Run United for Wellness 2

I'm a person who likes to take things slowly but surely and I can be a bit of a coward sometimes, so it was a pretty big thing for me to jump from doing 10k races to more than double, i.e., my first 21k race during this year's Adidas King of the Road.  One month after, I decided to take the opportunity to do my first 15k at the Unilab Run for Wellness 2.  Moreover, quite a number of friends had expressed their intention to take the 32k challenge during the same event, so I figured it would be the perfect way to express my support.

Memories of the first Unilab run in March...sadly I've lost that singlet :(

I ran 10k during the first Unilab Run for Wellness held in February, and if its predecessor was any indication, I knew I could expect a well-funded and well-organized run from Runrio.  Unilab 1, I have to admit, was not one of my best runs.  On the contrary, it was one of my worst in terms of performance, since at that time (until April) my knee was in its worst condition yet such that I couldn't run without wincing.  But there were enough water stations, the marshalls were well-placed, and the freebies were definitely worth it, so I was really happy when they announced that Unilab would fund the event in lieu of Timex.

The weather was perfect on Sunday morning.  I'd slept four hours the night before.  Four hours is the minimum amount of sleep I need to feel human, so I woke up without the desire to bash my alarm clock.  The sun was hiding behind the clouds and a cool breeze could be felt.  Unfortunately by the time I reached Fort, the 20-mile (32k) race had started and roads had already been closed off, so I was forced to park in the "grassland of no return."  By the time I'd reached the starting line it was already teeming with eager runners, and I was dreading that I'd overexpected from this race.

Still dark!

Fortunately I hadn't.  As always, the first three or so kilometers felt like torture, perhaps because I hadn't warmed up, but it got much easier after the first three or so kilometers.  There were markers at the start of every kilometer so it was pretty easy to calculate my pace.  It was a bit of a chore to have to go through the same usual playground again, but I'd made sure my tracklist would keep me entertained enough to make me speed through usual ol' Fort.  There was enough water and Powerade to drown me, and they looked so tempting that I stopped at almost every water station until the finish line.

It was only when I crossed the 10k mark that I realized I'd forgotten my knee support!  It was also then that I started coughing (yep, still the same cough that made my Urbanathlon miserable, although it's improved a bit).  I had to simmer down a bit and take it easy, then when I reached the 12km mark I made sure I had upbeat tracks playing so I'd be a bit more motivated.  When I finally saw the finish line I realized I couldn't sprint anymore, and I couldn't help but let out a huge shout of relief when I crossed it.

Happy finish!

After meeting up with my friends and grabbing my loot bag (no lines!),  I trekked back to the grassland of no return (and got lost doing so) to make "banners" for friends who'd run the 20-miler.  Even as we waited, It was fun cheering and taking pictures of each of them as they triumphantly crossed the finish line.  By then "Wellness Village" was already pretty crowded, so we decided to skip it altogether and take a shower at the gym instead before heading off to North Park for breakfast.

We lose weight to eat!!!

I had to leave after breakfast, though, because I had to meet up with my dad for some quality time over lunch at Eat Well Greenhills (yes, I know I'm a glutton, if it helps any I just had tofu for lunch even if I know it's not the best post-run lunch) before heading home and dozing off for a couple of hours.

Run United 2 was undoubtedly one of the best-organized races of the year and is enough reason to look forward to next year's Run United events.

Next race, the 2nd Quezon City International Marathon, is up in less than two weeks!

Singapore

Last weekend I went on a trip to Singapore to visit my sister using a ticket I'd booked just about a week before.  Singapore usually just means shopping and eating to me, but this particular trip was rather memorable for me.

I got to spend some QT with my sister, who's taking Marketing courses there for six months.

I enjoyed the cuisine and got a taste of delectable Marché.

I got to catch up with a good friend.

I got a glimpse of Orchard's initial Christmas display.

 

Got to do a bit of shoppin'

Men's Health Urbanathlon 2010

When I signed up for the 2010 Men's Health Urbanathlon at 360 Fitness, I already had an idea that I was signing up for no ordinary race.  I signed up for the 5k category thinking I'd be able to beg off some of the dreaded "obstacles" that way.  As it turns out, however, there was no escaping the obstacles.  The obstacles were the same regardless of race category.  Participants could choose to skip the obstacles in exchange for a corresponding time penalty, but I wanted to avoid that since I figured only in completing all the obstacles would I be worthy of being called an "urbanathlete."  In addition to this, I almost bailed out on the race since I was tired from a party the night before, but my stinginess prevailed and before 5 AM I was on my way to Fort with my friend Ron and was surprisingly awake for someone who'd had about three hours of sleep.

