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.

The next day, Sunday, I drank some diatabs medicine to prevent doing #2 in public. Drank coffee too, and then drank 500ml of Gatorade. When I started running at 5AM, it was already raining. I felt great and strong so I started my run in a strong pace already. When I got to Lawton avenue, the rain got stronger but it didn’t have any noticeable effect on my pace. I got annoyed with my Garmin 405’s bezel getting activated all the time, so I activated the “auto-scroll” and locked the keys. My shoes, my socks, and my feet got wet but that’s all natural.

I wonder why some runners make a big deal of running or not in the rain. It’s a part of running life we have to face and learn to deal with. If you could run, good for you. If you couldn’t, try to do it the next day and don’t feel too bad about it.

When I got to the Fort area, it stopped raining. Then there was this race going on and I decided to join their route. Then some race Marshall shouted at me for not following the race route, he thought I was cheating. LOL! I wasn’t offended and I thought the Marshall was funny for not noticing I didn’t have any race bib#.

I had to stop at 7eleven near Shell Gas Station after 6miles to refill my hydration belt with Gatorade, and eat some…. Sugary Junk foods! Since the weather wasn’t hot nor humid, I wasn’t sweating much as I normally would. My body couldn’t absorb all the Gatorade I was drinking and I was missing its carbohydrates that I badly needed. So I thought eating sugary gummy bears was the solution and bought 2 small bags of “Trollii” that had about 200calories in each bag. When I ran at the planned marathon pace, I could eat those small yummy gummy bears slowly, chewing them without restricting my breathing too much. I was OK. So I continued to do this until I ran 12miles and had to repeat the pit-stop at 7eleven.

All the time, my pace was slightly below 9:00/mile until I got to mile 15. My knees started to hurt, quads became sore, that seems to have been caused by the new shoes that had firmer cushioning than the lunar trainers. Then the skies cleared and I could feel the heat of the sun again. I had to struggle from mile 15 to 20, but the presence of takbo.ph runners lifted my spirits. They even took a picture of me running. Thank you argonaut! Some of them have just finished the IE8 run, and some have finished the earth run. Doc Marvs finished both (amazingly crazy).

Getting leaner and stronger…

In the end, my overall pace for the 20miles was 3:00′27″, my overall pace was 9:01/mile or 5:36/km. If I could sustain this pace for another 6.2miles, I’ll have a 3:56 marathon (I wish) assuming I don’t hit the wall. In conclusion, I’ve improved my 20mile run in training without experiencing another “wind” or “runners’ high”. In fact, I should be struggling due to poor diet and nutrition for 2 days. So I haven’t really experienced that mythical “second wind” and now doubt its existence (well I do know a new running store named “second wind” though). What I really have experienced is the effect of my Marathon Training for the past 2.5 months. The training was not easy, and I often had to run near breathlessness during speed work and had to endure the feeling of burning muscles during long tempo runs. But seeing the improvement on my long runs makes these hard workouts even more addicting.

After my run I went straight to McDonald’s at NetOne. I ordered only a large coke, my stomach was so bloated I had no appetite to eat breakfast yet. When I got upstairs, I was shocked to be greeted by the huge crowd of takbo.ph. They were such a fun and crazy young crowd, I forgot how tired I was.

Photographers Doc Marvs and Luis “Gingerbread”

You see how young runners are in takbo.ph? The young Argonaut.

Eric, i2runner, Beth, and my dad Bobby

Excited takbo.ph peeps

Me and my Idol Vener Unlimited before the start

I’m so excited!

Here’s my picture on the Skyway with Ben Chan

My real prize after the race

Coolest running group in the City

Vertek overspeeding on the Skyway. Where are the cops?

Ben Chan on the Run

Marvs

I said to myself, I may never run on Skyway again, so I better get some pictures as well, and the heck with sub 1:50. The Skyway wasn’t so difficult, but the Kalayaan flyover on the way back to the Fort was again the killer. Before the Kalayaan flyover, I no longer drank any fluids, it was already hard to concentrate on the pace, so when I arrived at the bottom of the Kalayaan Flyover, well my quads were on fire, they felt like they were going to cramp. Perhaps I should have drank some more sportsdrinks. There were moments when my heart rate would reach 170bpm and I would feel dizzy so I slowed down and kept my HR to 160-168. In the end I sprinted at the last 400meters but the lines were so narrow that I had to zigzag around the cones to overtake a lot of tired runners in front. I still managed a respectable time of 1:51′27″, not bad for a first timer, I think.

My Official Half Marathon Debut Time

http://connect.garmin.com/player/2682214

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/2682214


Afterwards near the finish line, I took some photos of the rest of the runners who were wearing the takbo.ph singlet.

