DND Race

I must say this was a very memorable race for me, primarily because it was my first relay race. It was also the first time we get to race as a team. There were actually two Fort Strider groups who joined. Kuya Art, Ate Merlyn and another guy who's a friend of kuya art were the first group. On the other hand, Me, Glenn and Tina were one group.

I was surprise to find out that there were also Happy Feet runners who would be joining this relay. Jaymie was also the second runner for their team. At last, I was able to meet Ben and Joms.

We were not really racing to win but simply to enjoy the race and to get to try for the first time a relay race. Glenn asked me if I wanted to join him and his girlfriend Tina, so I'm the extra guy who tagged along with them in this race. Glenn would be running first, followed by me, and then Tina. I call this arrangement the Positive splits. The fastest runner would run first, followed by a slower runner, and then the slowest runner. Glenn is really fast, even for an injured guy still manages to go in the top 20 of several races. Me on the other hand, I just wanted to get my first Personal Record for the 7K. Tina on the other hand is not really much of a runner. Perhaps Glenn only dragged her since we needed a girl to form up our team. But at least I know Tina is capable of completing a race. (Hey, not everyone can complete a race, even just a 7K race).

When the gun sounded the first team started running. As usuall, I was now pretty nervous. I don't know if it was a good thing, but just by standing up, my heart rate began elevating to 105 bpm... hehehe.... As predicted Glenn would come around 7 or 8th place. After Glenn arrive it was my turn to run. I started with a very fast pace of 3:30 but after 100 meter i slowed down to 4:40 pace. I know I can maintain a 4:40 for 7K since I have done a 4:35 in a 5K practice run. Around perhaps 500 meters I saw Joms, the tall happy feet runner on his way back. After going out of the camp I saw Kuya Art just on his way going back. I thought to myself, "wow, we are really far in front of the lead". It was even more bliss as I was able to overtake 3 runners before heading to the turning point. On the way to the turning point, the road became really really steep. I also noticed my pace go down to 4:50, I thought to myself, I'd just maintain 4:50 and push more speed after the turning point. When I was running back, I saw of a couple of runners. I also saw Jaymie from happy feet and waved at her. I pushed my speed at a faster pace to compensate the time lost while running uphill. I was hoping to overtake the runner 100 meter ahead of me. Unfortunately, I had no more time to do so until I reached the finish line to pass the straw to Tina. I completed 7K in 31 minutes while glen did it 27 minutes. So combining our speed we have completed 14KM in 58 minutes. I thought that we were kinda ahead already. We were even ahead against the really fast Global City Runners. They even thought we would be winning the Civilian category. I was just hoping Tina would still do good enough to maintain our starting edge. We saw Ate Merlyn reaching the finish line first. We asked ate Merlyn where she last saw Tina, and she said she was able to over take her at the water station after the turning point. She also said that it was unfortunate Tina had some side stitches and couldn't run well. After a couple more minutes, we saw Tina approaching the finish line and we congratulated her. Tina completed the 7K by around 52 minutes. We didn't win any medal, but it was not bad to complete a half marathon for 1 hour and 50 minutes.

Ate Merlyn, Kuya Art and their friend got 4th place in their age category as expected. And Happy Feet runners Joms, Jaymie and Ben won 3rd place for the age 39 and below.

We had a good race, and we enjoyed it alot. I'd definitely be there on the next DND relay.