Rexona Run: Just About There

5:36am.

Four minutes before gun start of the Rexona Run 5km event.

When in usual races I'm already inside the starting corral stretched and warmed-up, I found myself at a different area.....

.....I was at the last traffic light just before reaching MOA. Waiting for it to turn green was taking so long that I resorted to changing to my Adidas yellow singlet, attach my 305 and HRM, and take in a pack of Hammer Gel, all while in the car.

GREEN!

I was able to find parking space just across San Mig Avenue near Manila Bay. I jumped right out of the car and ran toward the starting arc. Man, whatever dreams of finishing sub-30 are gone now, I thought, as I reached the arc and started my 305. I couldn't decipher which time among the top of the arc was for the 5k'ers since I noticed that I was just about the end of the race pack.

Demet! Late late late!!!


And so the race begins

Well I was definitely late. Any dream of finishing sub-30 gun-time wise would be impossible at this point.....

....but not D-TAG wise. I could still do it. Although a sub-30 D-TAG finish time would not be posted in my blog's "my races" column, it will still be a good confidence booster especially now that I'm hoping to do "subs" in my future races (as is everyone's goal is).

I felt that I was definitely zooming since I was squeezing in and out the 5k runners/walkers. My pace was sub-6:00/km as I tried to claw my way to the front and hopefully reach the sub-30 runners. I was passing everyone from km1-3. Everything was going well until km3.....

...The 3km runners/walkers had intersected with the 5km route.

I had to double my effort in passing thru the other runners. By km4 I only saw a few 5km runners left but still a whole lot of 3k'ers. My 305 read 20mins. With less than 2k to go, sub-30 might just be there (D-TAG wise).

With about 300meters left, I resorted to going back to my normal pre-Newton gait to see if I can sprint it. Big mistake as I somehow slowed down (km5 would register 6:02 in my 305). I was doing well with midfoot striking but felt that I wasn't going that fast (although I WAS fast). Big mistake really as it probably chewed up 10secs from my finish time. Should've sticked to midfoot-strike.

However, I was still able to end up with a smile as I pressed stop on my Garmin: it read 29:24. The finish arc clocked me at 32:13 as seen in RunRio's website. D-TAG time was 29:24 was well.

Finally, a sub-30. The "32:13" official time still pegs me above 30mins so I'll need to improve on that (AND my pre-race logistics). Probably another 5km race this month before I move back up to racing 10, 16, and 21k's.

5k fun runs seem to be that: fun. That should what makes this sport feel in the first place. The full-mary training that I had was very demanding so much so that it zapped the fun out of it, which made my Milo 42k pre-race anthem to be to "just get it over with" which, in post-mortem, seemed to be a bad way to psych oneself from starting his very first full marathon.

5k's are all about fun but at the same time getting serious with speed. It was a big ego-boost as I calculated I finished among the top 8% of the 5k runners (#248 out of 2867). I couldn't believe that all those people I passed accounted for some 92% of the whole batch. Further, being in front of the crowd to get all the freebies was good as well as I went back to the car to exit MOA fast before the other cars start rolling home.

A big plus as well was that I got to spend more mornings with my family (my 1-yr old wakes up at 5am while my 4-yr old wakes up at 6-7am, making long runs impossible and with a guilty feeling of neglecting daddy-duties). 5k training need not be serious distance-wise but more on speed. So I got to balance my time with my sons better the past few weeks.

Yup, most definitely another 5k race this month.

Thanks RunRio for a well-organized race!