it has been nearly a year since i last participated in a road race, the last one being in preparation for my mount apo climb in late november last year. i recall, with vivid detail how i bucked sidestitch and a number of pains radiating from many points along the length of my enormous legs to finish 10km in slightly over 58 minutes. it was a proud personal moment considering i hadn't had any serious training previously, and that my last long run just prior to that -- the now ignominious new balance 25km killer at clark which i finished in over 3 hours after a serious bout of cramps past the 14km mark -- nearly left me disabled. but the last two of my 10k's have been been impressive, only that i had accomplished them a long time ago. i actually don't know why i haven't been an active participant in the many road races that are scheduled each month, and i've been generally lazy to lace on my running shoes to hit the treadmill or the asphalt for a minimum of 30 minutes. my state of fitness has so plummeted that there came a time i had to walk in between a 4km cardio workout. that was a little over 2 months ago, and after nearly hitting 168lbs again, i resolved not just to lose weight, but to pick up my speed and stamina. i signed up for the 21km category of the singapore standard chartered marathon slated this december, and i've been training, albeit aimlessly. and this perhaps is the reason why i was lackluster last saturday for the adidas KOTR.

my preparations for my first 10k of the year were superficial: i bought the most recent pair of adidas running shoes as well as a very breezy pair of adidas running shorts and even a nice post-workout adidas shirt with an oddly-placed zipper. i ran, mostly on the treadmill, and a few times around velasquez park, doing a steady pace of about 5'50" to a kilometer, and covering distances of about 5kms, often less. the longest run i had prior to last saturday was 3 rounds of the academic oval at UP, which is only 6.6kms. and none of my practice runs ever had sun in them.

so although i looked forward to the adidas king of the road, and had personal goals for myself, i knew that it would be a huge challenge. at 5am, ryan scooped me at the corner of tordesillas and buendia. markers had already been placed on the innermost lane for the runners, which ballooned to over 5,000. at 5:30am, while a beautiful dawn was breaking over the rooftops of serendra, and after the 21k runners were off, we filed into the starting line. my ears were plugged into my iPod nano, and my recently-calibrated nike+ was attached to my shoes. just before 6am, we were off. i started steady, focused really on just maintaining 6' per kilometer, with occasional gusts of speed in the hope of finishing below 60 minutes. when we went up the flyover, i didn't slow down, even as i saw the leading runners of the 21k pass us by. i was doing good, so i thought, and was pleased to find other lawyers running: nicky ty, john virgino, to name a few. i also had so many friends going the other direction, and i cheered them on. i had to stop though at the foot of the flyover to tie my shoelaces, but i picked up my pace and continued till the turnaround at reposo.

it was then that i began to entertain thoughts of stopping. the sun made a direct hit on our faces and i felt ill at ease. i could sense a distraction developing on the sole of my feet: a blister was forming. damn shoes. going up the flyover, i slowed down a lot. it looked like i was running, but it really was a trot. then a number of pains, like nerves and veins pressed against bone, began to surface, and i had to walk for about 100 meters just before getting down at ground level. i ran again, but had to walk again in front of net one center all the way to the fort strip. i found my second wind just before the NBC tent and it was a sprint to the finish line.

i took one final glance at the official time before crossing the finish line, and it was 1'03'57". i ended my workout a bit later, and my iPod and nike+ recorded 1'04'03". all in all, it was a good run, although i felt hugely disappointed that i couldn't sustain my pace, and that i caved in to the distractions of these little nagging pains. i was unable to break through the psychological barrier: since i haven't done anything beyond 7k this year and since i've never had sun exposure in any of my runs, i basically slowed down when i reached 8k. i really have to improve on my runs in time for the singapore standard chartered marathon. it would be a dream to finish it in 2 hours. that's a lofty goal.

finish line dash.


with fellow finishers che, ryan, JC, sammer, and joven
photos courtesy of gilbert 2k

Tags: 10k, adidas king of the road, road race, running

it took me an hour and nearly 2 minutes to complete the adidas king of the road yesterday. it was held at the usual route used by the milo marathon. this is still over 6 minutes off my goal of getting back to sub-55, as i did in my last milo marathon in 2005. during the run, i was beset by some bothersome pain on, of all places, at the top of my left foot, where the shoe's tongue rests (possibly including the intermediate and lateral cuneiform bones and maybe the navicular bone, all under the inferior extensor retinaculum tendon). i also had some pain in the stomach which i successfully ignored for the entire time i was running. what i could not ignore though was the need to heed the call of nature. i felt extremely heavy on the way back at the turnaround in libertad. on the way back, after 6 or so kilometers, i spotted a pair of portalets along the baywalk, and i ran towards it. to my disappointment, i found both locked! i had slowed down at the time so i had to push on the asphalt again. after about 300 meters, i found this newly-opened portalet with a sign: P5.00 only. told the guy cleaning it: "manong, pagamit!" (and he was kind enough to understand that i had no means to pay.) when i was inside, i felt that the entire thing was throbbing. i actually felt a little dizzy, with my heart pumping all that blood all over my body all the way to my head, and i was standing there motionless, relieving myself of excess liquids. but i felt really good after that and i ran faster than i expected, despite having lost over 3 minutes already. nelson was in a race with me at the time, although i think he couldn't resist the urge to walk, and i crossed the tape ahead of him and many others as well. time on my suunto was 1:01:46. time on my iPod nano with the nike+: 1:01:58 (wasn't able to end the workout immediately, and it was still inaccurate because the distance was measured at only 8.39km). official time, probably 30 seconds more. hey! it took me more than that to even get to the starting line since we started at the back! and there were just too many people in front that i started running only when i got to the manila hotel!

a valuable lesson here is not to stop immediately when you feel you can't run anymore. it's better to just keep walking at a steady pace. but the asics runners did pretty good!

so i guess i have to be serious with my resolve not just to train this batch, but to train with this batch. the milo marathon's not until 20 days from now, so i still have an opportunity to improve my time, lose weight, and be more fit. i'm getting a pair of adizero CS so my asics won't retire too soon. am i suddenly back in the game? time is improving, but not good enough.

