The last time I joined a 25km race was way back in 2008 and that was my farthest distance for a road race. History repeated itself last Sunday as Chevrolet New Balance 25km Run was my farthest distance for a road race for 2011.
With no long runs done for the past three weeks, I was scared for this race....so scared that I got hit with panic/ anxiety attacks the night before! Being unprepared really adds stress to a regular (but oversized) runner like myself. But there are some things that are beyond my control (I got sick for two weeks and even missed running Adidas KOTR). But as is always the case from a bad situation like this, we get up again, pray, and do our best.
The hard rain didn’t help me in that my shoes and socks were drenched BEFORE the race even started. But one good thing about the rain is that I didn’t feel the heat from the sun and the very cold weather kept me going forward. Alvin was right in front of me as we ran toward the various International Schools at BGC (and the ankle deep floodwater therein), the hilly long road near Merkato Centrale, up the Kalayaan Bridge and on Buendia Avenue. But we got separated on Buendia as I had to take a quick toilet break at the gas station there.
I couldn’t catch up with Alvin after that (even though he waited for me at the latter part of Buendia Avenue) and I couldn’t go any faster but that’s okay. For me, my priority was not hitting the wall and to be consistent throughout the race. A new PR wouldn’t hurt as well.
For these things, I was quite happy to achieve them and even go sub-3 hours (including the toilet break). I was so happy that I ran 3km more for a total distance of 28km, my longest mileage for one day for 2011!
God is GREAT!
Cast all you anxiety on HIM because he cares for you – 1 Peter 5:7
Per, in her second 5km race for the year, did well too in her race. She got faster again and finished her race at a time of 38:38. Not bad for someone who stopped running for nearly a year!
After I finished running my extra miles, Per and I stayed a bit more to await the raffle draw. No, we didn’t win the Chevrolet but this guy right next to us did and it was such a joy to see him win it. What a great Christmas gift for this guy, don’t you think?
Congrats to all runners who finished their respective races, to the winners of the races, to the raffle winners and to RunRio, New Balance and Chevrolet Philippines for an awesome 25km race! Hopefully there would be another one for 2012!
Note: Some pictures were taken at the event and can be found on Team UBS' Facebook page.
Race Update: Results are out already!!
My chip time for 25km was at 2:58:53 with a rank of 687/1210 = 57%
Per's chip time for 5km was at 38:24 with a rank of 759/1336 = 57%
1 comment:
Great run pre!
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