I wanted to improve on my 21k 2:54 finish at RunRio2 two weeks ago so this was a good race to do it. Organized by RACE, it was held in Greenhills, San Juan area. Athough this was my first Greenhills race, I'm familiar to it since most of my weekend long runs pass by around that area. Further, I'm also familiar with the food places around it (Le Ching, Yuujin along Wilson street, the DnD eat-all-u-can siomai, Baker's Fair diced hopia, etc.). Hehe.
Pre-Race
Nutrition? I crammed for carbo the night before (yakisoba and jap fried rice). For the race itself, I packed on oatmeal cookies (the 3-pack from Quaker Oats) and 2 sachets of HammerGel. Since I was also planning to run 35km based on my marathon training plan, I brought my hydration belt filled with water. I'm not used to wearing a hydration belt during races, but this decision would prove vital in the race as you'll see later on.
With a small bag containing my extra gear (singlet, towel, gatorade, extra socks...), I trodded off to Greenhills from our house. The planned 7km warmup decreased to 4k since I got worried that I'll miss gun time since Rudy B has the knack of starting the gun earlier than scheduled.
By 20mins before 5am, I was ready. Planned pace would be 6:45-7:00/km which is my target marathon pace for Milo.
Race Proper
The 21k race went off 1min before the scheduled time ---typical Rudy Biscocho. The race route was a fresh change from my usual TheFort races since it covered Greenhills mall, North GH village, Ortigas, Wilson, Addition Hills (killer inclines!), and back to Greenhills mall perimeter.
To summarize my race performance, I was within the planned pace from the start until 13k. The pace started going down after that, no thanks to Addition Hills (hill training Roelle!!!). But since I was able to deposit sub 7:00/km paces before that, I was still able to finish the race on target: Garmin recorded my average pace at exactly 7:00/km with 2:22:08 official time (4mins from my 2:18 PR). Except for my poor run-walk performance at the hills, I can safely say that I'm getting my race pace back ---hopefully just in time for Milo.
Race Org
There were minor issues on this race. First, there was a water station along Ortigas going towards Santolan wherein it ran out of cups, leaving only 2 water containers (the ones with rotary faucets) for the runners. It was a good thing that I had my hydration belt which was near empty by that time. I used one of my empty bottles to fill-up from the water containers and I was on my way to continue my race hydrated well.
Second, there was this runner from Hings(?) (which I assume to be a running community coz there were lots of them wearing the singlet) who complained of getting the wrong directions from the marshals approaching Addition Hills. But how come he was the only one who complained about it? Road signs and scattered marshals were throughout that area. Even the San Juan police and Barangay tanods were there to assist runners. Hmmm...
Third, the medal used a sticker to label the race details. Unfortunately the writing fades when my sweat got in touch with the medal. Hay....
Lastly, my 305 measured the distance at 20.27km while another runner, Philip, whom I met after the race had his 305 register the race at 20.8km.
But this was a RudyB race. Overall, the race itself was well-organized I might say. Congrats as well for their testing of their own chip-timing system which was nicely fit at the back of the racebib with a foam bed protecting it from getting in contact with the singlet.
What to do after a 2:22 21k?
Since I didn't bring my car I had no other choice but to walk/run back. The freebies I got from the race made my bag heavier so I had to walk 2 of the 4km trip back home. All in all, I was able to log 29km. Still short of my planned 35km, but I guess the pace I tried to manage during the race would help boost my endurance (I hope).
Milo here we come!
Over 2 weeks left before my marathon debut. There's no turning back now since I already handed in my registration. Well, as they say, bahala na si Batman!
Pre-Race
Nutrition? I crammed for carbo the night before (yakisoba and jap fried rice). For the race itself, I packed on oatmeal cookies (the 3-pack from Quaker Oats) and 2 sachets of HammerGel. Since I was also planning to run 35km based on my marathon training plan, I brought my hydration belt filled with water. I'm not used to wearing a hydration belt during races, but this decision would prove vital in the race as you'll see later on.
With a small bag containing my extra gear (singlet, towel, gatorade, extra socks...), I trodded off to Greenhills from our house. The planned 7km warmup decreased to 4k since I got worried that I'll miss gun time since Rudy B has the knack of starting the gun earlier than scheduled.
By 20mins before 5am, I was ready. Planned pace would be 6:45-7:00/km which is my target marathon pace for Milo.
Race Proper
The 21k race went off 1min before the scheduled time ---typical Rudy Biscocho. The race route was a fresh change from my usual TheFort races since it covered Greenhills mall, North GH village, Ortigas, Wilson, Addition Hills (killer inclines!), and back to Greenhills mall perimeter.
To summarize my race performance, I was within the planned pace from the start until 13k. The pace started going down after that, no thanks to Addition Hills (hill training Roelle!!!). But since I was able to deposit sub 7:00/km paces before that, I was still able to finish the race on target: Garmin recorded my average pace at exactly 7:00/km with 2:22:08 official time (4mins from my 2:18 PR). Except for my poor run-walk performance at the hills, I can safely say that I'm getting my race pace back ---hopefully just in time for Milo.
Race Org
There were minor issues on this race. First, there was a water station along Ortigas going towards Santolan wherein it ran out of cups, leaving only 2 water containers (the ones with rotary faucets) for the runners. It was a good thing that I had my hydration belt which was near empty by that time. I used one of my empty bottles to fill-up from the water containers and I was on my way to continue my race hydrated well.
Second, there was this runner from Hings(?) (which I assume to be a running community coz there were lots of them wearing the singlet) who complained of getting the wrong directions from the marshals approaching Addition Hills. But how come he was the only one who complained about it? Road signs and scattered marshals were throughout that area. Even the San Juan police and Barangay tanods were there to assist runners. Hmmm...
Third, the medal used a sticker to label the race details. Unfortunately the writing fades when my sweat got in touch with the medal. Hay....
Lastly, my 305 measured the distance at 20.27km while another runner, Philip, whom I met after the race had his 305 register the race at 20.8km.
But this was a RudyB race. Overall, the race itself was well-organized I might say. Congrats as well for their testing of their own chip-timing system which was nicely fit at the back of the racebib with a foam bed protecting it from getting in contact with the singlet.
What to do after a 2:22 21k?
Since I didn't bring my car I had no other choice but to walk/run back. The freebies I got from the race made my bag heavier so I had to walk 2 of the 4km trip back home. All in all, I was able to log 29km. Still short of my planned 35km, but I guess the pace I tried to manage during the race would help boost my endurance (I hope).
Milo here we come!
Over 2 weeks left before my marathon debut. There's no turning back now since I already handed in my registration. Well, as they say, bahala na si Batman!
The timing device looks like a pregnancy test kit hahaha! :) See you at the Milo starting line!
ReplyDelete