10K Paa-Bilisan Road Race Series

Friday night run
Swthrt had a meeting at their Global City branch last Friday. She was excited because she was able to go home early in time for our Friday evening run. We dropped-off Josiah at home and proceeded to UP, our regular training ground. On our way to UP, Swthrt remembered that we needed to fetch JM at school because he had a practice in Tree-atro class for their recital this first semester. We were quite disappointed as we have to cancel our scheduled run for the night. When we arrived at JM’s school at around 6:30 pm, we learned that their practice will be up to 7:30 pm in the evening. We immediately went back to UP since the school is near. We had enough time to do short 3K tempo run.

Run details: Distance: 3.01K Time:21:21 Pace: 7:03min/k

After the run, we went back to JM’s school and fetch him. At least we had a good run for the night.

Saturday runs
This time I knew that Swhrt had already re-invented herself into a runner. Swthrt knew that I will be tapering on Saturday because I’m joining the 10K Paa-Bilisan Race on Sunday morning. I felt that she wanted to run on Saturday morning, so I asked her if she wanted to go to UP to run. She gladly said yes and get herself ready to go. Swthrt did 2 rounds at the academic oval (total of 4.4K). I timed her run and got a split time of 15:00 min for the first round and 16:00 min on the second. As if Swthrt was not contented with her morning run, she then again joined our friends in the evening to run another 4.4K easy run. This time she did an almost equal split time of 17:00 min. Hooray for swthrt!

10K Paa-Bilisan Race
We arrived at BHS at around 5:15 am. Upon entering the parking lot near the starting area, we saw my cousins Kuya Hector and Alwyn getting ready for the race. There were quite a big number of runners who showed up for the race. It was unexpected since there was a race Saturday morning at Alabang and another race at Roxas Boulevard. I also noticed that the race organizers have set-up a smaller assembly area which is half of the usual starting boxes in the previous races that I have joined.

This made all the runners squeeze into the starting area. My cousins and I positioned in the middle of the starting area. After the opening ceremony, the gun was fired. The 10K and 5K runners were released at the same time. Honestly, I’m hoping to finish strong in this race and break the 60min time. I’m quite familiar with the route and confident that I can do it. I started at a faster pace hoping to sustain it till the end. I don’t have any problem doing the first round except for the lack of drinking water at the water stations. The sun was up and the heat was really draining the runners. As I took the right turn to Serendra, I saw Bards, aka Banana running. We had a few chat. She even asked about Swthrt, who was with me to give support but did not run. Bards went on as she was keeping pace with another runner. I was able to grab a bottle of water at the 5K mark across the starting line and brought it till the end. I also took notice of my time which was 30:00 min at first loop. As I approached the turning point near the Essensa I saw Bugobugo who waved at me. I again saw Bards who cheered on. These gestures really give encouragement to runners to go on strong. After the turn around point near Essensa I got my second wind which I would normally knew if I had that big burp, hahaha what a sign. When I reached Serendra on my second loop I looked at my watch and saw that I was already running over 60:00min.

I gave the final push and finished with an unofficial time of 1:06:00, almost same time with my Adidas KOTR 10K where I PRed. I was quite disappointed with my finishing time, since the KOTR’s route had more uphills as compared to this race. What could be the culprit? Do I need more speedworks during my trainings or am I just burned out doing back-to-back weekend races? Any suggestions?

After the race I got the chance to meet Vener (rununltd), Taki (techspech), and Dennis (runningfatboy).

IceOne (Overdrive), Vener (rununltd), Bro J (J Running), Taki (Techspech), Tolits, Dennis (runningfatboy)

with Christine (Vener's wife, i hope i got the name right), Mae (in my own views),and Swthrt (Baby)

We had a few chat and some photo ops. Swthrt and I had to leave early because we have to go to church. I will be leading the congregational worship. I thank the Lord for a great race and the wonderful people (bloggers) I have met. God bless and see you at the next race.