Mizuno Rush to Infinity Run - June 29

Finally, after the various ailments and a typhoon-wrecked race day, we got to run a race!!! It would be better if all of us were able to run but, unfortunately, Ting had to take a few weeks off recuperating for a hip injury. Thus, she became our "running mom" our version of the soccer mom or bus mother, except she doesn't drive a van for us -- maybe, we should get her to start ferrying all of us from home to race venue!!! he! he!

Anyway, it was a great day to run -- perfect weather! We had runners in all three events -- Dante and me in the 5K, Rico in the 10K and Ed in the 15K. It's Ed's first try at the 15K -- should have participated in the 21K Manila Half-Marathon race, but Frank ruined that.

This time, Ting became our official photographer. Unfortunately, I couldn't find my point-and-shoot digital camera in time, as such, she had to contend with her camera-phone. The sad thing about the photographer is that you are rarely in the shot!! Sorry Ting, next time, I'll take a few pictures with you in it.

This race had a huge crowd. They had to re-open registration for the 5K race, adding 700 new slots to the original 2000 open slots. I was surprised when I saw a number of people I know but I didn't know that they ran!! Jaja Suarez of ABS Interactive was there (she was joining the 5K) and she told me Carlo Katigbak, Managing Director of SkyCable, was there also to run in the 15K race. After the race, I bumped into Jajo Quintos, MD of IBM-Daksh. Ellen Cayanan, formerly of SAP Philippines was also there to support her boyfriend. Saw Tep Misa of Microsoft. Of course, my other running friends -- Jorge Buenaventura, Dave de Leon and Mike Navarette, were also there. I was also surprised to see Peter Coyiuto of First Life.

We decided to meet up around 5:30am. I was there around 5:15. The 15K race was supposed to start at 5:30 but all the races were delayed by 15 minutes. Good thing that happened as Ed came in the nick of time -- photo-finish for the start. Rico was next up on the 10K which got off around 6:00 while Dante and I finally got off around 6:15. Before the start of the race, Dante introduced me to the other runners of Team BayanTrade -- next time, we might become honorary members of the Team BayanTrade (ganda kasi ng shirts nila!!!).

Ed Franciso waiting to start his 15K race

Dante and I at the starting line for our 5K race

Getting ready to start our time for the run

Due to my gout, I lost around 1 and a half weeks of training. I tried to compensate last week, running 2 consecutive 5K runs Wednesday and Thursday, then resting the two days before the race. I thought I had enough fitness in to try and break 30 minutes this time. I was terribly wrong!!!

Dante and I started strong, weaving in and out of the pack to try and get into an open area. I started to groove with the pacing. I think I might have bitten off a bit too much when I tried to keep pace with Dante for the first Km. The first Km and a half was challenging as you start on an uphill run. By the time I reached Essensa, I was feeling the pain. I kept at it until we reached the turn near the road going towards Libingan ng mga Bayani.

I was still running okay at the turn, although I could feel my whole body working really hard -- not the same pacing I had during training runs. After McKinley Hill, it started getting tough. Mentally, I was trying to overcome the panic feeling by using interval goals -- each power pole became an intermediate goal to achieve, after each pole, a new goal was set up and so on and so forth.

In the previous run, I didn't feel the need to hydrate myself. This time, I knew I had made a mistake when I didn't drink up before the run -- I was thinking about it but my car was parked a bit back from the starting line -- got lazy. I could feel the thirst as I reached the watering station -- had to get a cup of Rush but I was panting so hard I had to slow down and walk to drink.

After that, it was a mental game and I couldn't help myself. In the last Km, I had to stop three times to walk. I finally reached the finish line and ended up in a queue for all finishers. I clocked myself in at 34:41 but by the time I reached the computer station, they had me at 37:41!!! 3 minutes in the queue!!

The finish line was chaotic -- the queue was terrible and the faster runners of the 10K and 15K races were all confused and disgusted with the finish line screw up. In fairness to the organizers, an apology note was immediately put up in runrio.com. I guess the addition of more runners really placed some pressure on the logistics. My personal view is that they need to lengthen the queue after the computer station prior to the final water stations -- that became a bottleneck which slowed down the processing.

I finished but look at the long queue to get an official time!!!

Here's Rica's (oops, Rico pala!) calves at the finished -- sorry, that's Ting's fault -- need a little bit more experience with the camera phone!!

And our Superman Ed with a strong kick to finish!!

Still, completing the race was all that matters. Dante hit 30 minutes -- he was likewise disappointed with not breaking 30 minutes this time.

Many of us agreed that it seemed like a really tough race. My friend, Jorge Buenaventura echoed the same sentiment -- tough race.

The organizers were able to get the results up quickly today. Here are the results for the group:

For the 5K race:

Dante Briones, 0:30:18, pace of 6:04
Johnny Sy, 0:37:41, pace of 7:32

For the 10K race:

Rico Ibana, 0:50:38, pace of 5:04 -- he actually won in his age group -- except that he was considered a woman!!! Guess it was because he asked his secretary to register and they thought she was running!! Way to go, Rica!! he! he!

and for the 15K race:

Ed Francisco, 1:42:20 pace of 6:49

Another race day completed -- the best part was having breakfast at Dayrit's -- we run so that we can indulge in all the "forbidden pleasures of life" -- longanisa, tapa, corned beef and dessert -- apple pie and brownies!! Next week, instead of the City of Manila Half Marathon, we're joining Tik-Takbo: Oras nang Tumakbo, at U.P. Should be interesting as it will be a 6K and 18K race!! Gets tougher every time!!