Racecrashing & almost a podium finish

 

I’ve always wanted to try racing in my hometown in Bicol.  I remember sometime back in July or September when I prodded my brother to have me registered in Milo Naga but missed the chance as the P.E. students there took all the singlets and bibs already (as prompted by their teachers for sure).    

December 29 marked the fulfillment of my mini-wish.  My brother and I racecrashed at the La Consolacion College (LCC) Alumni Homecoming Fun Run in Iriga City.  I have to call it ‘race crashing’ because I am not part of the school’s alumni. 

It just happened that I have a friend who’s part of the organizing committee and I had inquired if I could just run alongside them in the race.  He said ‘Yes’ and so the magic happened:  I was registered a guest runner (I was issued a singlet, a race bib, and a snack pass all for P25 fee!) and funnily!, I ended up being the first female finisher in that race. 

AND, I assure you, there were other female runners there!  I had to claim that or you begin toying with the idea that I was the only lady runner in that race.  Uh-oh, did I just sound overly defensive?

There were about 300 runners in the race and the distance covered was roughly 4 to 5 kilometers.  Okay, hear this:  the organizers didn’t really have an idea how long the entire course is, so that distance I just approximated through my time of finish.  They also didn’t log the times clocked in by each runner and instead, worked up only a list of ranking based on who-finished-first-and-who-comes-next.

But don’t think the race was poorly organized.  Truth to tell, the race was almost professionally done in all aspects except for those I mentioned.  There were plenty of freebies (Milo was there!), enough marshalls, singlets and bibs of good quality, water stations, and a nice route.  Best of all, there was hot arroz caldo with egg and mineral water served at the finish line!  Now where else do you see that!

This race was made more memorable as I was joined by my younger brother, Daryl, who had his road racing debut here.  Boy, am I not proud of him!, he finished 7th among all the runners.  It’s true I finished first among the ladies but there were probably 30 plus male runners ahead of me.

I think I wasn’t serously racing this one as I thought I just wanted to be part of a local town race in Bicol and I’m already ’solved’ with the idea.  I wasn’t thinking of PRs or whatever -  how could I when the race organizers didn’t even have an idea how long the course was! 

So it came as a pleasant surprise for me when I saw there was a semi-commotion as I approached the the finish line.  “Sadi na su pinakaunang babaye na nakatapos!”  (Here comes the first female finisher!), I heard someone shout. 

Gee, did these people have an idea how I fare in Manila races?!   LOL! 

Anyway, they dragged me to go straight to the stage and have my name listed in the awardees.  Someone even took her videocam and started interviewing me, but stopped in obvious disappointment when I was asked of the batch I came from. 

“I’m not an alumni, sorry.  I registered as a guest runner.  It’s okay, just give the award to the one next to me.”  And I said that without any bitterness, okay!  At least I think I did.  Haha! 

On second thought, I think I was affected witnessing how the girl, who I beat by three whole minutes!, walk up the stage to receive her prize.  Haha!  I should know because as she posed for pictures after getting her medal, I motioned my brother to get the motorcycle so we can start heading home already.  Hahaha!  Envious Cathletic!

Perhaps, I should start hunting for more small-scale out-of-Manila races now.  Hahaha!

Catching up, on so many things

 

‘Been an absentee in so many things lately, but Cathletic is back – even stronger and better this time, I hope (wink).  Someone jokingly teased me about my still having a cold last night at the Nike clinic (as he learned from this blog) -  Hmn, I’m completely well, prometheus cometh.  Byebye sick mode now.

I wouldn’t possibly trade the company fun run this past weekend for something of lesser value.  I was homebound to Bicol and had we some greatgreat family time together!  And our long drive, my two older brothers with me acting as shift drivers (it was our first!, as my kuyas aren’t really used to long distance driving), proved to be more interesting than expected. 

To give you a peek to our eventful driving experience:  we got a flat tire while exiting Bicol Monday afternoon and we were stranded at one of those roadside auto vulcanizing shop for over an hour! 

