i2runner

Fun Fun Fun! Kenny Rogers' Urbanite Run

Kenny Rogers’ Urbanite Run Race Results Here

In the past, I would rate a race with how well I performed, not how the organizers performed. If I get I new PR, I’d be in a great mood. If not, I had a bad race the rest of the day is downhill for me. Simple as that. As long as the race organizers give me water, I’m happy. I just assume the distance is correct. However, I see a lot of whiny runners having a lot of high expectations for every race they run. Blaming organizers with blah-blah-blah, and blah-blah-blah….

Just check out this blog entry from takbo.ph with a lot of complaints for the organizer:
http://takbo.ph/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=386&Itemid=43#maxcomment2764

But now that I’m getting serious with blogging running and racing, I feel obliged to do what other bloggers have been doing and review/criticize the current biggest race of the month, the Kenny Rogers Urbanite!, supported by takbo.ph

Claiming the Racekit and Attending the Takbo.ph carboloading Party
Last Thursday I picked the claim tickets of Beth, and my 2 office-mates Raymond and Eric. When I arrived at the Nike Stadium the Bonifacio High Street, they said the race kits have been moved to somewhere outside R.O.X., but in reality it was 400meters away. Walking there took a lot of effort on my part, pacing myself or else I’ll hit a wall (just kidding). When I got there I saw a lot of queue (line) in alphabetical order. Looks like Finishline is very organized… but then again, I had to claim 4 race kits with different family names so I’m dead. Good thing Rico came to me and helped me. That’s not it, my race kit hadn’t arrived yet and neither Rico’s! I could sense Rico’s voice getting a little tense at the lady organizer, so we took her number so we could confirm if we could get our race kits the next day. The lady organizer (I can’t remember her name) was trying to be nice to us, but I could sense she was very tired and a little tense also. She said the racing chips arrived later than expected so some of the runners’ kits weren’t complete yet. No wonder a lot of runners were complaining. I even overheard a guy complaining who said he came all the way from Cavite. Well, I came all the way from my work in Calamba, Laguna.

Then Rico asked me to join takbo.ph’s Carboloading party. I honestly wasn’t updated with this since I haven’t been visiting the site due to heavier workload at the office. He said it was just a walking distance from the race-kit claiming booth. Well it was at Joey Pepperoni, and at only P150, you can eat-all-you-can spaghetti with any choices of carbonara, pesto, or meat sause! I only had 2plates, but it was worth it. Rico had 3plates I think… I also ordered a bottle of German Lager Beer for P150 and its taste was mmmm!!! Rico and I sat on the table with the demure Lorie, shy Cindy and Chelly Belly. Also with us were the beautiful couple Kat and Edick. Other newbies and omldies also came and the place was like a jungle of runners. These runners have a lot of energies in them that they behave like college students when in fact some of them were already 40+ years old!

Thanks to PIO’s monster DSLR for the pics!

Race Day
Beth and I arrived early at 7PM and went straight to Seattle’s Best Coffee to get the P50 off the Javakula from our race bib#s. Then my officemates Raymond and Eric were able to join us with their family. It’s just their 2nd 5K race and were both excited to run at the Fort. They tried to run faster than Beth at the start of the race, but Beth eventually caught up with them at the turnaround point up in the steep McKinley Hill. Yeah, it’s common lesson for young newbie male runner to be outrun by a girl or an elderly. Beth later told me she didn’t think McKinley Hill was that hard to run.

I had a headlamp just to make sure I don’t trip over something.

My 5K race
Well it’s been 12 days since I’ve last run before the race and have been on running “recession” for 6weeks already due to Iliotibial Band Syndrome. But last night it felt OK and I thought I should give the race my best and wish for a fast time. However I had low expectations and would use whatever result as a base and compare it later on this year when I’ve had more specific speed training for the 5K. The weather was unusually hot and humid and the 5K race was overcrowded. I tried to start near the finish line but could only go so far and couldn’t move anymore without bumping with a fellow runner. Marc Nelson did an Amazing Race job as the host for the night and probably the best host I’ve ever seen in a race so far.

