Earth Run

Joining Sunday Races has become a habit for me, Nicky, Henry, and Rafa. Personally, I treat these as my long runs, following the prescription of my 16-week training program.

This week is easy run week for me. The program only prescribes running three 6.22km easy runs. But I decided to make my Sunday long run an opportunity to "make-up" for the missed kilometers in the past Sunday long runs. Why "make-up"? Ok, sometimes, the program prescribes me to run 11 + or 12+ km, but races are normally rounded off to either 10km or 15km. And since I gauged myself to be not yet ready for 10+ km races in the past weeks, I have to contend with 10km.

I went to bed early and woke up at 3:30 AM. Did my morning pre-race rituals: pray, coffee, final check on my gears (I prepared them before sleeping last night), and texted my running buddies.

Nicky and Rafa arrived in our house a little past 4:30 AM. We boarded my car and left for McKinley Hills thereafter. It was raining going to the race venue. Henry drove alone.

Its my 1st 16k. Running the same distance are Nicky and Henry. Rafa did a 5k (I guess he is preparing to race soon, and set a new 5k PR hehehe).

We arrived in the race venue 5:15 AM. Gun time is 5:30 AM. We need to hurry to the parking. I'm assuming the venue is relatively new to most runners, as many are looking for parking. We were guided by a race marshall to a nearby parking building.

We hurried with our last minute preparations. Then jogged down the stairs of the parking building going to the starting line, to be greeted by some rain drizzles. I'm happy I'm a bit prepared for the occassion, coming from Wednesday and Thursday recovery runs while drizzling.

The first thing most runners do upon arrival in the starting line is to pee. Only 6 urinals are available. Lines were building up in this area. With the cold weather, one really needs to unload excess fluids (pardon with the blury pictures, need to enclose my camera in a zip plastic for some rain protection).

Then we proceeded to the holding area. Wow! I find the area to be too cramped. I believe this can be improved by extending the barriers a bit so that runners will have some elbow room.

The organizers then advised that the race will start at 6AM (originally set at 5:30AM). I guess the character below is not happy with the announcement.

At 5:58 AM in my HRM, the race finally commenced. All runners (3/5/16k) took the initial uphill battle going to Upper McKinley Road, then towards Lawton. True to the word of the organizers, as stated in the race kit, water (in very cute paper cups. Wished they provided the standard sized cups. This is not an espresso shot!) will be available every 2km.

I also noticed that the we are running with traffic. I guessed this is what I'll expect all the way, so I just took caution.
I also saw some runners wearing "no to nukes" signs behind their gears. What a way to express love Mother Earth.
After 2 hours of uphills and downhills (good thing I ran in Tagaytay last Sunday), I finally crossed the finish line. Below also are my stats.
Lastly, a decent picture with my running buddies (at last! Don't forget the camera next time) before going to nearby McDonald's for our recovery meal.
Next run: Mizuno Infinity June 7, 2009