Ronald

Bluesman

Beth

Sean Williams

Rene “Jazzrunner”


Doc Lyndon “malmonmd”

Pojie

Pojie

Bobby (my dad)

Doctapiok

Doc Roy Tan


Craig and Justin

MJ “emerts”

Steven

Soon to be Mr. and Mrs. Gavan

ADDITIONAL PICS BY BETH:
Coach Rio

The i2runner

The 3 stations are:
1)Support GroupA/B that would be placed on the Ramp-UP/Down the Skyway at the Buendia corner Osmena Highway.
2)Support Group C at the Ramp-UP of Kalayaan Flyover on the way back to the Fort. This group would only open 1hour after the start of 21K race, or approximately 6:30AM. This could also support the 10K runners.
3)Support Group D at the Ramp-DOWN of Kalayaan Flyover on the way back to the Fort. This group would only open 1hour after the start of 21K race, or approximately 6:30AM. This could also support the 10K runners.

The support groups have a takbo.ph banners so you shouldn’t miss them. The group have the following supplies in case you need them:
1)Activade Sports Drinks
2)Choco Mucho
3)Petroleum Jelly
4)Band Aid
5)Water Mist/Spray for cooling the face.
6)Efficascent Oil

Below is the updated map, you can click it to get the very very larger detailed map. You may need to get a larger and high definition LCD screens to view them in full glory.

Just click on the link below to see the larger map. You should also see where the takbo.ph support teams would be placed. See you there!

In case you would like to get the link, it’s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhNAP33Mujs

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhNAP33Mujs]

For the last week before the event (this week), I plan to run 2 x 10miles (16kms) Tomorrow and on Wednesday, very easy pace. On Thursday, I’m not sure if I’m still going to run – maybe just a gentle loving 10K. This way I could prepare my body and mind for the long distance, but not so intense that I would tire my legs that deserve a good rest. On Friday there’s this Carboloading party by the takbo.ph inviting everyone to register and pay a small fee for the special singlet, and a healthy Kenny Roger’s meal. Actually, I’ve tried this Kenny Roger’s Healthy meal, it’s quite expensive but is very delicious for a healthy food. I like the low calorie meal and the high fiber meal during the day when I’m on diet, but for this activity, I’m guessing takbo.ph is ordering the “high energy” meal that is composed of spaghetti and whole wheat toast bread (just typing these words make my stomach growl). Then on Saturday, I’ll probably get a massage.

But now I realize I really have no clear time goal. I would like to run at or faster than 1:54, and equivalent to 4hour marathon according to Jack Daniel’s Formula/table. However a 1:50 time looks better. But then again, Jack Daniel is saying I can do a 1:48 based on my 5K time. But that 5K was a flat course, Condura is going to be tough. All these numbers are confusing me and are just making me more nervous before the event.

Most world records are broken using even-paced running. In a hilly course like Skyway, this isn’t applicable. An even-effort throughout the race is a better idea. Perhaps I’ll just use the Heart Rate Monitor to set my first official 21K PR. According to runnersworld.com, a half-marathon should be run at 85-88% of your Maximum Heart Rate. That’s 152 to 157bpm for me. I’m thinking of limiting my Kalayaan and Skyway uphill climb to only 160bpm in order to reserve my energies for the return back to Bonifacio High Street. Skyway’s going to suck my energy out of me. But then again, the northbound of Skyway have a nice skyline of Makati that should be pleasant to us runners and hopefully could lower our heart rate a bit, and then a fast downhill to Osmena Highway should compensate for the loss in pace during the early uphill climb. The same goes for the Kalayaan overpass.

I’m very excited to run this race, knowing I’m going to punish myself especially at the latter half of the race. Good thing I’ve heard takbo.ph is going to place a support group for takbo.ph members, right after exiting skyway, when most runners are really exhausted. I’m glad to be a member of that forum.

Everybody’s invited, just go to takbo.ph, register, and paste your name on this link.

If you’ve never run more than 15Kms or 10miles before, we discourage you from running the 21Kms this March8, but you could still run 15Kms first using this proposed route below (click on the picture to see the direction). If you’ve run 15Kms before then you could probably run 21Kms, where we plan to go back to the McKinley Hill for another round of Hill Training. This is to strengthen our quadriceps and calves for the long uphill climb of Skyway. Please bring extra money for water/gatorade stops at 7eleven at McKinley Hill, or in case of emergency, for transportation purposes.

The 15K route is similar to RunNew’s 15K about 2 weeks ago, except for the Heritage Park, they are usually closed for the public. Please do not run 1 day before this training in order to prepare yourself for this hard training. The pace would probably be at 7:30 to 8:00minutes per kilometer or 12-13min/mile. We encourage you to bring your hydration belts and bottles. See you next week!

ADDENDUM:
I have updated the route map with a water tower landmark in Lawton Avenue where the turnaround should be at 3.632Kms.

