as Ryan had me picked up in Philcoa at around 4:30 AM. It’s usually that super-early morning transpo to the race venue that’s complicated to a car-less person like me, but some people go all the way to facilitating things for others - and it’s more touching when they do it without your asking them to.
Gee, isn’t this more like a Binibini pose than a runner pose! (I need coaching in runners photo-ops!)
Early Birds: Cathletic with Jihan & Ryan.
Plus Points! This race though was twice bigger than Davies Paint and a fourth of Adidas KOTR’s crowd – about a thousand runners, more or less, yesterday. Personally, there were many positive points in this race and I say this despite my getting a really BAD time record yesterday.
* Yep, systematic, they were. Things at the race venue were pretty much organized and there’s the ever ‘kuleeeet’ emcee re-playing the announcement of instructions OVER AND OVER AGAIN (he had me almost irritated..) so all of your questions get answered even before you can utter them.
* Byebye Pee Pressure. There were CLEAN portalets (highlight on CLEAN). So, no pee pressures for me during the race!
* Lotsa Water. There were about 5 water stations for 10K – so that’s one water station every 2K (which is the advisable thing to do for race organizers). And, unlike in KOTR where water came from ’balde-and-tabo‘ (!), the water supply yesterday were taken from distilled bottled water poured into plastic cups. On our way back after the U-turn, the water stations would even give out the entire huge bottled water (about half a Liter size, I think) to the runners who wanted them – I DIDN’T get as I could barely run then and wasn’t in need of extra baggage.
* New Route. The race route was NEW to me! And its long uphill course was pretty challenging – almost equal in difficulty to that in KOTR’s ‘flyover uphill’ but was milder as in this route there were at least some trees bordering the roadsides you can get yourself some shade from the sun.
* Freebies! There were plenty of freebies at the Finish Line!!! And there were ladies, take note: smiling ladies, delivering this nice [memorized] script: “Hi Ma’am, congrats, please get your drinks, and you have a free DVD on running and a certificate! “ I got a bottled water, Fit n Right, and Rush – all of these I find good-tasting… so, pretty much a treat for a thirsty runner! And the DVD…. Hahaha! Promise, NAKAKATUWA S’YA! It’s locally made and I could still emember having seen in the barricades one of the actors/ hosts in the video- hahaha!
As for performance - and in MPG, we only talk about this in the last portion of the race recap as we talk of BETTER things first, hahaha! -Jihan did best finishing her 10K in 66 mins, Ryan in 76 mins, and yours truly, finishing last with 78 mins (unofficial record). Okay, I know I did worse here as my KOTR is 77 and now I’m even a minute late pa (bwisit! hahaha!). But the running video might just help me beat Jihan in Clark. A-S-A! Ryan, tuloy ang laban! hahaha!
Post race photo-op. ;D
True-blooded MPGs. A manifestion of our being MPG: The emcee yesterday kept on reminding the runners, already in formation for the start of the race, that the fast ones should stay in front while the recreational runners (of course we’re NOT that!) should stay at the back. WELL, as you have guessed right, WE WERE IN FRONT, almost in the same pack as Maricel (the athlete-winner in MAK7) that I even waved ‘Hi!’ to her. And this is doing it ‘the MPG way’. Awryt! ;D
Currently a city runner. But I’d wanna try the trails. When I get stronger, I think.
Posted by cathydaza 
Posted by cathydaza 
Posted by cathydaza 
