UP ICTUS Centennial 10K Run @ UP Diliman–14 December 2008

I did not run last Thursday and Friday because of the rains and Friday afternoon was supposed to be my scheduled running workout with the Team Bald Runner’s “speed” session but I had to attend to a Christmas Party of the Fort Striders Club, Inc as their Guest of Honor and Speaker. I will post a separate story about this party with a well-established running club in Metro Manila. The rainy situation of Thursday gave me the chance to go back to the gym for the second time this week and another gym workout last Saturday early evening. My gym workout this week was my way of coming back to strengthen my core and upper chest muscles after almost three months of not going to the gym.

Without any running workouts for the past 3 days, I felt I was sluggish since last night after my gym workout. I woke up at 4:15 AM and did my pre-race preparations before proceeding to the UP Campus in Diliman, Quezon City for the UP ICTUS Centennial 10K Run. I arrived at the Assembly Area at 5:20 AM where my staff, Captain Espejo, handed my race bib. After a brief warm-up run and stretching, I could hardly perspire (maybe, because of the cold weather) but it took me two times to pee before I entered the starting area. Before the race started, I saw some of the student-runners of Team Bald Runner’s “speed” training and I knew this road race was their “evaluation” run for them to find out if their training is really working.

Maintaining his good reputation of starting his races promptly on the scheduled time for the race to start, Coach Rio fired the starting gun at exacly 6:00 AM for the 10K run. As compared to last week’s 25th RUNNEX 10K run, I started my run slowly making sure not to pass over or slower than my 100% effort (4:51 mins/km pace) and be able to have a “negative” split time for this race.

After running for the first 100 meters and trailing about 20 runners infront of me, the road marshall stationed infront of the Oblation directed us towards the Entrance Gate of the Campus while the rest of the runners ahead of us just continued to follow the road towards Roxas Road, missing the distance of about 200 meters! This incident slowed me down but I kept on my relaxed pace although I was already cursing in my mind why Coach Rio would change the route on the race day which was totally different from the race route published on a paper enclosed with the race packet and the same race route published in his website. Sometimes, it derails the strategy of a runner if a sudden change in the route is implemented few hours before the start of the race. However, this was a minor problem as I kept my pace faster than my 100% effort.

My pictures were all “blurred” because I was too fast for the automatic shutter speed of my digital camera!

I hope PhotoVendo has better pictures of me running this race.

Except for the jeepneys and other vehicles passing along Quirino Road and along the road in-between Palma Hall & College of Education and lots of joggers and slow “walkers” along the Academic Oval Road that slowed down most of the runners, the race was orderly, well-managed, and filled with the required water stations along the race route. Going around the 5K-loop for the second time was never a problem as I could see the students in our “speed” sessions were gaining distance on me and I was happy that they were running faster this time!

As I passed the finish line, I pressed the Stop button of my GF 305 and it registered a time of 48:28 minutes but the distance registered 10.39 kilometers. It is almost one lap of the Oval Track extra distance for the 10K race. Last week’s 10K race had an extra distance of about 240 meters with a finish time of 48:32 minutes with an average pace of 4:44 mins/km. For today’s race, my average pace is 4:39 mins/km. From my computation, I could have finished today’s 10K in 46:45 mins which is an improvement of 39 seconds from my adjusted time in last week’s 25th RUNNEX 10K Run.

A surprise PR finish time of Jonel aka Bugobugo85 for this race! The “speed” sessions really work and produce postive results.

I was surprised to hear the voice of Jonel aka Bugobugo85 on my back as I tried to mingle with the other finishers barely few seconds after passing the finish line. He said that his “speed” program is really working and he personally thanked Captain Ferdie Espejo for his “quantum leap” of improving his finish time for the 10K race. Congratulations, Jonel!

Philip aka Foreign Runner, BR & Capt Ferdie Espejo during the awarding of the “1,000-Km Club” Finisher’s T-Shirt

Philip aka The Foreign Runner, another student of the “speed” session, improved again his finish time and won the Championship Overall Category for the 10K Race. I also awarded him his much-delayed and well-deserved “1,000-Km Club” Finisher’s T-shirt.

I went home happy because of my improvement but I could had been happier if there had been awards for the Age Category which I was hoping to get another podium finish. Well, there are more road races to come!

Hardcore Group/Team Bald Runner Members

Bald Runner with Dingdong “Sergio” Dantes after the 10K Run