Thursday, October 31, 2013

Race Recap: Rexona Run 21km 2013

Rexona Run 2013 was held last October 20th at Mall of Asia Grounds.  The 21km race had a super early gun time of 3AM (for a regular 21km race, the usual gun time is at 5AM to 6AM).  So it was sort a night race.  I didn't mind it as at least I won't feel the dreaded heat that is always linked to running on Roxas Blvd.

But...

I had zero mileage for the week of Rexona Run.

AND I had zero mileage the week before Rexona Run!  So two weeks of no running equals two weeks of zero miles!

Plus we just got back from a family trip the night before so no chance for me to get enough sleep for this race!

Luckily this race didn't have a cut-off time so I will just treat it as a fun run (if such a thing is possible for a distance this far) and didn't have any time expectation goals.  When my wife asked me my target finish time, I just replied, "probably around 3 hours 30 minutes", with no hesitation at all.

I was just banking on the Full Marathon race I did two weeks ago and hoped that I still had some fitness from that race.

So on Sunday early morning, I woke up groggy, ate a sandwich and drove to Mall of Asia to park in their building.  I was late for the first wave but had enough time to stretch and started with the second wave crowd.

I took it slow with a simple strategy of dividing the race into three parts, roughly 7km per part:  with first part being super slow that it would feel effortless, second part a bit faster and third faster still.  I would use time in the first part to analyze my body to see if everything was okay.   I walked at almost every water stations and walked the uphill climbs so as not to burn myself out. 

It was humid when we started but I was thankful that there was no sun heat here. 

21km bib

Rexona Run 2013 had a motto for this race:  Run To Your Beat!  And they did this by providing music (recorded or live via DJs) in a lot of parts of the route.  This worked for me and I ended up enjoying running this race.  It was a lot of fun especially at the DJ stations where there were also live performers (acrobats, dancers, etc) in front of the DJ.

We also entered a light tunnel and it was here where all runners cheered, shouted and waved their hands in the air.  It was a lot of fun and I was reminded of the Rock N Roll Marathon Series that USA has annually.

We were entertained and pretty soon I crossed the 7km without any hard effort.  Who would have thought that providing music would make running on Roxas Blvd. more interesting and less boring?

My pace was a bit faster but I was conservative as I didn't want to walk at the last part.  I changed my goal to below 3 hours as thought that was doable.

I kept going and felt good.  I definitely missed running a Half Marathon race.



I crossed the finish line and got a really nice finisher medal plus a loot bag.  I had a great time in this race and glad to have joined it.  I got a high not from my own performance but from the great music played here.  THIS IS DEFINITELY ONE OF MY FAVORITE 21KM RACES!

Good job Runrio.inc and to Rexona Group for this unforgettable race!

I may not have reached any PR here but at least I still finished it in 2:50:38 with no running for two weeks (which I never did before for a 21km race! Although that is something I would really advise against.)

By completing this race, I set a new record and that is having the longest current running streak of doing four consecutive annual races (and tied with Condura).  Should there be a Rexona Run in 2014, I hope to do it again so that will be my new record of five consecutive annual races.

GOD IS GOOD!  THANK YOU LORD!




1 comment:

deemenrunner said...

agree! one of the best 21k events ever! congrats, dennis!