Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Rexona Run 2013: Surprised

SUGOD MGA KAPATID

As mentioned in my last post, I was only targeting to "just finish" this race due to my lack of training. A 2:30-2:40 would've been a fair time, a 2:27 would've been good.

But as I was packing my race gear, I decided to pick up my racing flats for this race. F*ck it, I said, I'm gonna race this one.

At the starting line corral I found myself at the middle of the crowd, with Pat of Running Shield just a few inches away. He can finish this one at sub-2:00, I thought, so there's no way that I'll be able to stick by him on this one.

The crowd was split in two waves, and as this race was going to be musically funded, out came Sandwich with Raimund Marasigan egging the 21k runners with a familiar tune. I was in the second wave which was released 5 minutes after the first.


DON'T YOU WORRY CHILD

The surprise 800m from the start that Coach Rio whispered to Pat was extraordinary. It was a 100m or so tunnel that had fantastic laser/club lights that bolted the senses to run further. So this was the reason why the gun start was at 3am (which Coach Rio mentioned to me as well when I claimed my race kit the night before). Too bad that this was the only tunnel that we're going thru for the race.

I was doing well, effort-wise. Unlike in my other races, I was not being controlled by my Garmin. I was only relying on it for pace feedback based on the effort that I last put in, not to adjust because the pace was this or that. I was letting my effort do all the control.

Gel at km5.


CALIFORNICATION

I was surprised by my effort in the first half of the race, managing paces between 6:30-6:40. The flyovers were climbed with ease. Probably because of the adrenalin that I was getting from the music playing all over the race course.

By the 12th km my effort was still good overall, but began to wonder if my Garmin was right. Pace feedback was at 6:50-7:00. I was doing well, I thought, but how come my Garmin was saying otherwise? Oh well, I just continued on with my race strategy and not mind the Garmin.

Gel at km13.


ELISI

By km18 onwards I was still feeling alright, stopping the water stations with the usual 1 gatorade + 2 water cups mix. I found myself a target guy to beat in those last 3 kms, changing leads until I was egged on by Rico Blanco's song to go all out and beat him in the end.

Finish time (Garmin): 2:22!

Wow, I couldn't be surprised by that performance. It was a great race (Runrio as usual) and I was just running on pure adrenalin all throughout. But I do believe that long runs of 14km is not enough for a half marathon race. You need a 16 or an 18 to get your body used to the distance, or else it'll fail you the next day.

More on that on my next post...



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