This was a highly anticipated race since we have been attending the Mizuno run clinic for many Tuesdays already in preparation for this race. This was an exciting race for me because it would be my first time to race a 15K. And racing for the first time in a particular event almost feels like racing for the very first time. There were a lot of things going through my mind. First, I was strategizing on the pace that I would be running. Run too fast, and I’d probably end up walking the next half, run too slow, and you’ll end up disappointed. And since this was my first 15K, I practically had no idea on what pace I’ll be running with.
5:30AM I had my number checked and we gathered inside the starting line. I met up with Teddy and Reggie. Teddy was holding the 5min/km banner flag. I could see my heart rate already elevated to a whopping 125bpm even if I was just standing there with the crowd. It really felt like racing for the first time. As oppose to my usual races, I was actually standing in the middle of the crowd this time. My mind is telling me to keep it easy, enjoy the race and finish it. When the horn sounded, me, Reggie and Teddy started running. The first thing we needed to do was to break away from the crowd. Then a couple of meters me and Reggie were talking about pacing with the 5min/km held by Teddy or if we would break away and run our sub 5min pace the way we usually do with our 8K tempo runs. We eventually decided to run a faster pace and we told Teddy that we will move ahead. We were running an average of 4min/ 20secs for the first 5K of the race and everything felt okay. At the Heritage turning point, it was uphill and we still manage to run between 4:30 and 4:40 pace, then we went inside the Heritage park cemetery, and boy, it was my first time to go inside. It was really beautiful. Getting out of the cemetery we had to climb the uphill until reaching Bayani Road. Then we turned right to Mc Kinley road. Now, the surprising part was, the 15K runners were told to turn right to this road (I’m not sure what’s the name of the road). Yeah, the Fort is my turf, but never have I passed by this road, or even knew that the road existed. The place really looked beautiful. Unfortunately, this was probably one of the hardest routes of this race. It was a long steep downhill, which means you will have to endure a very long steep uphill going back. At the turning point it was a 45 degree angle going up, so you won’t have enough momentum to run up. I felt my calves burning and I noticed how our speed really slowed down. There were a couple of meters that I had to walk and allow Reggie to move ahead. But Reggie couldn’t bear the steepness of the hill also, so there was a point he also needed to walk. At reaching the water station, I drank 4 pocari sweat to regain those electrolytes. I began to run again at a sub 5 pace. Reggie was there catching up not until we parted ways at the Mc Kinley road as I tried to maintain a 4:40 pace. At the last 1KM I gave it my best shot to run a sub 4:30 pace to compensate with the time lost during the steep uphill. I finished with an unofficial time of 01:09:46. I was happy with the results, since I was actually just aiming for a 01:10:00.
After the race, at last, I met the Bald Runner face to face. Congratulated him and had this little chat. Also saw thebullrunner and congratulated her for her 5K race, after a long abstinence due to her knee injury. I’m happy for her she didn’t experience any knee pain during the race.
To evaluate the race, this was probably one of the hardest routes I’ve ever tried (2nd to the Pasig Marathon). It could have been a great racing event except for the fact that there weren’t any free water at the finish line. I had to buy my water for 25pesos. Running a tough 15K with no water at the end can really put you into trouble. But anyway, I would like to congratulate Ige and the Mizuno team for organizing this event.
5:30AM I had my number checked and we gathered inside the starting line. I met up with Teddy and Reggie. Teddy was holding the 5min/km banner flag. I could see my heart rate already elevated to a whopping 125bpm even if I was just standing there with the crowd. It really felt like racing for the first time. As oppose to my usual races, I was actually standing in the middle of the crowd this time. My mind is telling me to keep it easy, enjoy the race and finish it. When the horn sounded, me, Reggie and Teddy started running. The first thing we needed to do was to break away from the crowd. Then a couple of meters me and Reggie were talking about pacing with the 5min/km held by Teddy or if we would break away and run our sub 5min pace the way we usually do with our 8K tempo runs. We eventually decided to run a faster pace and we told Teddy that we will move ahead. We were running an average of 4min/ 20secs for the first 5K of the race and everything felt okay. At the Heritage turning point, it was uphill and we still manage to run between 4:30 and 4:40 pace, then we went inside the Heritage park cemetery, and boy, it was my first time to go inside. It was really beautiful. Getting out of the cemetery we had to climb the uphill until reaching Bayani Road. Then we turned right to Mc Kinley road. Now, the surprising part was, the 15K runners were told to turn right to this road (I’m not sure what’s the name of the road). Yeah, the Fort is my turf, but never have I passed by this road, or even knew that the road existed. The place really looked beautiful. Unfortunately, this was probably one of the hardest routes of this race. It was a long steep downhill, which means you will have to endure a very long steep uphill going back. At the turning point it was a 45 degree angle going up, so you won’t have enough momentum to run up. I felt my calves burning and I noticed how our speed really slowed down. There were a couple of meters that I had to walk and allow Reggie to move ahead. But Reggie couldn’t bear the steepness of the hill also, so there was a point he also needed to walk. At reaching the water station, I drank 4 pocari sweat to regain those electrolytes. I began to run again at a sub 5 pace. Reggie was there catching up not until we parted ways at the Mc Kinley road as I tried to maintain a 4:40 pace. At the last 1KM I gave it my best shot to run a sub 4:30 pace to compensate with the time lost during the steep uphill. I finished with an unofficial time of 01:09:46. I was happy with the results, since I was actually just aiming for a 01:10:00.
After the race, at last, I met the Bald Runner face to face. Congratulated him and had this little chat. Also saw thebullrunner and congratulated her for her 5K race, after a long abstinence due to her knee injury. I’m happy for her she didn’t experience any knee pain during the race.
To evaluate the race, this was probably one of the hardest routes I’ve ever tried (2nd to the Pasig Marathon). It could have been a great racing event except for the fact that there weren’t any free water at the finish line. I had to buy my water for 25pesos. Running a tough 15K with no water at the end can really put you into trouble. But anyway, I would like to congratulate Ige and the Mizuno team for organizing this event.
2 comments:
hi taki,
congrats on your race, i'm a regular reader of your blog as well as baldrunner's and bullrunner's. saw you yesterday at the start beside the one with a five-minute pace flag, but was too nervous before the race to strike a conversation and introduce myself, hehe. btw, i'm levy and hope to see you at future races. more power
Hi Levy,
Thanks for reading my blog. It would have been great to have met you yesterday. I hope to meet you on the next races.
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