13 January 2008 

I woke up at 3:30 AM to shave, take a shower, brush my teeth, eat a half-cup of oatmeal, wear my running attire and start my trip to Clark. At 4:00 AM, I was already on the road coming from my quarters at Fort Bonifacio.

I arrived at the Start Area fifteen minutes before the start of the 10K run. After a brief warm-up and stretching, the race promptly started at 6:00 AM.

I could feel that I was running at a very fast pace after running 500 meters. I was trying to control my pace and run comfortably. I was trying to find out if there were kilometer markings along the way but I was frustrated to see nothing. How I wished these detailed distance markings should be a “must” in races like this. Such markings are good references for a runner’s average pace.

It was only when I reached the turn-around point (5K) where I found out that my average pace was a faster pace than what I planned. My time at 5K was 23:07 minutes and I was running at 4:37 minutes per kilometer!

After the turn-around point, I realized that the first 5 kilometers were all downhill. The next 5 kilometers were all uphill and my pace came naturally at a slower pace. Between the 6th and the 8th kilometer points, I slowed down and maintained my pace with a lady runner and a male runner who is within my age category. On the final 600 meters before the finish line, I was able to maintain a lead from these two runners.

I finished the race in 50:36 minutes. So far, this is my best PR time since the last week of October of last year when I started to seriously run again.

To my fellow runners, see you next Sunday’s 2008 Subic Half-Marathon!