1)  Nathan Water Belt—It was a wrong decision not to bring my Nathan Water Belt with me for this 15K race. Since I am not fond of stopping by at water stations in races, I will be bringing my own supply of water through my water belt in my coming road races.

2)  Tapering—Three days before the road race, I was still running almost the entire length of the course. My hill workouts in Jamindan were not yet enough that I had to run through the McKinley Hill segment for almost three times on the week before race day. It could had been better if I just relaxed and rested few days before the race.

3)  Massage—I usually have at least two sessions of body massage on the week before the road race. On this particular race, I had only one massage session. My left hamstring muscles were still tight and feeling some pain even after I had pre-race stretching and warm-up on race day.

4)  More Speed Runs— There is a need to put more speed runs in my running workouts in preparation for races with a distance less than the half-marathon. I was tragetting 1:15:00 hours as my finish time but considering the hills and heat of the sun, I was satisfied to finish the race below 1:17:00 hours. My official finish time was 1:16:53 hours. It means that I had an average pace of 5:08 mins per kilometer or 8:15 mins per mile for the 15K run.

5)  Need For Longer Warm-Up—I have been feeling a pain on my right foot which disappears after running at least one kilometer in my running workouts. This slight pain always make me run at a slow pace at the start of the race but when the pain disappears, I have the tendency to pick-up my pace. For this race, I had only a short distance to warm-up and was running at a very slow pace on the first two kilometers of the race.

6)  Tendency to Run Fast—I had the tendency to run fast on the first half of the race. I really wanted to run an even pace of 5:00 mins per kilometer and it made me run fast for the first 5 kilometers of the race after I noticed that I was running at a slower pace.

6)  Apply More Oil/Petroleum Jelly—I applied body lotion on my thighs but my running shorts produced skin rashes on the inner side of my upper legs. Next time, I have to apply more body oil/petroleum jelly on my upper legs when using the regular running shorts.

7) Need for Hill Running Techniques—It is not enough to train and have your running workouts on hills. There are techniques and drills to be followed to make “hill running” to the runner’s advantage. Following the “Lydiard’s Method” is one of the most practiced “drills” on hill training. I need to do more of these drills in order to have that confidence to run in any hills in Metro Manila.