6:30 AM 05 October 2008 @ “Hope In Motion 3″/Ayala Alabang

I woke up at 4:20 AM, took my pre-race ritual, shaved my head, made sure to wear a red-colored running shirt as instructed for the 10K runners, ate oatmeal with ripe banana, and wore my new NIKE Lunarlite Racer. I really wanted to use this new NIKE racer shoes for this particular 10K race, my first 10K race since I arrived from the USA. I had a hard time looking for this kind of shoes when I was in Los Angeles. I only found this shoes being sold at the NIKE Store at The Grove-Farmers Market Shopping Mall at 3rd Street in Fairfax District.

I arrived at the SOS Children’s Village inside Ayala Alabang at 5:30 AM and immediately went to the registration area. I was able to get my race bib without any problems. While my race bib was being pinned by my staff, I saw Bugobugo & Miko having their warm-up and had a brief chat with them. This was my first time to see Bugobugo after months of being a constant visitor and “commentor” to this blog. I also started to have my stretching and warm-up jog until I started to sweat. I saw JunC, Totoy and Prometheus having their warm-up jog along the streets near the starting area. Later, I saw Patrick, Bull Runner, Ben Chan, Annie and the rest of the Happy Feet Runners. We had more conversations among the bloggers at the back of the rest of the runners at the starting area. It was only when one of my staff shouted at me that the race had started. We did not know that the race had started already!!!We had to catch up with the people/runners lined up at the front as we came from the farthest part of the starting area. We had to run through the group of fun walkers before we reached the starting line.

No problem, I said to myself and pressed the start button of my GF 305 once I passed the starting line of the race. As I passed the slower runners on the first kilometer of the race, I made sure that I should maintain an even pace of 5:00 minutes per kilometer. Some of the runners I passed shouted my name “Bald Runner” and I had to acknowledge by just trying to look/glance at them and wave my hand and kept going with my pace.

As I reached the wide Country Club Drive, the runners thinned out and I could see from a distance “runner-bloggers” and slowly reached and passed them one by one. Little did I know that Lester, a faster runner from previous 10K runs and a donor of my Project Donate A Shoe, was at my tail and was trying to pace with me with another runner in front of me. The three of us consistently ran as a group until we reached the finish line. My running pace was below 5:00-min pace per kilometer for the whole 10K run. My GF 305 registered a time of 50:24 minutes for a distance of 10.24 kilometers. The following were the data I got from my GF 305:

Average Pace—4:55 mins/km Average Speed—12.2 kms/hr

Maximum Speed—14.9 kms/hr Total Calories—759 cal

Average HR—166 bpm Maximum HR—172 bpm

Total Ascent—212 meters Total Descent—232 meters

I was impressed on the wide, shaded with big acacia trees, and the rolling paved streets of Ayala Alabang. There were not much vehicles along the roads and the streets are “pedestrian/cyclist friendly”. There were lots of cyclists with nice kits and bikes.

As planned, after a brief rest, water break, and photo-ops with Happy Feet members and bloggers, I made another run along the 10K route with Bugobugo, Lester, Prometheus, and another runner whom I forgot his name who ran side by side with me during the 10K run. The Fit Mommy, whom I met at the Finish Line for the first time, joined us for the 1st kilometer but later decided to peel-off due to an appointment. The second loop run was a slow run with an average pace of 6:30 mins/km. The other runners with me were still strong as we finished the slow run in 1:07 hours.

Before leaving the place, I was able to meet and had conversation with Jinoe aka Manokan Express and Atty Felipe Dumpit, a fellow Ilocano from La Union, who organized the said race.

I had fun and memorable experience running along the roads of Ayala Alabang, finishing a nice 10K race and a 20K long run for the week.