Thinking I was going to get wet or dirty or both, I dressed down a bit and wore my old Kenny urbanite singlet with an old pair of shorts and left my trusty iPod in the car.  I just brought the belt bag I'd dug up at home the night before and an old pair of workout gloves.  I'm extremely finicky about high necklines, so I had to leave my bright yellow Urbanathlon dri-fit shirt at home.  I decided to leave my Adizeros at home fearing they'd get dirty and donned my slightly older, slightly blister-causing Asics instead.

One notable thing about this race is that hydration was overflowing.  Sure, the Gatorade tasted a bit diluted, but every kilometer of the race had a water station, and I commend the organizers for making sure runners had more than enough to drink.

The first obstacles were easy.  Going through the tire dump didn't require much effort, and while my awful balance caused me to fall off the balance beam at least five times, I was still able to complete that one in less than two minutes.  The scaffolding maze and the hurdles were a piece of cake; I wouldn't even call the latter an obstacle.  The low crawl got a bit messy, yes, but only because I literally crawled on the ground so that I could make up for the time I wasted coughing and walking when I could have been running.  The wall, however was a different story.

The "wall" was actually an eight-foot makeshift piece of wood with ropes which were to be used to climb it dangling from its peak.  There was already a long line to climb it when I got there.  When my turn came, I out on my gloves and grabbed the rope and had to stand there looking clueless for about ten seconds.  The rope had no knots and the wall had no holes or steps, so I had no idea how on earth I was supposed to hoist myself up.  I'm not sure if it was because they were just being helpful or if it was because they were getting impatient, but someone near me offered to give me a push up the wall, and I immediately accepted.  After one failed attempt, and a bit of acrobatics, I found myself on top of the wall!

Finally on top of the wall! That is my "How on earth am I going to get down from here" face.  Photo courtesy of the Greentennial Team :)

Most runners climbed up the wall and went over the steel railing that seemed to help hold it together, but not me.  I ended up in sitting down on the wall itself under the steel railing.  I was scared I would take a misstep if I attempted to go over the railing, so after a few more seconds of trying to figure out what to do (I probably annoyed the person next to me in line, I decided to do this instead:

Voila!  (The marshalls didn't seem to approve of what I was doing haha)  Still from the Greentennial Team.

After the famous wall I was home free.  I ran my last few meters and was elated when I finally saw the finish line!  It sucked that the 5k category didn't make me eligible for a medal, but it was the right decision given my horrible cough and colds.  Instead of a medal I got a Century breakfast consisting of tuna salad and tuna pan de sal and some kind of discount card, but not before washing the dirt off me at the Manila Water "shower" station.

When I finally got to meet up with friends and other familiar faces, I was impressed to find out that my friend Noelle won first place for the women's 10k category and my friend Gigay had managed to snag a spot in the top five.  As for me, while this race wasn't one of my best (on the contrary, it was my lousiest 5k -- hopefully EVER -- given how the number of 5k runners meant I spent almost half the time lining up to get through the obstacles), it was definitely one of the most unforgettable!

Done!

Half-Marathoner, finally! (aka Adidas King of the Road 2010)

It's been a week but I'm still rather euphoric over my first 21k race at the Adidas King of the Road.  Being someone who used to join races for the after-run breakfasts, and remembering all the times when I'd curse about the mere thought having to get up at the unholy hour of 4 AM, it amuses me how much has changed since my first 5km race back in March 2009; back then I never would have imagined running would become the "in thing" it has become today.

Memories of my running debut: the Men's Health 10,000km Miracle Run (L-R: Mike, Janine, Boyet, Xander, Byron, Me)

Our then-little running group's first post-run breakfast at Something Fishy (Eastwood)!

Back then, it took really pretty singlets to lure me into having to wake up uber early on Sunday mornings  (though I did run Kenny's Urbanite).  It didn't help that my first 10k during the King of the Road in 2009 resulted in my first running injury -- a knee injury that had help me back from reaching maximum workout capacity for months and that caused me to lie low on high-impact exercises.

After Adidas King of the Road in 2009. Okay, so it's not that obvious in this picture, since we're all smiles, but my knee was hurt pretty badly here and my calves had me wincing in pain.

