Milo Marathon 21km

A month ago, New Balance Power Run 25km.
Today, Milo Marathon 21km.

Should be doable, right?

Problem: Super undertrained for this run.  I lacked long runs... As a matter of fact, I did not do any long run since NB Power Run! Hah.  I just registered for Milo since it was cheap and I was looking for a December run.  Anyway, I tried cramming my LSDs early this week, did 2 consecutive 10KMs, Monday and Tuesday.  Last week I did one 10KM and that's it plus a couple of spinning classes here and there.  The culprit for no long runs? Yaya leaving for the province for a little over a week plus being busy with other things.

All creative excuses came to mind last night - maybe I'm not ready, skip ko nalang ito... Anyway P600 lang naman ito.  Just sleep in... and the list goes on.  But of course, the more I wanted to skip it, the more I wanted to do it to prove that I am stronger than laziness! So, off to MOA I went, with our ever trusty and supportive driver, Greg.  This time, I wasn't running with anyone.  I registered on my own and ran on my own from KM 1 to 21.

I started off on a bad note, at about KM 6 I was already hungry (WHAT?! After eating a cup and a half of rice last night with homemade Kare-Kare?!!).  I think it was because I skipped my usual PB sandwich on the way to MOA and traded it for extra sleep.  I was watching out for bananas (which I never saw, BTW) in the hopes of easing my hunger.  Thank God I eventually forgot being hungry... maybe because all other aches and pains came to consciousness, haha.  At about KM 12, I thanked God I was more than halfway through.  I did not check out the race route so I was thinking this would be the same route as RU3 which was all flat, no flyovers.  Well, surprise, surprise! We had to cross 2 flyovers over Roxas Blvd.! When I saw that uphill, I seriously wanted to cry... don't ask me how I felt when I saw ANOTHER uphill.  HAHAHA.


I ran with a pace of 7:00-7:30 for the first 12 KMs and slowly increased to 6:45-7:00 then finally for the last 2KMs, I tried to maintain a 6:30 pace.  My gulay, I was really looking out for the banana (I think the hosts mentioned that there would be some).  Buti nalang I had GU Roctane with me which worked like magic.  Took it at KM 11 and that was all I needed until the end, plus water and Gatorade from the stations (which was abundant).

When my watch registered 20KMs, I checked for the time (it was on a different display page because my Garmin FR10 only displays 2 kinds of information at a time.  Page1 for me is Pace and Distance then Page2 Time and Distance).  I saw that for 20KMs, my time was at 2:16!!! I got so giddy and excited that I tried to run a little faster to be able to make it to the cut-off (2:30) and break my PR (2:28).
After crossing the finish line, I checked my watch... I always get nervous doing this.  2:23!!!

Praise God!!!

Since I didn't know anyone in the race, I just got my loot bag (and it was filled with goodies, yay) and went home.

Again, PRAISE GOD!!! :) :) :)