Yesterday, I had another first: Morning run at ULTRA. My friends and I have already tried running there about two weeks ago but in the evening, after work and after some unplanned mini-shopping in Gale.
I had told Eric I’ll join him one morning to run in ULTRA because I wanted to see how it looks like in the morning. During evenings, at least for the one time we were there, the people I saw running were mostly yuppies and some runners group – but they still looked like yuppies and mid-adults anyway. Well, yesterday morning, when I came to run in ULTRA I saw younger faces, most of them university athletes - and my own school’s track and field team was there, practicing with their new coach, Elma Muros. Oh that lady, already in her forties I think, looks rather cute for her age! I had thought that when I see her face-to-face I’ll find her too masculine-looking for my taste. But na-ah, she’s got a youthful womanly face. Somehow, I really just like women who keep in touch with their feminine side even when their muscles already bulge like that of men because of their workouts.
Anyhoo, I also got to see Maricel there, our roommate in MAK7, who’s a real athlete herself (and a good one at that as she always bags the 1st to 3rd prize in every race category she joins). She was [more] surprised seeing me there [than I was seeing her there] that she asked, “what are you doing here?” Later on, when we had a longer chat in the ladies’ shower room, I would learn that she goes to ULTRA every single morning to practice. And that explained the puzzled look on her face upon seeing me there in complete running gear (Oh! But I think I was wearing a rather girly blouse then, that could pass as sporty anyway). Maricel, I find to be a gracious person. I think she had all the reasons to ridicule me (exaggerated of course!) being there so early in the morning to run, ALONGSIDE real athletes! Oh, but I’m a true-blooded MPG runner anyway. Anyway, she would smile at me everytime she passes by me at the track oval - and in the shower room, she chatted with me like we were longtime friends. Plenty of encouraging words and some running tips – Oh! It’s just cool to have a real athlete as a friend.
The morning run in ULTRA was really an experiment to me. Aside from wanting to have a taste of “ULTRA track in the morning”, I also wanted to discover how the setup should go for me considering that I had to come all the way from UP. I was supposed to go for a morning run in UP that morning but I told Eric I could go to ULTRA instead. With this, I had imagined myself waiting for the first train ride in MRT at 5:30 AM and checking to see if there’s an FX in Megamall that early, plying the same route to Pasig and passing by ULTRA. I also inquired if there’s a shower room in ULTRA as I’d obviously need to go straight to the office after the run lest I lose my job sooner than my second 10K race, hahaha!
The experiment worked quite well, except that I was a bit late in leaving the house than planned. I rode the MRT around 6:05 AM, was at Megamall at around 6:20, and arrived in ULTRA by 6:35. Before I even spotted Eric, who already began doing his warm-up jog with his runningmates, the surprise meeting with Maricel took place. It was such a comfort to see somebody you know among a crowd of youthful university athletes, most of which though were Maroon varsity players for track and field. After exchanging Hi’s and Hello’s with Maricel and greeting Eric when they passed me by running, I just tied my hair up in ponytail and then started my warm-up run. Basically, I did my own stuff there. I didn’t have the guts to join Eric’s group who obviously looked like they had a set training plan for the day and were serious in getting it done. Eric told me the night before he was supposed to do some drills and stairs workouts. Uh-oh! Okay, just go on pals - I think I’ll stick to my own stuff for the moment. I finished around 7 rounds of the track oval running - that’s about 3km – and then topped it off with one more round just plain walking for my cool down.
By 7:20 AM, I decided my run exercise for the morning as over and I retreated to the shower room just half-drenched in sweat. I sure could run more but that’d be risking my officetime. I finished my bath regimen and fixing up in 25 minutes or so, and then I suddenly found myself already looking every inch like an officegirl than a runner (or runner-wannabie) by around 8 AM. As usual, I was wearing high-heeled shoes (after a run!) and nobody could suspect I was there earlier in the track oval pretending and feeling like a professional runner amid a whole pack of track and field athletes.
Funny when Eric later on commented thru SMS, “what was it you ended up doing earlier?” – perhaps struck by how simplistic my training looks like (hahaha!) – and I replied, “Hah?!? I just did what I usually do which is to just run and time myself, hahaha! [Or] am I crazily unscientific in my training?”
Apparently, there should be more science in trainings like these and a newbie like me only knows the ‘bara-bara’ ways of doing it.
Posted by cathydaza 
Posted by cathydaza 