1) Murphy’s Law—If you think you have prepared for everything as planned, there is always a time that things will somehow go wrong. I wasn’t able to use my Nathan Water Belt because there was something wrong with the strap. It was not a factory defect but I made some adjustments with the strap on my own and the slight adjustment I made needs to be fixed and I needed more time to do it. So, I decided not to use it and instead opted to carry with me a bottled water and “inserted” it on my back, tucked in with my running shorts during the road race.

My Samsung MP3 suddenly stopped and turned off by itself. I tried to put it on but it later stopped. I knew I had it fully charged the night before the race. I was glad I was still at the Starting Area when my MP3 was not working. I had to remove my MP3 and handed it over to my staff. Surprisingly, my MP3 does not have any problems when I am using it in my running workouts in Jamindan or in Manila.

2) With or Without Music?—I had observed that having a music played on my ears while running gave me the “boost” to make my pace faster. Without music on this race made my time a little slower from my target goal.

3) Rest & Recovery—At least 5-6 days before the race, I thought of decreasing my mileage for the week and try to rest and recover from the running workouts and road races I joined after finishing the Pasig River International Marathon last 24 February. I observed that the results of the rest & recovery/tapering period did not take effect during the day of the race but on the days after the Runnex@25 10K Run. On the week after this race, I was able to increase my mileage and ran easily without much effort.

4) Speed Runs—I need to have more “speed runs”/interval training on the oval track and force my body to its limits. But this is only attainable if I have already enough strength and endurance built from my foundation training.

5) Runner’s Fashion—The Nike Sports Pro Kit that I used was nice-looking and comfortable to the body. The “NIKE Air Zoom Explosion Road 2” running shoes that I wore was my first time to use it directly to a road race without any “break-in”. It was a light racer shoe which has some protruding studs on the midsole that forced me to run on my toes. I am highly recommending this shoes to the younger and faster runners.