Share this:

July 4, 2010 – Luneta, Manila  @ km 0

Pre-Race : High Hopes

Then there was OPLAN: MILO 12345, my battlecry on how I will tackle 26.2 miles on foot come D-day.

As posted earlier, MILO 12345 stands for; Plan 1 : finish @ 3:35 hrs or a new PR, if I can’t make a PR then go for Plan 2 : finish the race in 3:45 hrs. That was the plan, my big bold prediction on how I will finish the race. Behind those numbers are a set of strategies ready for execution after 16 weeks of rigorous training and preparation. With high confidence, I assumed that I will cross the finishline between 3:35 hrs to 3:45 hrs, NET of my current fitness level, my training, weather conditions, route grade, others. This forecast was somehow supported by Yasso 800’s speed run I did 10 days before race day (projected @ 3:24). Learning’s from my previous marathons had been incorporated in the plan as well. Note that I’ve demonstrated 3:40 hrs in Condura last Feb where runners passed through the rolling terrains of Skyway and Katipunan flyover twice, pretty much comparable to new Milo route that offers 10 ascend/descend (all in all) at Buendia and EDSA flyovers. .. and lastly, I’ve also set my fuel/hydration plans including “carboloading” days prior the event. ALL set and ready, seems like a solid plan…

Race Day : Big Battle…

…that morning, I was in high spirit !!!

By 3:15am, Alfred (el kyoshi) dropped by at my room (Bayview Hotel) to leave his stuff then we made our way to the race venue. As we got nearer the starting line, I can feel the festive mood, saw familiar faces from different running groups, fellow P&G’ers, and some people I know in the running community.

As soon as I got inside the starting pen, I started doing my pre-race rituals with other runners at the back end of the barricaded area. Jogged around for 5-mins, leg stretching, and ran a couple of 25m-30m sprint repeats.

30minutes before gunstart....

While having a conversation and waiting for the race to start, Alfred, Joms, Totoy, Wilnar, and Pabs agreed that we will run together when we found out that we have the same goal of finishing the race in around 3:45 hrs. I know though that these guys can do better than that looking at their previous runs. They had been my running buddies in the past marathons. Our strategy is to run between 5:00 to 5:20 mins per km, this pace if sustained will give a 3:45 hours or less finish time. Ten minutes before 4am, the group then moved to the front row, on our way we chanced upon Jovie (baldrunner) and Jonel (frontrunner/bugobugo) with the rest of team hardcore and bdm’ers. Jonel introduced us to Yong (Larrazabal) and learned that he also plans to finish the race in 3:45 hrs. He decided to run with us upon Jonels suggestion. Without any warning, we just heard the gunstart …. and the runners were off…..

p&g runners....

with ultramarathoners - wilnar, ray, and alfred

with pabs, kristy, carlos, and allen

me and wilnar with jovie (baldrunner), pau founder

First 10km was at an easy pace. We were cruising at a 4:50 to 5:10 mins/km pace, with occasional spurt close to 4:00 mpk. The group.., well now I can only see Alfred, Pabs, and Yong, clocked 50:21 mins at km#10. 1st 10km was well within my target of around 52 minutes per 10km. A few km or so, it was only me and Pabs running side-by-side, the others were either ahead or behind us. Everything seems to be fine… until I felt my left leg (upper-quads) was becoming heavy as we approached km#18. I didn’t mind, I just kept on running. Halfway thru the 2nd loop my leg gave an indication of cramp so I opted to slow down and see if things will get better.  I told Pabs to go ahead and I will try catch-up with him. Finished 2nd 10km around 53 mins, still within target I thought.

hanging on to it !!! (photovendo)

Halfway: Big Surprise !!!

Somewhere between km#21 and #22, I started to walk, can’t hold on any longer even at a slower pace… got no choice at this point because my left quads was creeping up… stiff !!! so early !!! I maybe expecting this, but this one was  just so early in the race !!!. A series of run/short-walk followed but my legs were not able to regain the pace I had earlier. From then, I tried ingesting more fluids along the way, took my 3rd gel earlier than planned hoping my legs will recover faster. Kept running at a slow pace (and walking) waiting for the cramps to settle down… but there was no sign of improvement. I also noticed that my body system was not responding to powergels. Normally, as I used up a sachet of gel, within 10-20 minutes I will feel a “kick” or boost to continue running. This time, nothing… none at all !!! One by one, runners passed by including Alfred, Natz (i2 runner), and Yong.

Reality Check !!!

