Sorry dear readers, I haven’t been blogging for the past few weeks, have been busy trying out new things–Playing Guitar and Ping Pong. This ate a lot of my non-running time that I couldn’t find enough time to blog. However for the past few months I’ve been concentrating on 5K training aiming for sub-20minutes. The training has been composed mainly of fast 400meter repeats, tough tempo runs, and fast long runs (not LSD) of up to 16Kms at a little over 5min/km. However most of these runs are done at a flat terrain of an ongoing construction of C6 road. My knees had problems dealing with downhill running, but 2 weeks ago I’ve experimented and was able to run on a hilly course again, and my knees felt fine!

Then just last week my officemate Erik told me he wished he had registered earlier since it was announced that late registrants will not get any medals. There was an available 21K race kit (registered from BongZ’s cousin) that was being sold for only P500, but Erik said he’s not ready for the 21K yet. So I sold Erik my 5K race kit and then I bought BongZ’s cousin’s 21K race Kit. When I received the kit, I saw that it was from a woman. It really didn’t matter to me at the time, I was just excited to run on the skyway again. It occurred to me that this was just going to be my second 21K race, and I was already excited, but I thought I haven’t trained well for this race, unlike last year where I had several 21Km training runs before the race.

3 days before the race I was able to join takbo.ph’s carboloading party, then ate a lot 2 days before the race. I was thinking I will no longer bring any hydration belt nor carb gels with me, I remembered last year I had stomachaches with those gels. 21K should be short enough for the body’s glycogen storage as long as I ate a lot before the race.

Race Plan
Since I was already running 8:17 to 8:14/mile (5:10 to 5:07/km) during long runs, although I thought this was already tough, I believed I could run an 8:00/mile half-marathon. That should be 1hour45mins for the race. After joining an informal track mile race, where I had a 6:17 time, I used mcmillan’s calculator to predict my half-marathon time. It said I could run 1:40. I thought this was insane, maybe if the race was done only on the track, I could do it. I thought my biggest challenge was lack of hill running during training, and not enough long runs. But I thought, what the heck, I can target 1:45 to 1:50, still a new PR for me.

A few days before the race, I received another book, “The Runner’s Edge” from Raffy Castaneda aka “alaska runner”, one of the kind dear readers of this blog, is a several time Boston Marathoner. The book was about utilizing high tech gadgets like Garmin, Nike+, Suunto, Polar, etc.., for peak running performance in training and racing. It’s quite new, I’m not sure if it’s available in Manila already, but this is just what I needed. I haven’t fully read it yet, but I scanned it the night before the race, it said the best racing strategy for chasing a PR for the half-marathon is to run it at an even pace as much as possible. This was unlike in 5k and 10K races where the paces are faster in the beginning and in the end, and the negative splits of an ideal marathon race. Another important information I read was that for chasing PR’s or even racing, the heart rate monitor is pretty much useless, since this would tend to give you signals to limit yourself even though you need and can run faster. So that’s the plan, don’t use the HRM, and monitor the average target pace of 8:00/mile (5:00/km).

The valuable book I got from Raffy.

With Raffy Castaneda in the QCIM. Raffy is a Boston Marathoner!

To give you an idea of what a 1:45 half-marathon, it is as fast as a 50minute 10K, or a 25minute 5K. Doable, but I had to sustain it for 21Kms, something I haven’t done before, and still was afraid to do.

The 21K Race
I lined-up near the starting line and met Pat Alcomendas, who is a 1:44 half-marathoner, and I asked for some advice for the race. I also met Jerome Bautista, the guy with me in the Condura Poster I was already feeling nervous at the starting line, but the emcee did a good job entertaining us, and I was able to relax myself by listening to their music and dancing with it. Then when the countdown started, I felt my heart rate involuntarily rise, I thought it’s race time!

Like most races, the runners started out sprinting mostly at 7 to 6min/mile (4:21 to 3:44/km) pace, I had trouble holding myself back to the planned 8min/mile (5min/km) pace. The course started exactly at 5AM, so when we got to the Kalayaan Flyover, it was really dark and couldn’t see anything except fellow runners. When I got to Buendia, I was slowly overtaking other runners and eventually even Marthoners who started 1hour earlier, but had a longer route before merging with us.

@ takbo.ph aid station. Same singlets, shorts, but now with the lighter lunar racers

Even though I have finished a Marathon before, I was still a little scared of the half-marathon distance especially with the pace I was running. It was not a race for reckless pacing. So I closely monitored my Garmin405 to aim for 8:00/mi, but at the first 5kms, I was averaging 7:50, I thought this was OK since I was still on the flat road. I should be slower when I get to the skyway.

When I reached the skyway, it was still really dark and so I couldn’t really enjoy the view. Running uphill was tough, trying to keep the pace at 8min/mi. Then I was able to overtake the marthoners and then half-marathoners one by one. When I saw the lead pack, I was way past the EDSA intersection, then suddenly there weren’t much runners in front of me. I saw Coach Rio running real fast, but I couldn’t find any Kenyan runners in the dark. When I got past last year’s turnaround point, I still couldn’t see the U-turn. I told myself, Oh no, the race course isn’t the same as last year! Then finally I saw the U-turn just in front of the Nichol’s exit, which is at ground level, but it was a lot farther than last year’s U-turn, so there was an added long hill climb back to skyway. Oh no! It was quite tough climbing back, and I was a little worried with my 1:45 target.

Going back on top of the skyway, I could only see about 2 runners far in front of me, and about 4 runners far behind me, and thousands of runners still running to the U-turn. Wow, I said I must be running fast, I am no longer a mid-pack runner like last year! Every now and then I would hear someone would cheer “go natz!!!” and I would hear “halimaw ka natz!!!” and it really gave me motivation to continue, even though fatigue was starting to accumulate. I felt I was indeed running fast on the way back in the skyway, finally feeling like speeding on the highway, the only speed limit is my Garmin telling me not to go over nor under 8min/mile. I cruised the downhills of the skyway easily, sometimes reaching 7:15/mile, but I was beginning to feel some pain in my ITB again, and had to try to correct and monitor my running form.