I tried to run as fast as I could at the beginning to overtake a lot of runners ahead of me, but after about a kilometer, I felt lactic acid building up inside my leg muscles, and it felt like it was gonna cramp. I consciously slowed down when I remembered I haven’t done any recent tempo runs and my lactate threshold is probably in its all time low. After a little over half a mile, my shoelaces untied themselves even though I used the elegant Ian Knot method. Tying them again added almost 20seconds to my time. I was huffing and puffing while tying them back. Middle mile was understandably slow because of the uphill climb of McKinley Hill. I was overtaken by a lot of runners since I tried to maintain the same Heart Rate which meant the same effort as on the flat road, but at a significantly slower pace. Right after the uphill climb, I was able to overtake the same runners who overtook me on the McKinley Hill. Then there was this bottleneck of runners still on the way to the turnaround point facing us, but once I aimed my headlamp towards them, they gave way for us.

When I reached the Bayani-McKinley intersection on the way back to the finish line, I experienced side stitch under my left lung. Weak lung muscles meant lack of speedwork. So I slowed down and changed my breathing synchronization with my stride rhythm. Well it did work since the side stitches were gone before I reached mile-3.

With just 400meters to go, I found myself stride-by-stride with some fit-looking runner with a singlet that says BOTAK Marathon. I said to myself I wanna beat this guy. I thought of a small race tactic experiment… with our leg stride in perfect sync, I immediately surprised him with a brief but very fast surging sprint and see if he would follow me. If he did, this meant a race between us. I was a little surprised he took my bait and he pulled-away from me real fast. Then I relaxed a bit and observed behind him. With less than 200meters to go, he slowed down. Then I sprinted all out and left him in the dust. So I guess it worked, he fell for my trick

My Garmin says 24′10″ for the 5.10Km race but my body says I’m not yet healthy or fit enough for the sub-20minute goal. Also, the 5K route was unpleasant for chasing PR’s. Not to mention the heat and humidity. Well, maybe 4months from now I’ll try again. But it was fun running strong to the finish line.

Garmin Training Center Graph
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/11239617

Finish Line
Right after I crossed the finish line, I was out of breath, typical of an all-out race, and my legs felt stiff so I jogged for a minute or two around the finish line area. It was unusual that there were no longer any race marshal getting my number since we were all wearing the racing chip.

Then Vener approached me and offered me a cup of water. Thanks Idol! A little later I saw Dennis, then Argo and Edu beating Ellen for the 5K. These guys later admitted they didn’t want any girl beating them. What I know is someday Ellen’s gonna kick their arses

Finally, I saw Beth finishing the 5K in 31minutes. What a coincidence, her race bib number is also 31! She’s beaten both my officemates who trashed-talked her in our emails.

A little while later, I finally met my friend in the world of blogosphere, the sandrunner, Mr. Dermot Toal. He’s a British Sorts Physiologist (which means he’s a smart runner) who currently works and lives in Bahrain with his Filipina wife and family. He looks really fit in person, but last night he had a bad case of food poisoning. Because or despite of this, instead of running the 5K race, he got lost and ran 15Kms. Before this race he has broken a lot of his personal bests in small local races here in manila, with 10K time below 45minutes and 5K below 20minutes.

Freebies and takbo.ph Booth
Instead of falling in the long line for the freebies, Beth and I hang around the takbo.ph booth, mingled with runner friends and ate some sinfully delicious Nutella sandwiches.


Queenie Elizabeth

Air Food

Edu, Sir Rene, and Dennis. Check out Dennis’ nicely shaped biceps. You need to run a lot and consistently to get ripped zero fat arms like that.

Team Logan having Fun. Check out their socks.

Games & Music
Finally, there were games and music at the end of the night. However, I only saw a few runners dance in front of the stage, I think they were still hesitant, probably still tired to dance after a tiring 15K run. Beth won a 1-month Gift Certificate from Fitness First when she gave Marc Nelson her Nike shoes for the stage game’s “give me a… something”. Expect Beth to look even fitter next month

Conclusion
To be honest, I had low expectations from this race since it was Kenny Rogers’ first fun run. And indeed Beth and I had a lot of fun! There has been a little problem with the distribution of the race kit, but I think the root cause was the overflowing of the ever-growing number of runners in Metro Manila. Unless it’s a small local race, it would seem to be a common problem to register and get the race kits. The unexpected hot and humid weather, and the challenging course (the 5K was probably the hilliest course I’ve ever had for the distance) makes it a PR-unfriendly race.

I could see the organizers at Finishline really work really hard from Thursday till the end of the race, just for us! Kenny Rogers and Takbo.ph really did a good job and had a lot of creative ideas to make this a really fun race. Even the members of takbo.ph had some funny ideas to wear knee-high socks. I’m really happy to see Doc Lyndon Cosico and Sir Jinoe Gavan’s dream come true. Overall, I believe we had an Amazing Race.