By the time I crossed km#30 my garmin registered around 2:44, and now I only got 1:01 hours to finish in 3:45 hours; my minimum target.   With the way my legs are behaving, maybe not possible anymore…  At this juncture I’ve given up, I finally accepted the fact that “ it’s not my day today !!!” Maybe I can try 3:50 hours to qualify, or to finish in 4 hours at least. I have 1:06 to 1:16 hours to do that at around 5:30 to 6:20 mins per km pace. With my condition ??? possible but still challenging enough I guessed… Hoping for the best, I kept running within 5:30-6:20 mins per km, but not for long, was within this range only after 2km… then 7mins++ pace the next kms…

go! go! go! tigerboy! (photovendo)

My spirit was willing, very much willing… but my flesh just can’t !!!

As the race progressed, putting one foot after another is turning into a difficult task; no longer enjoyable as it usually was. On top of that, the sun’s heat was already taking its toll on me. Now, even a sub-4hr finish was out of reach at the rate that I was moving; still @ 7 mins++ per km pace… more and more walkbreaks followed…

so many questions at this stage... (photovendo)

At the last descend over at Buendia bridge towards the finishline, I saw Jonel having his own battle trying to keep running even at a slower pace. Like me, he was wrestling with fatigue and heat. I ran with him. Both of us were in disbelief on what had happen (or happening) to us at that very moment; asking so many questions what’s with this race, that made us perform way below our expectations. Anyway, we basically gallowayed our way in that (long) stretch of Roxas Blvd, alternately running and walking at a pace between 8 to 9 mins/km. I believe that was the longest 4km of the route. BDM’er Totoy Ocampo  joined us roughly 2km to finishline, we were practically walking then, keeping our energy for the last burst at the finishline.  At the last turn, fellow Team Hardcore member and Runnersworld covergirl Michelle Estuar pulled alongside on us and still running strong. Earlier, I was about a km ahead of her at the last turnaround in Edsa flyover and she obviously endured the rest of the way going back at a faster pace to catch up on me. 10-15 seconds later, four of us crossed the finishline with a time of 4:15:13. My garmin registered 4:14:54 with an average pace of 6:02 mins/km.

approaching finishline... with jonel, michelle, & totoy (photo from rununlmtd)

@ 4:15:12 3m to finishline....

... finally !!!

... my reward after running for a little more than 4-hrs

Post Race… Big Upset !!!

“Things are not always what they seem”

Big upset indeed !!! I thought I had it in the bag !!!  I have 3 Reasons why I was so confident…

1) I trained hard for this than any other marathons I’ve ran in the past… a lot harder !!!

2) My assumption: the boring and flat route shouldn’t be an issue because the training runs I’ve had were tougher and a lot “boring” than this.

3) And then, hoped for a good weather and race management… safe assumption I guessed.

I really thought that on a bad day, 4 hours will be my worst finish. I was wrong !!! dead wrong !!! I crossed finish line more than 30 mins slower than my target.

So, what went wrong? Looking at the splits below, I started to slow down bigtime on the 3^rd 10km relative to the first two, and did not recover.

On my previous post, I mentioned 5 key elements to consider in predicting marathon finish time relative to previous marathon performance. These are;  1) training 2) weather 3) route 4) general conduct of the race, and  5) strategies. From the list, I can assume either weather or route (or both) to be the reason/s for my poor performance.

My (1)training and (5)strategies were tested in the past marathons I’ve ran. (4)General conduct of the race was not as bad compare to previous Milo runs except perhaps for the fatality apparently from negligence.

The (2) weather then was obviously hot and humid which was a major reason for most runners to fade towards the tail-end of the race including me. I factored in some buffer-time for that, but obviously not enough to cancel out the heat effect during the actual race.  It was so hot and humid even before the race started.

And lastly, there are a couple of things that I cannot explain up to now; “why my legs gave in so early in the race?” Is there something in the air at that coastal area that made me (and others) got cramps or fatigue too early?  and “why my quads, not my calves?”  Was it the (3)route? the 3-boring-loops? or the roller-coaster track on buendia and edsa flyovers? I honestly don’t know.

Whatever the reasons are… at the end of the day… all of these are part of the “game” we call MARATHON…

splits registered on my garmin

with mon cruz, my brother jesus, and my kids...

with p&g 42k and 21k finishers... congratulations guys !!!

with ultramarathoners / bdm'ers...

with caloy and totoy...

Moving Forward…

After 2 weeks of recovery, I m now about to start (or should I say “continue” ) my training for the next target event, 2^nd Leg of PAU dubbed as P2P 65 (Pasuquin to Pagudpud) to be held Aug 29 in the northern tip of Luzon; Ilocos Norte. Camsur Marathon in September is on my list but I have no clear plans yet, maybe same strategies as Milo. Lastly, I consider taking another crack at qualifying myself  in Milo Finals. Though it’s quite tough, I thought of giving provincial qualifying leg a shot, perhaps in San Pablo City or Batangas  sometime  in October. I have more or less 12-weeks to prepare. Just in case, this will be in a 21km event with qualifying time of 1:35 hours at my age. Lets see …

..... will be better next time !!!

Advertisement