I tried so hard to conceal the pain near the finish line.
It's been almost a month since my second half marathon, and I owe my dear readers my experience of what was it like to run another second half-marathon. For starters, I have a lot of respect for this distance, after all 21K is half of the 42K. This is not the type of distance where you can just slack and relax. To prepare for a half-marathon, one must prepare it in three to four months. The preparation includes a lot of long slow distance runs on weekend, intervals, recovery runs, hills training, just to name some of the preparation I did.
I must admit, I did slack in the middle of training for reasons that I burned out in mid-training or eternally lost a love one. But it did not deter my spirit, not even an injury I sustained barely two weeks before the big race.
I have to say, what I did was either courageous and stupid. I know that I was injured but still had the guts to run. And since this is my second half-marathon, I was aiming for a personal best for this run, 2:30 or less. To run in such distance, one must not be 100%, but 110%. With my state during that time, I was at 80%. It was one of those moments that I have to say this mantra, "bahala na si Batman".
We'll go straight to the running, shall we? My Tita Nene and I ran in an LSD pace-ish in the first three kilometers, slowly picked up our running mojo at Km. 4. Running throught the sights and colors of Cebu? You betcha! The route took us to some "heritage" sites of Cebu, like the Cebu Capitol, Colon St. (The Philippines oldest street, named after Christopher Columbus.), Basilica del Sto. Nino, Magellan's Cross, Cebu City Hall, Malacanan sa Sugbo (the old Bureau of Customs building), Fort San Pedro (The Philippines' oldest and smallest fortification.), the South Road Properties tunnel, and of course the SRP.
Look we have a new friend. The runner beside me is Nanay Rosal. Lo and behold, we live in the same part of town.
I kinda slowed down on our way back, because I was such a worry mort on my injury. I resorted to do run-walk-jog. I kept on looking at my watch if I can still make it to my target time. Upon approaching kilometer 19, my target of finishing 2:30 or less fizzled because of the University of the Philippines-Cebu hill, which my father's colleague, Cres affectionately named "the UP Heartbreak Hill". By this time around, I must run in order to beat my old time of 2:45.
Some 700 meters from the finish line, I had this pain on my gastrocsoleus. I was thinking, is this an impending cramps? I told myself, "I am already close to the finish line, dammit! Just let me cross it, and I'll have you iced up on the medical tent.". And the pain went away. As I approach the finish line, I glanced on my watch, alright, I am going to beat my old time! And I did! I finish at 2 hours, 38 minutes and 6 seconds! A PR for me!
RACE:
Cebu City Marathon
LOCATION:Asiatown IT Park
DATE: January 9, 2011 4:00AM- 12 Noon
RACE CATEGORY: 21.1K
TIME: 2:38:06 (Official Time)
PS: I'll be running the marathon next year! That will be our little secret.
