This could be my final race for the year. Could be but there is still a chance I might do one or two more as there are a lot of interesting races to come:
Greenfield 21km
Rizal Run 50km
Nike Run 10km
But as of now, my race schedule is FREE! Not a single race registered or booked for the future! It's off season for this RFB! (Alvin would contradict me and say I have been off season since July! Haha!)
The truth is, I have been a bit bored with running lately. No motivation to run faster. Just a to-finish goal and that has been happening ever since I started doing Ultra Marathons this year. It's a double edge sword that beast! Haha!
I registered for the New Balance 25km some weeks back and didn't do much on training. Just doing a required long run on weekends and one or two slow 10km during the week. It served as my LSD (LSD with no race that is!) with simple goal of crossing finish line and getting the (VERY SHARP!) finisher medal.
I was soooo bored that I wanted to run with my MP3 Player (something which I haven't done in years) but due to the rain, I decided otherwise and left it in my car. Alvin and I went together to the race venue and parking line was pretty long. Good thing we discovered a secret parking area where there were no lines and lots of available spaces!
We also discovered a secret toilet too in that area. If there were good things coming out of this race, it was these two discoveries! Haha!
We were at the starting line with 8 minutes to spare. I did a few stretches and waited for the race to commence.
The race started on time (at 4:30am) but with the big crowd, it took me more than two minutes before I crossed the starting line. I turned on the Garmin and started slow. My strategy was simple: break this race into three legs and start slow on first leg, go a bit faster on second leg and faster on third leg. It was a strategy that worked in Rexona Run two weeks ago. That was about it. No race pace. No race goal! Definitely off season! Haha!
I was armed with two GU Gels. That should be enough.
The route was a maze around BGC area. But I was still glad as we didn't go to Bayani Road and Lawton Avenue! I saw a lot of familiar faces (a lot from the Ultras Alvin and I did before) and a lot of angry faces (party goers who couldn't move their cars because of us!). But marshals managed them and us beautifully. (There was one or two angry girls though in two separate occasions who left their cars to scold the marshals! Trying to make it to curfew time? Haha!)
Other than those two girls, everything went well for us: route was nice, cold drinks, and sponges and bananas along Buendia Avenue.
Route then took us to Kalayaan Bridge and along Buendia Avenue all the way to near Taft Avenue for the U turn back.
My strategy for slow, faster, fastest didn't turn out the way I wanted to and became slow, stagnant and slower! Haha! Oh well.
As we headed back to Kalayaan Bridge from Buendia, the sun was fully up and pouring its heat onto us. 4km to go!
Not in a good mood anymore, obviously. Haha!
Alvin waited for me at last 2km (must have waited forever!) and we ran/ walked together to the finish line.
Got my weapon/ finisher medal and loot bag which had nothing inside except for some dental gift coupons. Oh-kay!!
Went around the finisher area and saw a good deal via Kinesio tapes being sold by Intercare. We went back to the car and I got some cash there and bought two tapes (P200 discount from retail price)!
As I headed back to the car, I heard some disgruntled finishers complaining that not only did they not receive any loot bags but neither did they get any medals as all had ran out (pun not intended)! That was surprising as organizers should have known how many runners joined the 25km category and allocated the right amount. Hopefully there weren't any cheaters or thieves who availed of the medals the wrong way and deprived the finishers of their medals! :(
2,371 calories burned!
Yahoo!
1 weapon/ finisher medal.
Yahoo!
25km done!
Yahoo!
5 comments:
super laughtrip ung weapon slash finisher medal. hahahaha! please share the secret parking and secret toilet room. hahaha!
hey rfb, I have a question, if a 21k is called a half marathon, can a 25k be called a half ultra? haha
cngratulations on the run sir! it was good to see you!
carlito
hi deemenrunner,
so what did you do with your weapon? Hahaha
hi Carlito,
Good question. I thought about it but no it can't. It's because a full marathon is specifically a distance of 42.2km so 21.1km automatically becomes a half marathon.
Whereas an Ultra Marathon is ANY race distance that exceeds 42.2km. So that could be 43km to as far as you want it to be (100km, 200km, 100 miles, 200 miles, etc.) So given this, even a half Ultra distance varies on what you base it on. Hahaha.
Congrats on your taper run! Galing mo! :)
It was good seeing you! I saw Alvin too, 4x haha
1, running past me (what's new)
2, papunta palang ako pabalik na sya
3, same as above
4, walking to you
:D
weapon is kept safe where no one can use it. haha! mahirap na.
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