My 57th Birthday 10-Mile Road Race

On By kingofpotsIn Insights, Jogging, Pictures, Races, Running

Market! Market! 10-Mile Run @ Global City/The Fort (5:32 AM 17 May 2009)

It had been my personal practice to visit or hear mass in the church on the first hours of my birthday but I had this practice advanced few days before my birthday by visiting the Lady of Manaoag at the Manaoag Church last Thursday morning. It was an easy and fast trip after my first experience of using the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway all the way to Tarlac City. The trip took us at least one and half hours faster than my usual trip to Manaoag in the past.

Having done the most important task of thanking the Lord for making me strong, healthy and blessed in my running activities and other undertakings, I had my mind focused this Sunday’s Market! Market! 10-Mile Run as I will consider this race as my Birthday Run.

I arrived at the vicinity of Market! Market! at 4:50AM and I saw that the Starting Area was still without any runners. The impression of what I saw on the physical set-up of the Start/Finish area and the presence of marshals made me believed that the race is orderly and well-planned. Instead of looking around for the hardcore runners and Team Bald Runner-Professional Group members, I started to have my warm-up and stretching before I entered the corral for the 10-Mile runners.

Once I entered the corral, I saw the Hardcores/Team Bald Runner-Professional Group and each of them greeted me Happy Birthday! It was surprising to see that the corral was not fully-packed with runners as compared to other road races at the Global City in the past weeks. I could estimate that there were less than two hundred runners for the 10-mile run and the lesser distance race have more number of runners. After 12 minutes, the race started as scheduled at 5:32 AM and the faster runners were ahead of us after the command “Go” was shouted by the Emcee.

Few Meters From The Starting Line
Few Meters From The Starting Line

The race started at the Market! Market! and the route goes to the south direction and runners would turn right at the 26th Avenue and then left turn at 5th Avenue. The runners would proceed to Essensa all the way to Lawton Avenue and turn left at Bayani Road up to the usual C-5 turn-around and then back to the Global City but the runners would run along 5th Avenue going south all the way to the Lexus Car Showroom. The runners would run along the road fronting the British School and turn left at the road fronting the International School and then towards the turn-around near the old Gate 1 of Fort Bonifacio. The runners would trace the road back to Market! Market!

Hardcores In Action (Jan, BR, & Jonel)
Hardcores In Action (Jan, BR, & Jonel)
Back View of the Hardcores
Back View of the Hardcores

I was running at an average pace of 4:50-5:05 minutes per kilometer from the starting line for about 12 kilometers but I started to slow down on my  way to the British School because of fatigue, a slight pain on my right hamstring due to lack of massage for the past weeks and the heat of the sun. It was a big mistake that I’ve never been visiting my masseur for the past three weeks and my leg muscles are getting tighter and firmer. Running the  next 3-4 kilometers up to the finish line was very slow despite my efforts to swing my arms and “shuffle” my legs at a faster pace! I could not believe that my average pace for the last 3 kilometers was between 5:25-5:31 minutes per kilometer and I tried my best to finish the race with an average pace of 5:00 minutes per kilometer.

On Our Way Back To Lawton
On Our Way Back To Lawton Avenue
At Lawton Avenue towards Global City
At Lawton Avenue towards Global City
With Ultramarathoner Jonel aka Bugobugo85
With Ultramarathoner Jonel aka Bugobugo85

As I approached the finish line, the digital clock on top registered a time of 1:20:58 hours and my GF 305 watch registered a time with additional one second. It’s almost 1:21 hours but I am still happy that my average pace was 5:10 minutes per kilometer with an average HR of 156 bpm.

Approaching The Finish Line
Approaching The Finish Line
After Passing The Finish Line
After Passing The Finish Line

This road race was almost perfect. There were lots of water stations with lots of water and water cups. There were lots of road marshals, too who could easily distinguished the 10-mile runners from the lesser-distance runners. It was almost the opposite of what most of the runners experienced in last week’s marathon race in Makati & Taguig Cities. There were lots of directional signs in every turn of the road which every runner could see at a distance but I haven’t seen any kilometer/mile markings along the route. I am sure nobody got lost in this race! But when it comes to the exact measurement of the race distance, it lacked at least 330 meters to make it 10 miles or 16 kilometers.

After changing my wet race outfit, I went back to the Finish Line to look for the Hardcore/Team BR-Professional Group who had some extra more kilometers to run. It was bad luck (sorry, guys) to those who did not run this race because I treated the group with a breakfast at Jollibee. After the breakfast, I awarded the BR’s “1,000-Km Club” to those runners who finished their first 1,000 kilometers from the time they started running. Rico of Power Runners also donated a pair of his running shoes and a number of finisher’s t-shirts. Thanks, Rico!

Guys, this is the 2nd year that I will be missing the TNF 100, however, my spirit will be at the race as the Elite Team Bald Runner will be represented during the said race. Good luck to all the TNF 100 Solo and Relay runners.

49 thoughts on “My 57th Birthday 10-Mile Road Race”

  2. miraclecello's avatar miraclecello

    I totally forgot that it was about this time last year that you went back to civilian life. Happy birthday Apo!