Tags: 10k, adidas king of the road, road race, running

as expected, i woke up 5 minutes ahead of my alarm. before long, ava and i were headed for the fort, and we got there just after 5am, early enough to get a good spot in the parking lot. soon after, i saw niel and JC. at 5.45am, runners converged at the starting point. lots of AMCI folk. mosscake, who i haven’t seen since our final exam, also came for the adidas 10km king of the road. and at 6am, we were off. it looked like there were a lot of runners, but i read in the papers that they kept the number of participants at 2,100. i think milo has more than 3 times that.

i started out well, pacing myself till past makati avenue when i started to feel a sharp jab of pain in the abdomen. ugh. side stitch again. i hadn’t managed to move the food i had eaten the previous night, and i felt really heavy. the buffet, it turns out, may not have been that good an idea. by the time we reached malugay, i was slowing down since the pain, though not as excruciating as before, was like a ball of lead on my legs, slowing me down tremendously. at the turn, i had to let carlo and JC go ahead of me. i really wanted to walk the rest of the way. then gerry came along and he ran with me, in spite of my slow pace. and i told him , as we were near paseo de roxas on our way back, that i had to rest. so rest i did till we reached the foot of the flyover. ver caught up with us, and we ran the rest of the way till the finish line.

since there were fewer people this time, it was possible for me to observe the other runners better. there were many sources of inspiration there. i remember that i had barely crossed the 3km mark when the first place finisher was already on his way back. not more than 10 people behind him, there was this runner whose right arm had been amputated above the elbow. i also ran alongside a short, stubby old man who had no shoes on. and there was of course pia pilapil’s husband: a tall, good looking man with long hair, and who happens to be not sighted. he wore a pair of sunglasses, and held on to a kernmantle rope in the hand of another runner. it was a nice run but we must’ve pissed off many of makati’s commuters since we blocked off three vital intersections.

i clocked in a time of about 57 minutes and 35 seconds, which is way over my goal. i wanted to improve on my milo time of sub 56 minutes, but the long walk must’ve cost me at lest 2 minutes. at least i finished in under an hour. i received my adidas shoe bag with 5 small snicker chocolate bars and a bottle of viva mineral water. then we proceeded to market! market! for a preclimb meeting. sir manny had reserved the whole of cinema 6 for us. outside, the sign read: “AMCI mountaineers”. people must’ve wondered what movie it was, and how it was rated. haha. it was really cool how the AMCI connections allow for such perks. although the thing was that since it was a movie house, it was expectedly dark. not very ideal for taking down notes. after the team pre-climb meeting, we had a group pre-climb meet at seafood island with malvin, kuya mar, vince, ava, alexis, and myself. mardel tagged along and we had a boodle fight: one big tray lined with banana leaves and a selection of seafood and meat.

ava was sort of spaced out the entire time and she said she felt a bit queasy. after lunch, she threw up on one of the fake trees near the fountain. turns out she was really sick. she suspected it may have been last night’s buffet, but lowell and i were perfectly well. so it must’ve been something else. either that or my innards are made of steel. good thing was that borj was round to drive her, not home, but to st. luke’s. she was discharged the same day.

after a long wait, i finally had my interview. it was like an inquisition. members were seated in the comfy seats in front, and i sat on a monobloc chair, sandwiched between two fluorescent lights. the questions came in one after the other, and i treated it like any interview: very formal, very serious, and very straight-laced. i was just being myself really: loquacious, glib, verbose, rhetorical, literary, latinate, lugubrious, roundabout. talking is a favorite activity of mine, and answering questions is an everyday affair. there were attempts, i think, to rattle me, but i’ve never cracked under pressure. surprisingly though, people thought i was tense since i was conservative with my humor. they’re used to me being really relaxed, comfortable, and mind numbingly funny. like i told them, i treated it like a regular interview. after i was done, people told me it took me more than an hour! never realized that my answers were that kilometric. well, i was just being myself, really. i won’t say that i winged the interview, or that i hacked it or aced it. but i think i answered the questions well enough.

i was supposed to go home after my interview but i was held back by kuya mar. so i decided to stay, and waited over 3 hours for the other interviews to be done, and even sneaked a peak when rizza danced. we had dinner again at seafood island. a band was performing, and they called roland (whom we joked to be celebrating his birthday) in to jam with them. so as not to embarrass the group, bitoy pretended to be roland and performed “ain’t no mountain high enough”. haha. it was so much fun to watch.

after dinner, plans were still being made to proceed to another venue, but i was just too tired to do anything other than sleep.

Tags: 2k5, adidas king of the road, amci