Then I met Beth running past me, then we stopped and we kissed on the skyway. Ok this is bit cheezy, but it was fun!

I need to emphasize that one of my plan was to walk everytime I drink to relax my leg muscles, somewhat like a Semi-Galloway method for this Semi-Marathon. With only 16km training long run, this was going to be like having only 32Km training run for the 42Km marathon. I thought I will suffer soon, possibly cramps, so walk breaks should be beneficial in relaxing my leg muscles. Soon, I saw runners ahead of me not stopping nor walking during water breaks, and even though I would walk the water break, I would soon feel refreshed and run a little bit faster. Then slowly but surely, I was overtaking these non-stop runners. I do find it a little funny because with my even-paced running, every time I was about to overtake some runner, they would surge a little bit faster than me, like they do not want me to overtake. This would repeat 2 to 3times until they finally give up and let me overtake them. This kind of behavior would happen several times to different runners, I’m wondering if they think I was racing them. They either want to be faster or slower than me. They didn’t seem to want to run with me. For crying out loud, I’m only trying to aim for 1:45!!! But again, it was really fun

Just before leaving the skyway, strange thing happened, I met Alman, the photographer of the famous Condura-Skyway poster where I was in front of the pack. Now, when I look behind me, there was no longer any pack, only few runner way behind me. And it was still dark. So I thought, no more posters of Condura with me next year. I asked Alman about my email to him asking for the high resolution picture, he said he already sent it. My email probably has problems receiving large files. Strange. Alman was wearing running gears and was carrying an SLR camera but with no race BIB.

When I reached Buendia and reached the takbo.ph-Renier Pacific aid station, I got a lot of lively cheers and I walked after receiving my cup of water.

Like Jonel Mendoza said, Walking does wonders to Running!

Fatigue was building in my legs, they weren’t like the lactic-acid burning sensation in the mile or 5K race, but was a little bit similar to the the late stages of the marathon. My average pace was slowing down, I saw it go to 8:02/mile, so I knew I had to pick-up my pace. Then I ran into the 10K runners in the Buendia to Kalayaan flyover route. They weren’t too slow to block me, and there were still a lot of hydration from condura available. I had to stop at each of them to get a walk break, I was of course scared of having cramps, I know the feeling and it’s not pleasant at all. When I reached the Kalayaan flyover, I slowed down significantly and I was heavily breathing. My running form has severly deteriorated, now somewhat like that of Emil Zapotek. I was surprised when I was going down the skyway because my Garmin says there is only about 400meters to go till 13.1miles, but I was clearly still far from the finish line. I figured out the course was going to be a little longer, so I ran faster and splitted my time at 13.13miles, and got a time of 1:45′15″. Wow, broken my previous PR of 1:52!!!

The last few turns I still tried to maintain the pace but I was already tired. Right before the turn, I saw Condura employees cheering and singing, I gave high-fives to all of them. Thank you very much to all of your cheering! It gave me a enough energy to finish the race. It was still a little dark, the sun hasn’t risen yet but at least all was now visible. So at the last turn, I could see the finish line, I pushed myself to sprint hard and finished at 1:47. However the Garmin registered a distance of 21.64Kms, about 2.52% longer. Meanwhile, the book Raffy gave me said Garmin is 98 to 99% accurate in road races, so I’m going to choose to believe in the Garmin instead. I’ve extracted my Garmin data to Excel and pin-pointed my time to be 1:45′04″ at the distance 21.096Kms (The half marathon is 21.097kms). I will now choose the 1:45′04″ to be my new Half-Marathon PR!

1:45'04\

Like Raffy's book said, even-paced strategy is best for the Half-Marathon

After crossing the finish line, I jogged and walked, but my legs felt really sore right away, just like in the 42K, but a little bit manageable. I had some freebies in the race area, had few mini-cups of COORS BEER, and a New Valley Granola bar. I then went back to the finish line to photograph some of my runner friends. My ITBS felt sore again, but I hope it would bloom to a real injury like what happened to me in the Milo 42K.

I finished 41st overall, out of 1,500 runners. Meanwhile, Jennifer Zandueta, finished 5th in women’s category.

8min/mile or 5min/km is literally a blistering pace for the 21K

Christy, finishing another fast 21K

Beth finished a new PR of 2:22!

Beth finished a new PR of 2:22!

Edick and his sister Bennette

Nora the Golden Girl! I'm so happy to see her finish her half-marathon.

Paolo finishing his first Marathon. Congrats buddy!

James finishing his 2nd half-marathon but was injured in the skyway.

Phenomenal Carly finished her 42K in 4:23!!!! Amazing and congrats!

4:24 marathoner Jaymie The Bull Runner. She has inspired me to go high-tech on running, the reason why I bought Garmins and Nike Lunars. I also handed the high-tech book to her from Raffy. What a coincidence. Hopefully the book will help her smash even more amazing 42K PRs!!!

Jay Nacino sprinting at the end of the 42K race. His previous struggles with a sub-4hour marathon has inspired me to get serious in training. Congrats Jay!

The Prince still looking great after the Marathon

Luis struggled in his first marathon, but still ran it in a good time.

Argonaut's Quest for the Marathon

My Father (Bobby) running his 3rd marathon (in less than a year)

My fathers NEW PR 5:24--this is 19 minutes improvement from his QCIM.

Finally met Patrick Concepcion, the great man behind the Condura Race. Great Runner. Great Man. So humble in person.