Milo Marathon 21km Race (July 5, 2009) - Post Race

July 5, 2009 - Milo Qualifying Race for the Milo Finals in December 2009. This is the perfect event for the elite marathoners who want to race against the best and fastest runners in the Philippines. To qualify, they must finish a marathon in under 4 hours to be able to run again in December. This is also a good race for first time marathoners as it is well organized (it is after all the country's oldest road race).

As for me, I chose the shorter distance but longer than the previous two Milo races I have joined in 2008. Yes, this was the third Milo race that Per and I joined and every time we did this race, the experience was always different.

IT'S FLASHBACK TIME !!!!! TIME SPACE WARP!!!

June 2008 - Per and I wanted to try our first Milo race having joined already a couple of road races. Per will go for the 5km and I will go for the 10km. We left the house early but I made a mistake of going through Buendia to get to Luneta. They closed off this road for the marathon and I was forced to re-route to get to the destination. Parking was terrible and by the time I got to the starting line, the race had already started (some 10 minutes ago). It was raining hard too and with the strong rain, Per decided to go back to the car and did not start her race. I had a good time running in the rain (my first) but got bad finish time due to 10-minute "lost" time. Felt like a kid again as first time ran in the rain since like forever!


December 2008 - It was Milo Marathon Finals but found out that they also have 5km and 10km events for this race. Per wanted to redeem herself from her first Milo experience. To make up for the 5km race she didn't run last June 2008, she will run double the distance (10km). Since she wasn't that comfortable yet with this longer distance, I will run with her the entire time and we will aim for a couple PR. We finished the race. We had a good time. And we got a couple PR! Awesome!

Learned also from past mistake by a) leaving house earlier and thereby getting ample time to get to Luneta, b) passing through Pasay instead of Buendia and c) having a secret parking spot near the starting line. Awesome times three!

That was a good day! Redemption for Per and me.

END OF FLASHBACK TIME! TIME SPACE WARP TO PRESENT TIME!

July 5, 2009 - Followed the previous rules and got to Luneta some 10 minutes before my race will begin. The organizers have now put in a half marathon event with a cut-off time of 2 hours and 30 minutes. With three half marathons under my belt already, I figured I could do this and reach the cut off time.

But I haven't been training for this race so this will be a relaxed run with goal of reaching finish line before the cut-off (don't know how strict they are with regards to this but didn't want to find out the ugly way - being picked up by shuttle bus). Per will do another 10km but this time, she will be running by herself only.

As expected, 21km race started 5 minutes before the scheduled time (at 5:25AM) and I ran at easy pace. Half Marathon route was pretty simple - A run along Roxas Blvd going over two flyovers and going back where runners will make a right turn to Buendia and keep running there. Prior to the Buendia flyover, runners will make a U-Turn and head back to Roxas and go towards the finish line at Quirino. For the 10km runners, route was simpler - a run along Roxas Blvd with a U-turn after flyover and head back to the finish line at Quirino.

Aside from having a 21km event here which didn't happen in previous Manila race (as far as I know), there are now Gatorade and banana stations situated on the route. Water stations are there every 2km as well so this was quite organized. My only gripe is that the people at the Gatorade stations will only pour Gatorade in cups when runners stop there. Why didn't they do this before we arrived at their stations? That would save a lot of time for us. People were lining up just to wait for their cups of lemon lime Gatorade! At least it was refreshingly cold! There were also sponges handed out and water trucks to spray the runners passing by it.

On my performance, I was good for the first 10km, doing a steady 6 minute ++ pace the entire time but after surpassing the half way point, my pace got slower and I had to do a LOT of walk breaks. I was tired and far from the finish line. I kept on running with some walk breaks but lack of long runs hit my performance. Luckily, I was able to make it to the finish time before the curfew (barely) and got a time of 2:28:45. Phew! I was still disappointed as this was my worst half marathon time for 2009 but realized that I wasn't really pushing myself to begin with and I still achieved my goal here. I will try to do less walk breaks in the upcoming Globe Half Marathon which I registered for.

Half Marathon Finisher!

At the finish line, I got a loot bag filled with above food and drink items and a Finisher Certificate. For registration fee of Php 150.00, this was worth it! No wonder, we keep going back to Milo races!

As custom for previous Milo races, there were booths for Milo drinks to which I lined up and got two cups. I then headed to the car and see how Per fared in her 10km race.

The good news is: she finished her 10km race. Yay! The bad news is: she had a hard time finishing it! Similar to me, she was at race pace for first half of her race (I even saw her and we were both smiling and exchanged high fives). Then, she got tired and slowed down a bit. Ending with what she describes as "zombie walk" at last 500 meters to 1 km to the finish line. It was a worst 10km time for her for 2009 (again, similar to me). Her gripes was lining up for Gatorade and that there were no water at the finish line.

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The important thing here was that we both finished our races and learned some lessons behind that race. This event was very organized with marshals stopping traffic for us to pass by, lots of water, and new route for me! This was my first half marathon to be done from Luneta too! If there will be another Milo Half Marathon, I will definitely join it again.