The recently concluded BGC Run was incidentally a birthday run for Swthrt as it fell exactly on her birthday. What a great way to celebrate it than to set a new PR for 21K. Since we started running together in long distance races, we were not quiet conscious on setting or beating records. If ever we do set new PR, great and if not, then so be it. For us running together, the different experiences we have in every race and finished at the same time is more than enough to celebrate. But for this race, I confess that I had a hidden agenda in mind of setting a PR to highlight the occasion of Swthrt’s birthday. Our best time together for 21k was 2:39 (which I checked only after the race) at the Unilab Run for Wellness this year. Before the start of the race I was kind of conditioning Swthrt that we can try for a sub 2:30 on this race and she was willing to give it a try. And so we were up for the challenge.
The race
As we always do in a race, we arrived early to avoid the hassle of finding a spot to park our car and have some time for a warm up run. We were surprised that the crowd was not as big compared to the Run United 2 held a week ago. One reason probably was because there were several races scheduled on the same day. Two races were already held in Fort Bonifacio, BGC Run and the Mc Donald’s Fun Run. We were quiet intimidated with the seemingly small number of 21K runners. We certainly don’t want to be at the tail end and so what else can we do but to run at our best effort. When it was time to go, we started a little faster than our usual starting pace. The cool weather and the warm up really helped and I just hoped we could be able to sustain our pace. Apparently, we did not. It took us 33:56 for the first 5K wherein I was already gasping for air because of the quick start. The next 5K split was at 35:49. At this point we were able to maintain a good pace or should I say our usual 7min pace. The third 5k split time was 39:22 which evidently showed that we were slowing down. The fourth and final 5K sent us to a frequent walk-run mode setting 40:31 time. At this point, we were certain that we cannot beat the 2:30:00 and was settled to do a sub2:40:00. To our recollection, we never finished below 2 hour and 40 minutes in a 21k race. The thought gave us another motivation that we could still set a new PR. We mastered all our energy to make the final push and finished at 2:37:+ setting a PR Birthday Run for Swthrt. We were really exhausted after the race but it was a great run indeed. Congratulation to Runrio for another well organized race.
The race
As we always do in a race, we arrived early to avoid the hassle of finding a spot to park our car and have some time for a warm up run. We were surprised that the crowd was not as big compared to the Run United 2 held a week ago. One reason probably was because there were several races scheduled on the same day. Two races were already held in Fort Bonifacio, BGC Run and the Mc Donald’s Fun Run. We were quiet intimidated with the seemingly small number of 21K runners. We certainly don’t want to be at the tail end and so what else can we do but to run at our best effort. When it was time to go, we started a little faster than our usual starting pace. The cool weather and the warm up really helped and I just hoped we could be able to sustain our pace. Apparently, we did not. It took us 33:56 for the first 5K wherein I was already gasping for air because of the quick start. The next 5K split was at 35:49. At this point we were able to maintain a good pace or should I say our usual 7min pace. The third 5k split time was 39:22 which evidently showed that we were slowing down. The fourth and final 5K sent us to a frequent walk-run mode setting 40:31 time. At this point, we were certain that we cannot beat the 2:30:00 and was settled to do a sub2:40:00. To our recollection, we never finished below 2 hour and 40 minutes in a 21k race. The thought gave us another motivation that we could still set a new PR. We mastered all our energy to make the final push and finished at 2:37:+ setting a PR Birthday Run for Swthrt. We were really exhausted after the race but it was a great run indeed. Congratulation to Runrio for another well organized race.
Coming next of our own trilogy will be the 21K QCIM, see you there!
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