As the gun time was at 5:10am, I set my alarm clock for 4am that Saturday night. I woke up to the alarm, and as expected, I canceled it in exchange for a 5 minute snooze.
Wrong move.
The next thing I knew I was woken up by my wife with her phone showing clearly the current time: 5:30am.
I have missed the gun time!
This is the 4th time that this happened since I started running 2009, with the first one being the McHappy Fun Run last Nov 2010. I thought about the comfort of my bed and how I can just sleep off this bad experience versus getting up and just run the race.
By not running I will just give up my P750.00 reg fee so I chose to get up and made my way to the starting area which was just 1km from where I stayed.
As I haven't really trained specifically for this race, I expected to finish somewhere between 1:02 to 1:05. Sub-60 was a long shot as I wasn't sure on my overall endurance after just 1 10k long run, which was done the previous Sunday.
I reached the starting area but the security told me that I was way past the cutoff time so I couldn't start on the mat. They just pointed me to start from the side of the arc. No biggie for me as I had my Garmin. The (only) advantage going for me for starting late is that I have a lot of space to work on from the starting line versus walking with the rest of the runners from gun start and weaving through the runner traffic.
I made my goal as I clicked "Start" on my Garmin: let's target a sub-60!
I started off, well, way too fast for my own good as I felt comfortable:
km1= 5:41
km2= 5:42
Until this time, after years of racing, I still haven't perfected the art of pacing. The succeeding kilometers showed my decline in pace well:
km3= 5:57
km4= 5:52 (took one GU gel)
km5= 5:52
My 5k split showed sub-30, a promising sight for my sub-60 goal. The rest of the course, especially the last 2k, is mostly uphill so I had to prepare myself for that by relaxing on the pace from km6-8:
km6= 6:07 (well this was one uphill, hehe)
km7= 5:59
km8= 6:34
I felt the need to slow down at about 7.5k of the race, my heart racing too fast and telling me to stop. I fought the urge to walk so I slowed (a bit) which resulted in that 6:34 split in km8. By the last 2k I had to give my all:
km9= 5:41
km10= 6:05 (uphill on 32nd street)
As I made that last turn, I looked at my Garmin and found sub-60 was within grasp. The only thing I needed to do was hang on in that last 400m to the finish line (which felt like forever to complete).
As I stepped on the mat, I stopped my Garmin and was very pleased:
A sub60.
That was damn close!
FOR IMPROVEMENT
The race just showed that I need to improve on speed as I've earlier predicted. My running performance has really suffered since I fell in love with cycling late last year, thus sharing my training time between the two disciplines. I may need to bring back my running training/routine to go back to PR-beating conditions that was reminiscent of my 2012 races.
Next up is the July 14 Duathlon in Filinvest, Alabang. The run legs there will be 6k and 3k. I hope to do better pace-wise by then.
GOOD JOB RUNRIO!
As expected in any Runrio race, this was well organized. The price is still costly for a 10k race (P750.00) but it's all worth knowing that you have enough support on the route (accurate distance, marshals, hydration, etc).
World Vision, the recipient of the money generated from this race, is a non-profit organization helping out needy children worldwide with education and other needs. As a member for some years now, it has been a very humbling experience. If you have the opportunity, I encourage you to sign up as well.
Wrong move.
The next thing I knew I was woken up by my wife with her phone showing clearly the current time: 5:30am.
I have missed the gun time!
This is the 4th time that this happened since I started running 2009, with the first one being the McHappy Fun Run last Nov 2010. I thought about the comfort of my bed and how I can just sleep off this bad experience versus getting up and just run the race.
By not running I will just give up my P750.00 reg fee so I chose to get up and made my way to the starting area which was just 1km from where I stayed.
As I haven't really trained specifically for this race, I expected to finish somewhere between 1:02 to 1:05. Sub-60 was a long shot as I wasn't sure on my overall endurance after just 1 10k long run, which was done the previous Sunday.
I reached the starting area but the security told me that I was way past the cutoff time so I couldn't start on the mat. They just pointed me to start from the side of the arc. No biggie for me as I had my Garmin. The (only) advantage going for me for starting late is that I have a lot of space to work on from the starting line versus walking with the rest of the runners from gun start and weaving through the runner traffic.
I made my goal as I clicked "Start" on my Garmin: let's target a sub-60!
I started off, well, way too fast for my own good as I felt comfortable:
km1= 5:41
km2= 5:42
Until this time, after years of racing, I still haven't perfected the art of pacing. The succeeding kilometers showed my decline in pace well:
km3= 5:57
km4= 5:52 (took one GU gel)
km5= 5:52
My 5k split showed sub-30, a promising sight for my sub-60 goal. The rest of the course, especially the last 2k, is mostly uphill so I had to prepare myself for that by relaxing on the pace from km6-8:
km6= 6:07 (well this was one uphill, hehe)
km7= 5:59
km8= 6:34
I felt the need to slow down at about 7.5k of the race, my heart racing too fast and telling me to stop. I fought the urge to walk so I slowed (a bit) which resulted in that 6:34 split in km8. By the last 2k I had to give my all:
km9= 5:41
km10= 6:05 (uphill on 32nd street)
As I made that last turn, I looked at my Garmin and found sub-60 was within grasp. The only thing I needed to do was hang on in that last 400m to the finish line (which felt like forever to complete).
 |
| Photo c/o Vertical Finisher |
As I stepped on the mat, I stopped my Garmin and was very pleased:
A sub60.
That was damn close!
FOR IMPROVEMENT
The race just showed that I need to improve on speed as I've earlier predicted. My running performance has really suffered since I fell in love with cycling late last year, thus sharing my training time between the two disciplines. I may need to bring back my running training/routine to go back to PR-beating conditions that was reminiscent of my 2012 races.
Next up is the July 14 Duathlon in Filinvest, Alabang. The run legs there will be 6k and 3k. I hope to do better pace-wise by then.
GOOD JOB RUNRIO!
As expected in any Runrio race, this was well organized. The price is still costly for a 10k race (P750.00) but it's all worth knowing that you have enough support on the route (accurate distance, marshals, hydration, etc).
World Vision, the recipient of the money generated from this race, is a non-profit organization helping out needy children worldwide with education and other needs. As a member for some years now, it has been a very humbling experience. If you have the opportunity, I encourage you to sign up as well.
Good warm-up already going to the starting line! Great run pa rin, sub 1 hour will always be nice! Congrats and see you soon! :)
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