RuNEW 15k (Post-Race) - Feb 22, 2009

The RuNEW Race by Runrio.com was held at McKinley Hills on Feb 22, 2009, with a 3km, 5km and 15km categories.

We got to the venue around 5AM and got a parking space at the open air. I did a 5.5km jog around McKinley Hills while Per slept some more in the car! But that's okay, because this will be a BIG day for her! It will be her first 15km race in the world of running so any rest she needs, I shall give to her.

This February has been the month where she joined the most races in her entire life (and quite reluctantly) as she prepares herself for today's long distance race. So we both hope that her training (via Nike clinics and the weekend 10km runs) has paid off. On my side, I have agreed to accompany her for the entire race, helping get her water when needed and supporting her till the finish line.

One of my running goals for 2009 is to convince Per to do a 15km so luckily she has agreed to try it. Our goals for this race is just to finish it, thereby getting a PR for Per and getting a Couple PR.

RACE

The race started promptly at 5:45AM and we ran at a steady 7 minutes/ km pace. Instead of leaving McKinley Hills which I thought the route would be, we were there for the first 3km as we ran up the various hills in this course. This may turn out to be the hardest 15km route I've ever tried!

A few minutes later, the 5km and 3km races had started as well and the runners there quickly overtook us. The km marker was quite accurate and finally we left this hilly area to do the run to Heritage Park. The route changed again from previous Fort Bonifacio races as we had to go through two areas of Heritage Park, located on each side of the main road. By this time, the sun was fully up and the heat was making us tire even more. We were switching between walking and running and at this point, I told Per to just drink two cups of water at each water station so she wouldn't be dehydrated. We reached the 10km marker and I can see that Per was wishing that that was already the finish line. I remembered having the same thoughts when I did my first 15km last year, but there was no other choice now but to keep on going. By this time, our pace had gone slower but that was okay as our focus was just to finish the race.

We finally got out of the difficult Heritage Park and headed to Lawton and back to McKinley Hills, counting down the last few km. By 13km, I told Per that we should run all the way as it is just 2km left and so we did. Our pace went back to 7:20 minutes/ km and then we were running downhill McKinley Hills to turn left to ...

the Starting Line!

Oh man! People who finished the race were all shouting "Wrong Way!" and we had to backtrack and go around the road to the Finish Line. By this time, I can see that Per was having a hard time but I still pushed her to keep going for the last 200 meters.

We finally crossed it !!! Whoopie!

My measured distance based on Garmin watch was at 15.35 km (all throughout the race, Garmin distance was exactly the same as that of km markers so the added distance must be the detour we made to starting line).

Our finish time based on Garmin was at 2:03:04 vs official time of 2:03:25 (due to starting our Garmins only when we crossed the Starting Line). Our average pace for this race was at 8:01 minutes/ km.

Per was tired but quite happy that she was able to do a 15km race!

RACE GOAL: to finish it. Mission accomplished!

I ran an additional 2km distance and went to the car to get the camera so we can take a lot of pictures, as seen below:



Giant Flypaper?

Per, all smiling, now that she can finally lie down and eat breakfast!

Great violinist at the stage.

The powerful Ngo sisters: Jeanne and Janine in their 15km races as well!

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Though I had some nice pictures via my camera, nothing beats the photos from Ben's Photovendo!

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Thanks for the free pictures:

Debate time:

1 Running Fatboy vs 3 lean mean running women ! Who would win?

15km runners!!!

Crossing the fake finish line! haha!

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See you in the next race!!