I was not able to sleep well the night before the Century Tuna Superbods Run.
I picked-up my daughter from a school concert which was supposed to end by 10pm. But instead it ended @ 11pm. No worries then, as I have no plan to improve my 21K pr on this event. The plan was to do an LSD and include it as part of my BDM 102 training.
And so I set my phone's alarm to 3:00AM because I don't want to be late for this race. And guess what, I woke up even before the alarm went off. I chicken-slept (tulog-manok... tama ba?).
My veggies... I'm not yet fully charged, not even half charged.
So I went to my usual business on a race day... drank two glasses of cold water... ate a peanut butter and strawberry jam sandwich... took a bath... dressed... fixed my race kit... and I'm off.
I was at the site before 4am. Enough time to chit chat with friends and even insert a warm-up. Yup... insert a warm-up. You see, I don't really warm-up before a race. I stretch a bit though. Pwede na ba yun?
The race was supposed to start @ 5:20AM, but for some unknown reason it started 10 minutes early.
As I was positioned near the faster runners, I tried my best to keep pace with them. I averaged 5:10mpk on my 1st 2Km and when I saw that I was going too fast, I slowed down a bit.
I tried to maintain a 5:30mpk and hydrate at every 2nd water station.
And when I felt I was running at my comfortable pace, I totally ignored my gps watch and just went with the flow.
But when I reached Km 15 after exiting Heritage Memorial Park, I took a glimpse at my watch.
I've run 15Kms for 01hr26mins... so I thought; it's possible to have a new PB and even a sub 2.
I paced with Doc Pinky up to Km 17. Slowed down when I saw my HR shooting up to 90%. But when I reached KM19 and saw my time @ 01hr52mins, I said “Goodbye Sub-2”.
Good thing Ace & Pojie was there to give a push. A new 21K best is still possible.
But with less than 1K more to go to finish line, my hands suddenly felt numb. And when I checked my HR, it was already at 95%. So I told Ace & Pojie to go ahead and I’ll just walk to the finish line.
When I turned left going to the finish line, I saw Sir Jovie egging me on and the official time. 02hrs03mins!!! And so I made a mad dash towards the finish. Completely ignoring my HR which shot up to 104% when I finished. But it was all good!!! It was a great feeling to know that I have improved. I got a new 21K best (02:03:55) and a medal. Woot!
LSD? Taper????
About the Race:
The race was huge and the atmosphere was festive. But the distribution of the medals, loot bags, etc needs more improvement. Falling in line to get the freebies after a long run was not a good sight.
But for me, the race was a success with a few minor hiccups.
