After two weeks of rest and recovery, I registered to run in the Southern Race ATC 10K Run this Sunday morning. I considered this run as my “test run” in order to bring back my running legs and feet back into action again. There was no plan for a PR this time due to lack of speed and endurance runs.

The following were my schedule and the workout I did since Tuesday:

Tuesday: I did a 30-minute active recovery runs at 75% effort at the ULTRA Oval Track

Wednesday: Another 30-minute recovery run at 75% effort at the ULTRA Oval Track

Thursday: “Walkabout” for 1:19+ hours @ 10 minutes/km

Saturday: “Walkabout” for 1:30+ hours  @ 10 minutes/km

In my estimate, I was able to run and walk a distance of 30-32 kms for this week before the race this morning.

There were three (3) road races scheduled for today. One road race was held in San Fernando, Pampanga. Another road race was held in Marikina City and the other one was the Southern Race held at the Ayala Alabang Village. The reason why I joined this race was because it was for the benefit of the SOS Children’s Village where my friend and fellow Ilocano runner, Felipe Dumpit, is the key mover and chief administrator of this cause.

I arrived at the Ayala Town Center at 5:00 AM and immediately saw familiar faces—runner-bloggers, members of Team Bald Runner-Professional Group, and runners from other running groups. Instead of having a warm-up run, I did some stretching exercises at the Starting Area while waiting for the start of the race. Finally, the race started at 5:42 AM and it started with a short uphill from the Parking Area of the commercial establishment for the first 100 meters. The 10K runners started ahead of the lesser distance runners and it was an orderly start for the 10K runners. After a few meters, we entered the gate of the Ayala Alabang Village (AAV).

Basically, the race route covered the main streets inside the Ayala Alabang Village and it is a rolling terrain from start to finish. I would say that a 10K course is already uneventful for me and I just concentrated on my running form and pacing during the race. My objective in this race was to test my body if it can sustain a race level performance even with only few kilometers of running few days before race day. Moreso, I did not expose myself in any speed runs for the past weeks. Instead, I had more time to walk around the streets in Metro Manila.

During the race, my ultimate objective was to maintain a pace of less than 5 minutes per kilometer and be able to finish 8 kilometers in less than 40 minutes. And ultimately, be able to finish the 10K run in less than 50 minutes. So, after the race I was able to get feedback from my GF 305.

The course has a distance of 9.86 kms and I was able to have a finish time of 48:20 minutes. My average pace was 4:54 minutes per kilometer. I finished 8 kilometers in 38:30 minutes. I had an average HR of 169 beats per minute. Not bad after running a few kilometers but more time to walk around the streets during my workouts.

The race was perfectly done because of the wide streets and the absence of heavy vehicular traffic inside AAV, however, it was observed that the water stations lacked the needed water cups most especially in the last 5 kilometers of the race. In general, the race was orderly and the route was very challenging.

Why did I call this particular 10K road race as my “test run”? I wanted this run as a test road race if I could sustain an average speed of 5 minutes per kilometer or less than that. For me to improve my Finish Time in a Marathon Race, I should be able to sustain a race pace of 5:00 or less but not more than 5:15 minutes per kilometer. Instead of dividing the marathon distance into segments of 10 kilometers, I plan to divide the marathon distance into segments of 8 kilometers. So, at 8 kms, I should be able to have a time of 40 minutes; at 16 kms, I should have a time of 1:20 hours and so on. At 40 kms, I should be able to have a time of 3:20 hours. And the remaining distance to complete the marathon distance would take me 10-12 minutes to cover. In the end, I could have a time of at least, 3:35 hours for the marathon distance.

The Team Bald Runner-Professional Group invited me for another 10-K run after the race but I declined the invitation as intended to have another “walkabout” later in the afternoon or early evening. While I was doing my post-stretching exercises after the race, I was approached by Jay Lee Cu-Unjieng as he donated a bagful of Finisher’s T-Shirts for my Project Donate A Shirt. Thanks, Jay, you are really an “angel”!

Later in the early evening at 6:15 PM, I did a “walkabout” along the streets at the Makati-Taguig-Pasig areas covering a distance of 9+ kilometers with a time of 1:45 hrs. To include the time of waiting for the green lights in crossing major streets along the route, I was able to maintain an average pace of 10:45 minutes per kilometer.

In yesterday’s Eugene Marathon, Jael Wenceslao of Team Bald Runner-Professional Group finished the race in 4:26:17 hours placing him # 1,120 amount the 6,000+ participants. Congratulations, Wency! You are greatly improving your marathon finish time. Good job!

In last Saturday’s Miwok 100K Trail Run, Rick Gaston finished the race in 10:57 hours. It was a great accomplishment even with the worse condition on the ground during the race. Congratulations, Rick! My congratulations go to the other two (2) Filipinos who joined this race (according to Ben Gaetos).

In the 24-Hour IAU World Championship in Bergamo, Italy, Jaime Donaldson improved her finished ranking from 5th to 4th Place in the Women’s Category, however, she was not able to improve the number of kilometers she finished in last October’s race in Seoul, South Korea which was 221.015 Kms. The following is the “provisional” results of the race in Bergamo, Italy.

So, what is next? See you in this Sunday’s BOTAK’s Paa-tibayan Takbo 42K at The Fort.

Go! Hardcores & “Crazy” Runners!!!