I am starting to join more races as it serves as a motivation to train a bit more and to exercise as well. Without races, I would be too lazy to run. It also helps to assess my fitness level.
For this race, I was hoping for a sub 2:30 time like what I did three months ago. I was optimistic that the 32km Run United 2 race I ran two weeks ago was enough for me to get to the finish line at this pace.
With a gun start of 4am, I was awake by 2:15am and prepared my breakfast meal for this race. I was sleepy once again as just had two hours of sleep but made sure that I will drink just one cup of coffee so it won't be a repeat of the last race where I had acid reflux for the first 10km!
I was positive with the time as figured it was 11km shorter than my last race but that wasn't enough. I ended up consuming two GU gels (one at 9km and second at 16km) but even these weren't sufficient for me and by 19km, I was slowing down and even walking at some parts of the race. Getting a 2:30 finish time meant an average pace of 7 minutes per kilometer. Clearly, I lacked speedwork as none of my kilometer runs were at 7 minutes! Ha ha.
I ended up crossing the finish line at a time of 2:48 with an average pace of 7:50, tired, exhausted and having sore legs and back. Clearly, I was short of training (mileage and speed) for this race.
The race route is quite different from all other races from the same venue (Mall of Asia starting ground). We never ran on Roxas Blvd except for that one point where we would cross it to head toward Buendia Avenue. So that was something new.
I also liked the Pocari sports drinks offered at various parts of the race but too bad, they didn't have any banana stations, which I thought was a regular thing for a race with this distance.
In the end, I am happy I survived the race with a quick lesson that I need to train more to perform better and finish well in the succeeding races. Finisher medal was awesome and added that to my collection.
:)
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