As of this writing, we have 28 runners who plan to join us:
1. Lyndon – March 8
2. zixednatz – March 8
3. emerts – March 8
4. Lauren – March 8
5. OC – March 8
6. Sheerwill – March 8
7. Moonraker – March 8
8. Shocks_5
9. Pojie – March 8
10. dakila- mar 8. kung ano man kayanin
11. Carly – mar 8
12. chelly – mar 8
13. Viper69 -March 8
14. chieeeeef (Florence) – March 8
15. Eo – March 8
16. red – March 8 (newbie)
17. kelcy33- March 8 (newbie)
18. nuttybunny4 – March 8 (newbie)
19. David(vir) – March 8
20-21 Ronnie Gabriana and wife
22. cathletic – Mar 8
23-24. Jinoe/Que – Mar 8. 7:30-8:00min/km pace. 18K-21K.
25.doctapiok
26. ibetlacbay – will run on Mar 8 kaso sa Seattle. kitakits!
27. intimmyd8 – newbie too! sama ako! hehehee
28. Ric

Before we started running, we saw the baldrunner team assembling in front of the Oblation. They requested that I take their picture, so I did, but it was too dark to even see the oblation statue. It was the first time I met Sir Jovie AKA “baldrunner”. He has so fit and at first glance you wouldn’t be able to tell he was 50+years old. He looked like a runner in his late 30’s or early 40’s. Heck, he seems to have more upper body muscles than me. With all his popularity and larger than life image, he was very down to earth. He said they were going to do a run-about, run along marcos highway, and they did, even overtaking a group of cyclists going uphill.

Ok now when we started running, the three girls – Carly, Lauren, and Queenie, ran ahead of us boys Jinoe and Eric. Beth was still quite shy so she ran beside me way behind the back of the pack. I don’t know what’s with me but when walking or running with my friends or anybody I cared about, prefer to be behind them so I could see that they’re safe. I didn’t like leading the pack unless I’m racing.

Vener, Lauren, and Carly leading the pack (Photographed by Queenie)

We started running at 12-14minutes/mile. I then felt the darn old hamstring pull again – probably due to the all-out 2×400m sprints I did last week to measure my Maximum Heart Rate. So I pulled over for 5minutes to do some gentle stretching. It was still painful, but after 30mins, it was gone, probably due to warmer muscles.

Beth, i2runner, Eric, and Jinoe – Ouch! I think I felt a hamstring pull!

The UP Course was probably the best running course in Metro Manila. With races going on almost every weekend, water was overflowing. After 4.83miles, we stopped at the race start/stop area and grabbed some free activade sportsdrinks. Beth and I only took 1bottle each. Queenie bragged she drank 3-4 bottles. She’s nuts…. My garmin says we have ran 4.83miles already so I asked Beth how she felt, she said she could still run and she was having so much fun! So we ran again…
4.83miles

We did 2 more laps of the UP Oval:
UP Oval – Is this really an OVAL?

Beth thought she could still run but I thought 6miles was already too much for her, so we stopped. Eric and Jinoe also stopped. However the 3girls – Queenie, Lauren, and Carly still ran. I took some photographs at the race start/stop area and got some interesting pictures…
Tired…Eric and Beth

Eric and i2runner

I then took a picture of the famous Zorro, who seems to be always present at all races, even at multiple races of the same day (probably has the same magic as Sta Claus). His picture below seems to be of powerful stance, I don’t really know what he’s doing, but probably receiving some kind of divine power from above. He’s weird, and sometimes scare some newbie runners, but I think his mystique adds some interesting sight and flavor to our local races and is great for the sport.
ZORRO!!!! (looks more like Zorror)

Here’s Jinoe, the Genius behind takbo.ph, with Zorro:

After 2 more laps, the Girls – Queenie, Lauren, and Carly, still looked very fresh and sprinted to the finish line. I was quite surprised how they were willing to join the LSD weekend run in-spite of the fact that I said in the forums that we were planning to run 12miles. It seems that these girls were very brave and are now very strong. It’s a good sign that the running in the Philippines have no preference for sexual orientation. Girls can and could even be stronger than boys. This can be quite discouraging for some men, however. If you’re a man, how would you feel if one of these girls outrun you? I would feel a little humiliated but would admire any girl who overtakes me in a race.

LSD Girls – Queenie, Lauren, and Carly

After each LSD run, we at takbo.ph never forget to proudly display our banner. Among all running websites and blogs in the Philippines, nothing’s as catchy and simply beautiful as the word “takbo.ph”. (takbo is a Tagalog word for run).

Takbo.ph banner

Long Slow Distance runs are never complete without the recovery breakfast meal. We ate tapsilog at Rodick’s to replenish our muscles with carbs and protein. We men ordered extra rice because of our heavier weights.