My First Milo Elims Run

The day had finally come for the much-anticipated 34th National Milo Elims in Manila! For this race, I had registered for 21K race category. I was not expecting to have good PR with this race either. For based on my past race experiences, I had found out that if I tried to exceed my limit, then I would incur more and more injuries after each race, and that of course if something I definitely would not want happening to me again. I still got a lifetime to use my lower torso, and the races would always be there, so I would not want to risk anymore injuring my legs/feet further just to best my own PR.

This is my second time with 21K run. The preparation for the first was with much bad experiences. So I promised myself I would do better with my second 21K. But based on my finish time today, I didn’t. For I had achieved a sub-2 in my first 21K, but today I had finished at around 2:04 I think. But that’s quite understandable, for first of all I was still so lacking in training. For after the June 12 run, I took a week vacation, then for the whole of last week, I only run for around 10K, and this week I had run for a total of 18k. And for some reasons even I myself could not figure out why, I was getting so little amount of sleep for the past month, like maybe only 3 to 4 hours each day, it really is not something that one who is preparing for a race should do, for one of the prerequisites in running is to have enough sleep.

Today my sister and I had to wake up at 2:30am so we could go to the race venue before 42K run starts for she had volunteered to be part of the support team organized by Takbo.ph for runners. If we were to go by ourselves it would be quite an effort, for she had brought 2 water sprayers, watermelon, bananas, and melons. Good thing our dear friend Ken was willing to fetch us from the house to go to race venue. Ken, thanks so much for being willing to wake up that early to support us! :)

For the race today, I decided to keep a relaxing pace, for it is no joke for me to run 21K, coz it would just be my second time to go for 21K straight. So all throughout the race I kept on checking my pace, I would slow down my pace whenever I felt I would nearly be going out of breath or slipped away from my right pacing. On this run, I did not felt like I would be passing out anytime soon or have thoughts that I would be on the brink of being carried away by the ambulance. But upon reaching 15K, I started to felt my legs getting somewhat tired for it is not used to running distance longer than 10K for the past 3 weeks. Still I kept on, and being extra careful with my legs, existing knee and toenail injury till the finish line.

The map was easy, but as usual, I did not try to understand it and tried to run following a crowd. So without a pacer just like the last run I was with coach Kenley, I got lost. There were lots of times wherein I could not see anyone wearing a yellow bib so I was not sure if that was the route for the 21K runners, and the worst waste of time was when I thought I had already reached the Finish Line when I reached the Starting Line. I really thought then that I had finished the race already but was quite puzzled when I saw that there was no device on the ground to record the finish time. So I tried to find a marshal there to ask about it but found none, but a kind-hearted soul answered my query and told me that Finish Line would still be some distance away. I then hurried to jumpstart my pace again so that my finish time would not be that bad, but I was sort of spent already for I had tried to sprint to my “Finish Line” earlier.

Upon reaching the correct Finish Line, I was given a Winner for 21K Women Verification card. I did not give it much thought then, for I thought it was one of the things they were giving to 21K finishers. But when I saw that other runners does not have that card, I asked the people assisting in the event and was led by them to the Winner’s area. I was sort of surprised then because I knew my pace was not that fast, how could I be in the top 10 for my gender? I was given a packaged food from Rufo’s and asked to standby first and wait for our turn to receive the awards. It took around an hour before they started to arrange the winners based on the finish time and called out the bib numbers. The other winners there were called, but mine was not. So I asked the assisting people there whether I did really won or not for I was given a Winner card but mine was maybe left out? They checked and double checked and in the end expressed their apologies when they found out that I was 11th and not 10th place. If I did enter the top 10 winners, I think I would be able to join the Finals, but since I did not, and my finish time was far from the qualifying time, I did not qualify for the Finals then. But it is still good for me to know that, for I did not expect to be top 11 among women runners for 21K today with my pace, race experience and physical condition. This is really an encouragement for me to be more serious with training for I was usually top 10 among women except for my very run which was the 5K run in Unilab Run and first 21K run last June 12 after a month long rest, this time I was only 11th, it meant that I am still so lacking in training so I did not get the time I was supposed to get (sub-2) and therefore could not make it to top 10 among runners in my gender.

I would want to express my thanks to:
Kenley – for your coaching and guiding especially while pacing me during my first 21K run.
Brando and Sherwin – for your advises on how to train for the run.

Special thanks to:
Ken R – for being there to support us all the way from start to finish. You’re really a very valuable friend!