Reebok Zigtech Run 15k - Race Review

So I was basically running by myself for my race category. I caught up with 5km and 10km runners but the 15km runners were nowhere to be seen. Damn, that was a sad sight: to be excited to be running with fellow runners but caught off guard when race started earlier and ended up just running alone. Sigh! I definitely did not want to be the last runner here so kept pushing myself to reach the 15km runners. I was alone even on Kalayaan bridge but I just enjoyed the moment there. Either way, I was getting my exercise for the day and burning calories. And I felt good race performance-wise. The Reebok Zigtech Run was unique for its’ 15km category in that aside from conquering the 15k distance, you have to conquer running inside a building as well. In this case, the building was that of a law office (CVC Law Center) located in Fort Bonifacio area and the challenge was running in and out of 5 parking floors of this building.

It was a no frills race in that the loot bags contain a copy of Fitness magazine and some bottled water. There were no finisher medals nor finisher shirts but that was okay as the reason to join this race was more of the experience of the Vertical and Horizontal road race (and to see if you can finish these challenges).

There were ample water stations throughout the course and they had cold, cold drinks, which was something I look forward to every 1-2kms! Unfortunately there were two water stations that ran out of drinks but luckily its subsequent stations did not encounter the same problems (and I was able to re-hydrate there).

It was definitely a fun experience but one thing that confused me (up to this day) was the gun start time of 15km. Based on what I read the night before (on Reebok’s Zigtech poster, various running blog sites, etc.) the start time was at 5:45am for 15km runners and start time for 5k and 10k runners past 6:00am. So why is it that when I got to the starting line at 5:40am, there were no runners left??? The 5km runners were released just a few minutes earlier with the 15km runners released at 5:30am!

Hmmm, why did everyone knew about this change of schedule? Did I read the announcements wrong (NOPE as verified again when I did an internet search after finishing this race)? Was there a text message to announce this change (I didn’t get any)? Were the people just there early so “luckily” when the gun fired, they took it as a good sign as the sun wasn’t up yet? Whatever happened, I hope somebody could provide me with an answer to this.

Zigtech poster showing 5:45am start time for 15k Runners. Up to now, I STILL haven't found any link showing that start time was moved to 5:30am

So I was basically running by myself for my race category. I caught up with 5km and 10km runners but the 15km runners were nowhere to be seen. Damn, that was a sad sight: to be excited to be running with fellow runners but caught off guard when race started earlier and ended up just running alone. Sigh! I definitely did not want to be the last runner here so kept pushing myself to reach the 15km runners. I was alone even on Kalayaan bridge but I just enjoyed the moment there. Either way, I was getting my exercise for the day and burning calories. And I felt good race performance-wise.

By 7km (wow, it actually took that long), I finally caught with some 15km runners and slowly overtook them as we headed back to Fort Bonifacio.

The interesting part for me was trying to guess which building we had to “conquer”. Well, conquer partially at least. It came at about 12.5km mark as I entered the car park entrance of CVC Law Center and ran down all 5 parking floors for the turning point. I tried running up again but by 2^nd-3^rd floor, my heart was beating (too) fast and I had to slow down and just enjoy the experience. I jogged the last 2.5km to the finish line.

I definitely enjoyed this race and if only I knew about the revised start time, then it could have been a fantastic race for me. Double Sigh!

P.S. race results were up that same day but unfortunately reflected only the gun time of the race, which is kinda useless to me (being “late” and all). Good thing I used my GARMIN watch in this race.