This event marks my second to the last road race in Cebu. There’s a little story before I event to this event, actually… =P
The night before the event my office colleagues and I went out to a bar since it’s the last week for some of us temporarily based here. We went to the IT Park where we had ourselves a couple of rounds and practically danced all night long while holding bottles of alcohol on our hands. As a rule, a runner must not ingest any alcohol the night before the run as dehydration is highly likely to occur, causing him/her to weak for the most part. Even though the race was scheduled at 530AM, we still partied until 330AM Sunday morning. Being that it would be a stupid decision to get any more sleep, I decided to go shotgun – upon reaching home I immdiately got dressed, had myself half a liter of water to flush out any alcohol remaining in the bloodstream, and downed a bottle of Gatorade to get energy pumping into my system. Initially, I had that fear that something will go wrong while running, but what the hell – this was an important race so might as well gun it.
Upon reaching the starting line at 430AM, I immediately registered. Thankfully the folks there allow for onsite registration. I was starting to feel the morning chill while waiting for the starting gun so I had to keep myself moving. Good thing that the organizers pitched in a warm-up session – after that, I couldn’t feel any better. Suddenly I felt my blood rising. But even though I was pumped, I couldn’t risk getting heart failure after coming from a party without sleeping. Thus, I set the pace zones of the Garmin between 6:30 to 7:00 min/km.
The gun starts blasted around 615AM, with rainy skies hanging above our heads. This provided a cool start for all of us so it’s no wonder many runners gave it their all during the first few kilometers. It wasn’t that humid and their was a cool breeze blowing against us. I was surprised when I checked the splits during the first 3K – I went beyond the maximum pace zone, hahaha. On the next few kilometers I completed slowed down because it was an uphill course. Besides, I served as a pacer for a 10K first timer. We took the hills together gradually while keeping her company. I didn’t mind the slow splits we were having – it does feel good to be a pacer no matter how slow you might get. =) Upon reaching the apex of the course (and the halfway point as well), she thanked me for helping her conquer the hill, though she was panting heavily. From there I resumed my regular pace and sped on the downhill section of the race route, with rainshowers dissipating my body heat all the way until KM9.5. The approach to KM10 located at Mango Square was another uphill, steeper and tougher than the road to the halfway point of the course. It was also at this point that I realized that the course was going to be overshot, so I told myself to take it easy once the GF 305 reads its 10th lap. From then on I maximized the walk breaks I had until reaching the highest point of Mango Square. Once I was done I resumed running again back to the finish line, where I finished with a relatively good time of 1:18:54, covering a total distance of 11.39K.
Yup, it was indeed a good run. Though I had several amounts of contraband before this race and though I had no sleep at all, I still had the energy to run. In fact, after coming home from the race I couldn’t get sleep immediately, resulting to me being awake for more than 34 hours. =P My sleepiness only kicked on at sunset. But rest assured that I will never race after coming straight from a party. Although I have proven that my body can take it, what I did was quite risky. Don’t worry, it won’t happen again – for now. =P
Here’s my review of the race:
D (direction) – the route will take you to the following:
> from the starting line, right to F. Ramos
> right to Imus Avenue
> right to Osmena Boulevard
> upon reaching Puente Osmena, go right at Robinson’s leading to Maxilom
> left at Gorordo
> conquer the uphill route then go right at JY Square to Salinas Drive
> go straight downhill to access Juan Luna
> right at M. J. Cuenco upon reaching Mabolo Church
> right at Maxilom upon reaching Carreta Cemetery
> beat the uphill then left to F. Ramos again to access the finish line
Visual representation as follows:
It’s a brand new 10K route, but difficulty is placed at medium due to 4K worth of uphill stretch. Still, it’s a route worth taking when doing training runs.
R (registration) – take your pick: either register onsite or one of the allocated registration centers. Either way, there’s no chance you can miss this race.
U (uhaw) – lots of water on this race so no need for a hydration belt.
M (money) – 150 bucks gets you your usual race bib, map, and singlet. Though its a good offer, I wasn’t able to get my singlet because they ran out of it. Oh well. =)
S (safety) – volunteers/marshalls from the Cebu Road Runners Club (CRRC) assisted all runners along the way in terms of traffic control and race guidance. They’ll even let you run on the middle of the road. Just look for that yellow flag and you won’t get lost. =)
Here are the splits that I incurred…
Thanks again to Dr. Raymond Reel Bontol for organizing this race. Will see you soon (along with Atty. Haide) in the Cebu City Marathon next year.