When I started running I never thought I'd eventually be joining a running group (i.e., the AdiNation of Runners -- or aNR -- Ortigas Chapter) running at least once a month, much less did I expect I would be registering for my first half-marathon more than a year later, during the anniversary of first 10k and first knee injury, no less!  At first I was having my doubts, but I had the bliss of having PR'd my Camsur 10k rushing through my veins, peer pressure, as well as the my kabaratan coupled with the outrageous P850-regardless-of-distance registration fee to thank for giving me the courage to take on my first pikermi (21k run).

This is one medal I really trained and worked for.

Pre-race, I have no complaints.  The registration process was smooth; my friend Xander registered me for the race as soon as the Adidas outlet opened on the day they'd replenished their outlets with 21k kits (since we were in Camsur the week before and they'd run out of 21k kits then).  We got the race kits immediately, thus avoiding the lines and the chaos like we'd experienced while claiming race kits for King of the Road 2009.  And yes, the singlet is black and rather plain, but it gives anyone wearing it a distinct athletic look.

Thumbs up on both accounts; Adidas has been holding this race annually for years now, and running has been so in-the-vogue lately, most people considered it only natural to think they would have the experience (and the budget) to cater to runners' needs.  But apparently that wasn't the case in other aspects of the race.

First, Bayani Road was under repair.  While this is of course beyond Adidas' control, it would have helped to segregate the 10k and 21k runners a bit, especially in areas such as this.  The convergence of 10k and 21k runners reduced me and everyone passing certain areas to walking even, which might be good if you're looking forward to a bit of rest but not when you're all hyped up.

Sorry, no pictures of Bayani Road. This is a picture of me on the Buendia Flyover courtesy of the Greentennial Run Facebook page. This was only one of the areas where it was pretty difficult to speed up because there were too way too many runners.

Second, there was just not enough water.  It's a good thing that I'm quite a paranoid person; I let no water station pass during the first half of the race, which is probably why I was properly hydrated when I got past the 15th kilometer.  I got a bit annoyed when I learned the water and Powerade had run out, but not everyone was as paranoid as I'd been.  A friend of mine decided to pick up a used bottle of water from the ground when she reached that point, and another friend practically saw stars because he'd gotten dehydrated.

Third, when Adidas had initially announced the cost of registration, quite a few people were outraged.  P850 for a race that had cost P550 the previous year?  Online posts and marketing materials tried to justify the cost of registration, promising a "buffet breakfast" after the run.  Apparently, for them a "buffet breakfast" means cold hotdog and cold egg served in styrofoam coupled with a banana (that was what we got in exchange for the  "meal stubs" attached to our race bibs).  Classy.

Fourth, although they used the RFID timing device for the race, there were no splits.  Any runner who was feeling a bit lazy that day could have taken a shortcut and his/her time would still have been recorded as a 21k finish as long as he/she started at the starting line and ended at the finish line.  It could have helped to use at least the old-fashioned strings to make sure the runners had gone through the entire route.  Besides, I find it helpful to know my splits.  I finished two minutes short of my target time, and I would have wanted to find out which part of the race slowed me down.

Several booths were set up to provide runners with freebies (like frozen yogurt!) and tests to enjoy and try out after the race, but lines were looong, so my friends and I decided to drop by the aNR Ortigas registration to camwhore a bit instead.

The Adination of Runners - Ortigas Chapter photowall! (L-R: Ron, James, Me, and Drew.)

Many people felt outraged about the lack of hydration and getting cheated out of their "buffet breakfast," but apparently I was semi-oblivious to these thanks to the gush of endorphins.  In fact, thanks to all the excitement, I ended up forgetting my buffet breakfast somewhere.

Our group poses with Coach Rio dela Cruz.  Notice I'm still wearing my knee support -- never running without one again! (L-R: Ron, Me, Tita Mel, Boyet, Noel, Jaymee, Jong, Gigay, Charlz, Mich, and I believe James took this picture.)

Perhaps the steep fee was hardly justified in terms of the technical aspects of the race, but I for one was simply happy to have survived the race scath free.  Well, I will admit "scath free" is not entirely true; I was victim to blisters that slowed me down during the second half of the race, my calves hurt like hell the day after, and had I not been wearing my ever-reliable knee support -- which I'd worn on the wrong knee the first five kilometers by the way -- I would probably have crossed the finish line cursing or crying.  But the price of being able to bask in the feeling of having accomplished my first half-marathon was worth it.