Race: Yakult Run 10-miler 2014 Edition

Yakult Run is an almost annual event (there was a year where they didn't hold the race) and has been here for quite some time.  In fact, last Sunday was its 25th edition.  I had hoped that there would be a special finisher medal to commemorate this event but sadly that wasn't the case.

But the registration fee for 10-miler (16km) was affordable at Php 500, and with that fee, we got a good race, a red singlet, a cotton finisher shirt and a small bottle of Yakult at the finish line.

It was still a good race as course took us to both directions of Roxas Blvd., before the final turn to where the finish line was located.  Too bad it was short 600 meters! 

The kilometer markers were also put at the wrong locations (the first few were 300-400 meters more than where the actual km markers should have been and the latter were short 400 meters to where the km markers should have been - verified by my and my sister's Garmin separately). 

There were ample water here but no sports drinks offered, which was fine as race wasn't that long.  I also had one emergency GU gel with me, to which I consumed at the last 5km, where I would try and go faster than my average pace.

My goal for this race was to get a 6:50 average time, so that I could beat last year's pace of 6:54.  To do that, I have to maintain a 7:00 minute average pace at the first part of the race and go down further at the last 5km.

I had to choose wisely where I will drink my water because there were some stations that lines were long and would mean losing seconds or minutes in this race.  There were also some stations where the crew were still busy filling up the plastic cups so that was something I had to skip as well.

I was able to maintain my pace and when the time came where I had to go faster, I ate the GU gel I had with me and went out at a faster speed.  This worked for me until I felt pain in my right shoulder and lower back.  But I resisted the pain or the temptation to slow down because of the pain and kept going at the pace that I wanted.

I crossed the finish line at 1:45:19, with an average pace of 6:50.

GOAL ACHIEVED!

THANK YOU LORD!

Happy finishers