RFB's New Running Challenge Conquered!

Can I run two 10km races in two days and still maintain a good finish time for both of them ?

That was my self imposed challenge last week as I joined for both Race for Life at Fort Bonifacio and Animo Run in Mall of Asia grounds. Here's my account on both races:

NOV 22, 2008 - RACE FOR LIFE, FORT BONIFACIO

The race starts at 6:00AM but figured I was quite early as got to Fort Bonifacio area around 5:35AM so there was enough time for a little warm-up and stretching. Unfortunately, I thought that this race will be held near NBC Tent as most Fort Bonifacio races were. Good thing I had the race map with me and by the time I found the starting point, it was just 5:40AM so there was still time..

BUT... there was no parking space in sight! Unlike races held at NBC Tent, Serendra or even McKinley Hill where there were ample parking spaces, here it was the complete opposite. Cars were parked on one side of the street and that was already filled up by the time I got there. I made a long drive to look for an empty spot and even ended up outside British International school. Still no space available! In the end, I ended up at the carpark of Market Market and had to jog a little bit to reach the starting point.

By the time I got to Starting Line, the race had already started so I had no choice but to just keep on running. So unready in that my Garmin was still tracking the satellite and my IPOD was playing a sloooow song. No stretching and no warm ups either. What a bad day! Really disappointed that organizers didn't foresee a need for car parks and with 1,000 runners, they should have at least thought about it. Street parking is never enough for this magnitude of runners.

The course itself was mostly flat to downhill so figured a lot of runners got their Personal Best time here. Due to my Garmin not starting on time I don't really know what my finish time is but based on my calculations (Garmin recorded 9.25km distance at 55 minutes), it should be around 58 minutes to 1 hour 1 minute. Arrgh! What a waste!

The road was closed on one lane only so it was very tight as there were a lot of runners. I had hoped they would close at least two lanes but that wasn't the case here. We even went to a construction zone where we had to weave around the workers standing outside it (there were about 6-9 of them)! Some (but thank goodness not all) marshals let cars go FIRST before the runners so some people had to stop running and wait for 3-4 cars to pass by them before they can cross the street. First time that happened to me which kinda ruined the momentum I already had.

On a good side, the water stations were all in the right places and in the end, I looked at the bigger picture: that this race is for charity and therefore, for a good cause. But there is some room for improvement here in terms of race organization and hope they do so in their future races. Maybe get Coach Rio to run it???

GOAL: To finish under one hour and get Personal Best. Maybe I went under an hour. Maybe I didn't. I don't really know! At least I finished strong in that except for the three water breaks and that one time I couldn't cross the street, I ran all the way and didn't feel tired after the race. I just did my stretching after the race. No pictures from my camera as my car was parked far from the finish line and too lazy to get it and go back here.

NOV 22, 2008 - ANIMO RUN, MALL OF ASIA

I didn't want to be disappointed again so I made sure to be really really early today! Easy to find parking spot and went to the starting line. This time, I made sure to do all the things I missed yesterday: warm-up jog (first time I did this as usually saving all my energy for the race) and stetchings afterwards.
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The 10K race started at 6:00AM via a gun shot into the air, but some marshals were waving their hands in the air trying to stop it. I think it had to do with a lot of runners not checking in yet for the race. But it was too late as the shot was fired and the runners were off! Determined to finish fast today and with yesterday's frustrations, I ran hard here. No pain in the legs so that was a good thing. And didn't feel any fatigue yet given I ran the day before. I pushed myself to run all the way in this race except for the few seconds at the water stations. I was quite happy in that the weather was nice and the course was flat most of the way.

dfd

GOAL: To beat last year's Animo Run finish time of 1 hour 7 minutes. YES, I BEAT THAT!

YESTERDAY'S RUN GOAL: To finish under one hour: I didn't know if I was able to do so in that run but today it's a confirmation! I finished at 59 minutes 10 seconds!!!

YESTERDAY'S ULTIMATE GOAL: To try get Personal Best time of under 58 minutes. Based on my Garmin, the distance for this race was at 10.29 KM. Upon reaching the 10.00KM distance, I checked my time to be at 57:35 minutes. My average pace for entire race was at 5 minutes 45 seconds, which was my target pace for yesterday's run. So, in a way, I also fulfilled this goal in that my 10km was under 58 minutes and got my target pace as well.

L-A-S-A-L-L-E .... LA SALLE RAH!

Met blogger High Altitude

10km Finishers: Jeanne, Janine+, me, Gigay

Running Bloggers Unite: Jinoe and Que of Takbo.Ph, Tech Spec, RunUnlimited, Nora the Golden Girl, High Altitude, Meek Runner

Janine with her brother in his first 10k run. With most siblings running already, how soon before mom and dad will join the running band wagon ?

Gym buddies and good friends Gigay and Meynard

Onward to new runs and to new challenges !!!!