Monday, July 6, 2009

Revenge at Heritage Park

I wanted to run at the Milo 10k since I see it as one of the biggest running events in the Philippines. Pero naman, yung HR namen tinapat pa yung opening ng Sportsfest on the same date as the Manila elims tapos a week after the JG Summit Employees run pa. Moreover, it's on the same track as last week: 4 rounds inside Heritage park at 2.5kms each.

But then all that sour-graping disappeared when I ran my worst 10k last week at the JG run: 1:12. My last 3 10k races were at 69mins so that made me feel disappointed at myself. Maybe I relaxed too much?

So, I made it a point to get a better time yesterday. Since there were only a few 10k runners (probably less than 30), makikita talaga agad sa timesheet sino kulelat. But more than that, I really wanted to improve my time.

Coach Rio was there to organize the event again similar to last week's JG run. Well organized btw!

As the starting gun went off, I precariously zoomed off the starting gate (my Nokia GPS tracker actually clocked me at that point at around 20kmh). Pero after about the 2nd turn or around 150-200meters, I slowed down but still way above my average pace. I finished the first 2.5kms at 15mins. Grabe, I usually finish a round at about 17-18mins, so that 1st round was really fast. Could it be that positive-split works better for me rather than the reverse? Hmmm...

I ran the 2nd and 3rd rounds at my usual pace, just below 7mins/km. Then, it started to rain. This was the kind of rain that suddenly pours (and I mean big droplets) with no warning (ambon). My shoes got wet. My socks felt soggy. But then as the rim of my cap protected my eyes from the rain and my clothes started to get wet, I felt a rush to run faster. I even saw most of the 10k runners take shelter amidst the mausoleums but me, I didn't mind getting wet.

Man, addicted na talaga ako sa takbo.

As I was in the middle of the last round the rain had stopped. I looked at my stopwatch and I calculated that I would finish below 72mins (yey!) but if I don't improve my pace I won't be able to beat my 69mins PR (boo!). So, with all the strength I had left, I increased my pace towards the finish. All the effort and training (I did some 4miles of Fartlek training last Tuesday) paid off as I clocked my unofficial time:

68mins.

A new 10k PR!

Yeaaaahhhh!

I think I now know why my 1st 3 10k races ended all at 69mins: I just relaxed on my pace and didn't really push hard to improve my time. I thought that if I maintained my easy pace, I would end up faster but of course you need more speed to finish a race in less the time. So at the Sportsfest yesterday, I finally went strict on myself and pushed hard. I hope to have the same mindset on my next races: to keep on improving my PR.

Next race? Hmmm...probably MOVE Manila in UP if the schedules permit.


(Details of this run are located here)

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