I was able to register for the Half Marathon category for this year as that is my requirement for the week's long run. Having it at BGC is an added incentive as it will just be 10 minutes away from my house.
The gun start for the 21km was strange at 4:10am but I didn't mind as had a chance to chat with some friends whom I haven't seen a long time. Takbo.ph really is the one race that brings together runners, whether they are new ones or ones who have stopped joining races. It's like a high school reunion! Haha!!
The route was so old school in that we would go up Kalayaan Bridge and into Buendia Avenue with a U turn near South Super Hi-way before heading back to BGC for another climb towards Lawton Avenue and Bayani Road before making a U Turn back and head towards the finish line.
My goal for this race was 2:30 finish time and to distract myself, I thought of it as a video game wherein I am the player. There would be four levels for this "game": first level going up Kalayaan Bridge, level two return to Kalayaan Bridge, level three and four going to and fro from Bayani Avenue and Lawton Avenue. By the time I had finished my own "level four", I was just two to three kilometers away from the finish line and with the remaining distance flat to downhill, it was an opportunity for me to surge and pick up the pace.
By this time, I knew that I would be able to attain my target goal time and as I still felt strong, I ran faster to see how much faster I could go.
A final push to the finish line garnered me the fastest pace for this race at a pace of 5:49 and this was for the last kilometer!
Final time of 2:22:50, average pace of 6:49 minutes/km with a distance of 20.97km. Thank YOU LORD!
The medal was pretty awesome. There were sufficient hydration, km markers and marshals to guide us on the road and monitor cars. The finisher shirt was nice too. No complaints whatsoever in terms of how race organizers handled this race. Even the claiming of loot bags and finisher shirt were quick and efficient.
Congrats to Leadpack Race Organizer for a well handled race. Congrats to all the finishers for this race. It was nice seeing a lot of familiar faces too. Till the next road race :)
Race statistics:
Number of GU gels consumed: 2 (one at 9km and second at 16km mark)
Paces: 1km - 6:34, 2km - 7:09, 3km- 7:03, 4km - 6:33, 5km -6:49, 6km - 7:05, 7km - 6:56, 8km - 7:22, 9km - 7:36, 10km - 6:50, 11km - 7:01, 12km - 6:48, 13km - 6:48, 14km - 6:35, 15km - 6:43, 16km - 6:46, 17km - 6:47, 18km - 6:59, 19km - 6:34, 20km - 6:03, 21km -5:49
1 comment:
Nice seeing u last Sunday pre!
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