 

Nuninuni Run in Bicol

Anyhoo, my Bicol weekend was a blast and I was able to sneak in a short 4km run, with matching drama on the side:  ‘reminiscing high school days’.  It was a great chance to visit my alma mater in high school, the University of St. Anthony in Iriga City, and try my feet on their new track oval.

Let me take you to my beloved USANT through these pictures.

USANT Forum.  Oh, the so many memories of yesteryears … (nuninuninuni).  One passes by all the high school, elementary and college buildings – and also this coliseum – to go to the track oval that is situated far inside the university compound. 

The track oval’s surface is not rubberized so it’s not as runner-friendly as the ones in ULTRA and Marikina Sports Complex.  Then again, I totally enjoyed doing a reminiscing drama run in there. 

Beside the track oval are the twin lawn tennis courts, a basketball court, and a swimming pool.  When I left USANT, all these new sports facilities were still on the building stage.  Oh but I am glad the school is even prettier this time.

 

Back at the Nike Running Clinic

And all the while I thought I’d be totally lost last night after snubbing, unintentionally though, last week’s run sesssions.  Thank goodness, last night’s session turned out to be one of my fave types of training -speed intervals. 

I can be a speedster if I choose to but in distance running I take it all slow because speed running easily saps all my energy.  But during interval trainings, your need for speed get satiated.  Run fast all you want and you’ll be fine.  My own mantra for this training is:  Run like there’s no tomorrow.  Needless to say, I enjoyed every bit of second when I raced against my own heartbeat last night!  It was draining, true, but I so lovelove sprinting! 

I figure there’s no need to spell it out here, but I will anyway, hehe.  You know what made me love it more?  I was consistently running ahead of my classmates and was leading the pack side by side a coach who was pacing us.  (Uh-oh, competitive me!)  There were even times when I ran ahead of our pacer because I really felt that I could hack it at a faster pace still.  That urged our coach to poke a joke on me on our next set:  ”Sabay lang kayo sa ‘kin, yung mauna papatayin ko!”  (Just keep with my pace.  I’ll kill you if you run ahead of me!) 

Yay!  Death threat!  And I’ve always been an advocate of safe running, hehe! 

Last night’s session consisted of a longer 5 laps warmup run, 3 sets of 3×200m speed intervals, and some running drills.  Intense, intense, intense!  As usual I arrived late and a friend from the early birds batch shouted at me while I was approaching the training venue:  “Uy, Cath late ka na naman!”  (Hey Cathy, you’re late again!)  Nyay, a consistent latecomer and now it’s for the whole world to know, hahaha!

Prolly because I was to able run fast last night and was leading the pack most of the time, the coaches started noticing my form.  And OH! my running form – if there’s anyone most frequently imitated in his/her running form amongst all of my friends, and I mean “imitating for everyone’s laughter trip”, that is unfortunately ME.  I take no offense because it’s true.  I look too girly a runner – with some weird sideways twitching of my right leg.  My friends call it running with ‘pilantik’ or ‘maarte’ running.

Believe me, that is sooo untentional and I just run the way I usually do.  So I’ve been running ‘maarte’ all this time afterall. 

So not-one, not-two, but THREE coaches approached me last night, at three separate instances!, just to point out to me what seemed to look weird in my running form.  Expectedly, it’s that weird sideways twitching of my right leg that they noticed.  They told me to just run straight and get rid of that weirdo movement.  I somehow got an assurance that we will correct it together in the next run sessions.

Then again, it’s really that noticeable eh?  One coach even asked me to run infront of him for a demo while some classmates watched.

And I got a copy of our class pic from last night from ibetlacbay (vballrunner.wordpress.com), yey!

Prolly this is 1/6 of last night’s total attendance.  This group comprises mostly of the latecomers batch, owkey my batch.  To solve your boredom, let’s play the ‘find me!’ game.

 

And what’s a better way to catch up

… than throwing my MPG sportswatch to the wastebasket and getting this humble Timex Ironman Triathlon sportswatch at 50% discount.  That is, to get myself more accurate timing for my practice runs. 

Friends, Timex stores are on sale these days.  Either you get the buy one take one watches at P3K (yes, that’s two watches for P3K) or get great item finds at 50% off the original price.  What a treat! 

And running ‘times’ will never be the same again.