    Nice to hear you were satisfied with the race organisation. It was my first ever stint as a volunteer marshal. We reported for work at 3am and we were on site at 4:30am, part of a crew deployed along the maze of intersections around the Lexus dealership.

    We believe your elite runner Sid Vildisola got lost somewhere though.

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    1. kingofpots's avatar kingofpots

      maybe, next time i’ll volunteer also in one of the marathon races. by the way, who was the race organizer? sid admitted to me that he got lost.

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      1. miraclecello's avatar miraclecello

        I don’t know if they were the main subcontractor, but we were recruited by the same events organiser that also provided marshals for the ATC Southern Run.

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  3. runnerforchrist's avatar runnerforchrist

    Sir Happy birthday, sayang ung Jolibee hehe.

    Anyway, Sir, remember this, “The secret to staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and lie about your age.”- Lucille Ball

    May you have many more birthdays and races to come.

    God bless.

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  5. speedsterbikster's avatar speedsterbikster

    HAPPY BIRTHDAY BR! THANKS FOR THE JOLLIBEE BREAKFAST KANINA. THANKS ALSO FOR THE 1000KM FINISHER’S SHIRT THAT YOU AWARDED US. IT PUSHES US TO PILE UP MORE AND MORE MILEAGE. MY NEXT 1000KM, I’LL REWARD MYSELF WITH A NEW RUNNING SHOE. HAVE A SAFE TRIP AND ENJOY YOUR RUNNING ADVENTURES IN THE STATES.

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    1. kingofpots's avatar kingofpots

      hahaha! hopefully, i’ll be a still a strong runner with my senior’s card hanging on my neck. hope to see you soon. jay, you are getting stronger and faster!

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    1. kingofpots's avatar kingofpots

      jonel, thanks! my absence will be a running vacation. thanks also for being there as the most dependable “wingman”. prepare for more run adventures once i arrive there. regards!

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  8. fanaticinformant's avatar fanaticinformant

    Happy Birthday! I had no idea it was your birthday today when I saw you at today’s race. 🙂 God bless you with more strength to do more runs!

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      1. markfb's avatar markfb

        Br, I’ve been diligently following my plan. 🙂 That is to run a little but workout with non weight bearing exercises and sports. I have to cut it short for Milo though. I just want to qualify in July. Weird how an ultra marathoner will have his first marathon. Exciting! Hope all is well with you. Age well like wine 🙂

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  16. run2dmoon's avatar run2dmoon

    ah..akalain mo…57 na pala. eh mukhang 27 lang…kahit wala pang buhok. mas mukhang bata pa nga kay tso paeng (jonel) eh.

    sir happy birthday po…mas bata pa din kayo sa bilis!

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  17. runningshield's avatar runningshield

    Happy Birthday old man ! but seriously now. happy birhday have a great day. Thanks for helping the running scene in the phil

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    1. kingofpots's avatar kingofpots

      patrick, the more i grow older, the more i have to share my thoughts & experiences to the running community. we are here to serve the people even if we are in our private capacity. thanks for regularly reading my posts.

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  19. broj's avatar broj

    Happy Birthday Sir Jovie! May you have many more to come and continue to be a great model to runners! God bless! – Bro J and Baby

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  20. loganfam's avatar loganfam

    Greetings BR. Are you trying to keep your birthday a secret? You should have had a sign that read “it’s my Birthday” on your back Sunday. 🙂 Thanks so much for the encouragement that you always give to Justin and I as well as to many others. Wish you could make it to Baguio this coming weekend. How may I contact you concerning getting some shoes for the older youth for the Sta Rosa Club.

    Team Logan
    Craig, Michelle & Justin

    PS> I agree, the 10 miles was missing about 300+meters

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    1. kingofpots's avatar kingofpots

      craig, one of these days we will coordinate about those shoes to be donated to the Sta Rosa Youth Club. thanks for the nice comment.

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  21. tobytanjuatco's avatar tobytanjuatco

    First of all, Happy Birthday, Sir! We’ve never met but I’ve seen you at some races, namely the Condura Run, Greenfield & Step Up for a Cause. Although I’d only see you at the starting line, a few kilometers from the start & finish line. I just got back into running exactly a year ago after a 9 year “vacation”. How coincidental that it is also your birthday! I only started reading the running blogs 3 months ago- I’m impressed & grateful for you & all the other bloggers passion, advice, guidance and of course your varied advocacies. This is a phenomenon which makes our common passion dynamic & ever-growing, not to mention bringing out the best/uniqueness of Filipino culture- the Bayanihan spirit! We are never hesitant to extend a helping hand to a total stranger! More power to you & your causes, hope to finally meet you in the future races. Mabuhay tayong lahat!

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    1. kingofpots's avatar kingofpots

      toby, thanks for those nice words. next time, please feel free to approach me when you see me in the start/finish area. thanks for the comment and please continue reading my posts. i hope you are learning a lot from this site. keep on running!

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  24. tintinperez's avatar tintinperez

    belated happy birthday br!
    thanks so much for sharing your passion and helping us aspiring runners..
    wish you continuous health and more blessings this year…

    thank you so much! you are such an inspiration…
    –tintin
    Azeus Runners Group

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