The Greenfield Run was held in Sta. Rosa, Laguna last May 29th 2011. Janine agreed to go with me to this event (as Per prefers to stay at the comfort of her bed – I don’t blame her!) to not only be there but to run the longest distance – that of the 21.1km Half Marathon distance.
So far, my 21km races for this year have been slow, what with the ongoing pain in my left foot, shoulder pains, and basically being out of shape. I incorporate a lot of walk breaks in between whereas before when I was thinner and stronger, I could basically run most of the entire distance. Not so long ago (but somehow felt like it WAS a long time ago), my 21km races were used for training for an even longer distance – from that of 23km to 32km as I prepare for my Marathon races, and I even get fast finish times even with the added distance. Now, I just aim to finish these races and NOT get myself confined in an ambulance or a hospital bed due to sheer exhaustion.
You think that after doing 4 half marathons for this year even before this one, I should be getting better or faster. But that was definitely disproven at the recently held Goldilocks Run, wherein I did one of my worst 21km time of 2:48++. Sheesh!! But at least I finished the race and brought home the bling bling and the nice finisher shirt.
Goldilocks Run serves as Leg 01 of RunRio Series Manila. Having missed the 1st leg of RunRio Unilab Trilogy 2011, this is one set of race that I want to complete and that is why I set to do the Greenfield Run as it serves as Leg 02 of RunRio Series Manila. The 3rd leg of said series will be that of Yamaha in July, followed by the Leg 04 in the form of Rexona Run, also happening in July. I’m not yet sure how the mechanics go in terms of this Manila Series (or how many Legs there are) but if it similar to this year’s awarding of RunRio 2010 Trilogy, then you must complete the longest distance of each leg of the race. That was one of my frustrations as I did three 21km races for that Trilogy but didn’t do the 32km distance for the 3rd race. Dang! So near and yet so far…. Well, I guess it wasn’t so near if you take it in its literal form – that’s 11km more! Hehe!
Going back to Greenfield: after having a slow time in Goldilocks, chest pains in Globe’s 21km (and getting scared by it), and doing a lot of walk breaks even for a 15km race, my expectations weren’t that high. It was just to survive it so that I could run again the following week.
So it was to my (nice) surprise that I got a very good time as I wiped out all of my 21km 2011 race records and finished at a time of 2:36:49. Not yet fast but great enough for me. Good enough to feed the fire! So was it the nice weather, the interesting course, the music in my ears? Maybe a combination of all these things! But it was definitely a fun experience for me.
As both Greenfield and RunRio group promised us, there were no problems with regards to the traffic going here nor to that of the parking (we were able to find a spot right away). The crowd of runners wasn’t that big but that was to be expected for a race that’s held outside the usual BGC, MOA, McKinley Hills area. The start time was quite early at 4:45am (so I was awake by 2:45am) but it was better this way as weather was cooler at this time! There were a lot of marshals in the route especially in the labyrinth route of Pramana area so it will be almost impossible for any runner to get lost here. As expected, there were a lot of cold water/ sports drink at different parts of the course along with the nice km markers. A finisher medal for 21km runners (though it could have been better looking and whatever happened to their “surprise” gift for 21km finisher that wasn’t supposed to be a medal to begin with???) and a not so nice finisher shirt. Hahaha! But that’s something of a bonus for me as finisher shirts weren’t really what I wanted for these long races. There were also loot bags for all finishers, which contain vitamins, drinks and a box of cookies. Perfect for the road trip back to Manila for our hungry stomachs.
nice take home bag from our "field trip"
All in all a fantastic race for me as I completed leg 02 of RunRio Manila Series 2011 and looking forward to the next leg of the series.
Congrats to all finishers in this race. Hope everyone had as much fun as I did!
21k race route. 
"21"
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2 comments:
ayos. bumibilis ka na uli. too bad i wasn't able to join this.
oo sayang! Sa next one na lang. hehe
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