Welcome to my LIFE!

Last Sunday I ran (and survived) my 1st marathon-- Botak Paabilisan Road Race Series 5km/10km at the Fort Bonifacio. It was exhilarating!


It helped that I saw a colored race map the day before courtesy of Bro J. Needed to psych myself for the upcoming race.

I woke up early around 4:30am (the race was at 6am). In my excitement I forgot to bring my camera  so I only have 1 photo. I rode with Jay & brother Chef Jonathan (of Paul Calvin's). Chef ran the 5km while Jay & I ran 10km. It's interesting to note that my running buddy, Jay ran the 21km Adidas King of the Road (coverage by Ms. Bull Runner) the week before. Cool!

We arrived 5:30ish. Just on time for some warm-up stretching. I saw the running crowd getting ready then I joked, "Hardcore na ang mga ito!" Intimidating but in my mind what's important is to finish the race.

So at about 6am the gun went off. It sounded like a faint clap from where we were. The runner crowd started slowly moving. I'm not an expert at crowd estimates but I'd guess give or take around 1,000 participants. And so we ran. No, we really RAN!

It was not comforting to see that during the first loop up the slightly inclined McKinley Road, we already saw runners coming back downhill. Wow! Is this a sprint race or a marathon? I suspect they were clocking like under 3 minutes per kilometer  Hardcore.

There were lots of temptations. Temptations to stop. Temptation to turn at the corner for the 5k mark (10km needed to go 2 loops, ugh!). Temptation to just walk the rest of the 10km. Temptation to slack off.

But go go go. Run! David! Run! At about 5km the feeling was, "Why am I doing this?" At about 6-7km I felt the second wind with some help at the water stations. Those weeks of trainings are paying off. Heart rate seems alright. My breathing seems alright. Not terribly exhausted.

During our training Jay and I kept pushing each other. A very important factor in running. Because we all take the path of least resistance. The easy way out. "Pwede na yan" may be a timely message by Pastor Ferdie that Sunday.

And so I finished the 10km. I forgot to check my exact time but it should be under 1:20mins by my estimates. I am now a 10km finisher :) Woohoo! I'm still finding out if Botak is going to post the race results.

It was fun. It definitely won't be our last. I need to beat my PR (a new term I learned). PR means Personal Record not PageRank for you SEO suckers.


More temptations-- what a fine way to end the 10km run with an awesome breakfast buffet at Paul Calvin's Deli (review by Anton Diaz) at the Fort owned by my restaurateur friend Jay (pictured above). Thanks to Mitch Lim for taking our picture (no camera, remember) and making it memorable.

Actually, I was too tired to eat so I just took taho, their famous malunggay bread & lots & lots of water.

Jay is also my neighbor, running mate, coach, & motivator rolled into one. Thanks man for getting me into running!

Cross-posted from here http://daveq.wordpress.com/2008/10/20/10km-botak-paabilisan/