Race: World Vision Run 21km

PRE-RACE

As preparations go, this was one of my most unprepared races to join in as only thought about joining the 21km race on Friday morning, two days before the actual race.  I wasn’t able to get any race kits on Friday afternoon when I went to the registration area in BGC so I gave up on joining this race and figured I should just run 10km on Saturday morning and another 10km on Sunday morning by myself.  This would serve as my only runs for the entire week (with the nice cool weather, it’s better to stay in bed than to run).

But through a series of messages to the World Vision facebook page, I managed to secure a 21km slot for Sunday.   I ran 5km on Saturday morning (while pushing stroller with my daughter inside) to loosen the legs and to prepare me somewhat for Sunday’s race.  Legs felt fine although I was a bit out of breath when I tried running faster at the last 700 meters (stroller and daughter I dropped off at my house at 3km mark).

I ate a heavy dinner and hope that would be enough for Sunday’s race and slept early that night as race would commence at 4:30AM.

RACE DAY

I was late once again and didn’t have time to do any stretching before the race.  At least I was just 2 minutes late so I was able to catch up with some runners quickly.  I felt good and ran off too fast at the first few kilometers before realizing I had a long way to go and slowed down consciously so that I wouldn’t burn out.

With the race starting at 4:30am, it was dark enough for us runners, which was a huge advantage as hot sunny weather usually makes us slower.  There were a lot of people who were just going home from clubs while we were out running already.  A lot of angry motorists as marshals prevented them from going off and said marshals let runners cross the intersections first.

21km route map

The race took us to various parts of BGC before we headed to Kalayaan Bridge and onto Buendia Avenue.  At this point, I still felt good but I was getting hungry!  With nothing to eat, I drank two cups of Gatorade at every station and hoped that was enough to quench my hunger (figured it should be better than water as it had calories and sugar should give me energy too!).

Nicky, my batch mate from high school, caught up with me (he was 10 minutes late for the race) and wanted to run with me.  So we ran together and exchanged stories and whatnots for the last 7km of the race.  There were parts in the race where I would stop running and walked instead.  I told Nick that he could go ahead if he wanted to.  But he also stopped to walk with me. 

I kept drinking Gatorade at every second station and pretty soon, I was too full with drinking that I kept burping and I wanted to vomit too!  So I was hungry for food but full with drinking too much!  What a contradiction!!! Nick got worried and asked if I was okay.  “Yes, but I need to walk it off”. 

 But with only 4 kms to go, I didn’t want to walk too long and started running again.  The final walk that we did was going up Kalayaan Bridge and once that ended, we continued running all the way to BGC.  

Kalayaan Bridge

 

I did have an “emergency” GU gel with me but figured with the distance this close to the finish line that I won’t use it anymore and just take sips of Gatorade.  But I ended up drinking a lot again! Haha!

At the last 2km, I walked some more!  Even at the final turn, where I saw the finish line, I stopped to walk again!  But my pace was pretty good and I know that I would get a PR for the year.

Exhausted at last 200 meters to finish line!

So I ran again and ran hard for the final 400 meters to the finish line, crossed it, stopped my Garmin watch and received a finisher medal.  I was a bit dizzy and tired.  Nick crossed the finish line right after and we congratulated each other.

Nick looking strong, me looking tired! Haha!

 

We each got a bottle of water and Gatorade and I told Nick that I need to sit down somewhere (which ended up at the parking lot).  I was exhausted and I felt acidic in my stomach and knew that I had to eat something.  I saw Nick at the parking lot (we ended up parking near each other) and had a few more talks before going home.

fave photo from this race!  Thanks "Run for Good Health"!

bloggers together Post-race!

But before going home, I rewarded my 21km PR for 2013 by buying a Starbucks Green Tea Frap!  When I got home, I was still too tired and lied down on the bedroom floor.  I was too tired to move!  It definitely wasn’t a good feeling.  Per prepared me breakfast and served it on the floor!  Haha!  I felt a lot better after eating. Phew!

This was a great race by Runrio and World Vision Philippines.  There were enough water stations and I liked the fact that they were all served cold.  I also prefer Gatorade versus other sport drinks so this was a nice bonus too.  The finisher medal was a nice reward for your achievement and this race had a very good cause underlying it.  I also appreciate that there were a lot of photographers in the race, with some volunteering their time and effort for this event.

Good job to the organizers!

Praise God for getting me home safely with a new PR for the year as well!  (The PR was a very nice bonus as didn't expect it considering this was an impromtpu race and I had no preparations and no running for most of the week for it.)