how was your weekend?

weekends are usually spent at home, or anywhere else relaxing. one would want to unwind at the beach or in a cool place (i.e. Tagaytay, etc).

it has been a LONG time since i went to the beach, I wanna go to the beach!

both for relaxation AND open water swim training

some of my friends went out of town, some went to Subic (for the Subic International Marathon), others went to Clark to test their will and endurance (to the point someone was declared a King), while others stayed in the Metro.

Since I am supposedly training for the Condura marathon, I stayed in Manila and was planning of doing another solo "long" run Sunday, but since I was offered a free race Kit for the the Megaworld-PSE Bull Run 2011, I decided to join this. (sino bang runner ang tatanggi ngayon sa libreng race kit, eh ang mahal na nga ng registration fees eh, hahaha).

the race was nothing "fancy", it was your typically BHS-Kalayaan-BHS 10K route, and since it was literally the same 10K route you'd run every weekend, there was not much of a challenge. It was the same route I ran the first time I seriously considered running, so it was not that much of a hassle, most specially since I was "late" for the race.

There were a few concerns I had with the race which, in my opinion, made it "memorable" for my first race for the year. First would be the Gun Start starting way much earlier. In the kits, it was stated that the 16K and the 10K runners will have the same gun start at 5:45AM. I was near the area already by 5:30 and the runners were already dispersed. Since the runners were already out, the roads were closed as the numerous runners clogged the intersections so I had no choice but to wait. As a result I started the race 34 minutes behind the rest of the pack. Super late to the point that even the 3K and 5K runners were already running! I even saw Abby near the starting line, she asked if I was running 5K which obviously, I definitely was late.

Another issue was there was no water station at the foot of the Kalayaan Flyover. This I found out from the Pink Boys who were already on they way back from the turn-around point entering Bonifacio Global City. (Ganon ako ka late, or better yet, ganon sila kabilis? hehehehe) This for me was an added concern as it was stated in their race info that every 2.5KM there would be water station with water. And here come runner-friends telling me there was no water. That was ok as I have been used to running with minimal hydration for short distance races such as this one.

Ang kulit lang with this race was that, I was coming from WAY behind from the 16,10, 5, and 3K runners, pero I do believe ok naman yung race ko. I was pressured to come up with a good performance, but  at the same time, I was being cautious of not having another ITBS attack when I run short, but fast races.

akalain mo yun, the pressure from being late, and the fact that I still needed to take in mileage for Condura training made me run a little bit faster than my usual pace. Medyo mabilis pa rin pala ako, given that I haven't been doing speed drills. for a guy who wasn't able to sleep as much as he would usually do days before a race, having a pace of 6.12 was not bad ah. at the turn-around point, i was a bit off of  6 per km pace, pero ok lang, it was part of training pa rin.

so what's my point? i realized again that I love being pressured (or should i say, pushing/testing myself up to where I can go). I love pushing myself to the point that even when I'm not in my usual element (in this case a chillax 7 minute pace), i can still push myself to a 6.12 average pace; and that I can still continue running, being very focused on my goal and deciding on accomplishing it head on definitely helped too. shempre the very cool weather that day made it also possible for me to run for more that 45 minutes without hydration, and not overheating (as i was wearing all black).

ayun, so how was your weekend?