Adidas KOTR, A Milestone Race

The Adidas KOTR 2008 was the first race I ever joined. It was a simple race with a good quality singlet. Back then, I went alone and left right after the race. It was right after this race that I began to take running seriously. While I do admit that I may have been somewhat unprepared for the race, I was quite disappointed with my 1 hour, 13 minute 10k performance. That was last year.

This year, I suggested the Adidas KOTR to my wife as her first race given my experience last year. I just wanted her to have a great time running so that she would be hooked as well. One day, while in Bonifacio High Street, while looking at running shoes at RUNNR, we decided to register.

I found it strange that the we weren't able to get our race kits immediately. We were told that claiming of race kits would be during the Adidas Shoe Expo at the Megatrade Hall of Megamall. I thought it would be a minor inconvenience, but then I figured it would be alright to look around. We decided to claim our kits just as Megamall opened. I thought we could easily go in, claim the kits and get out quickly. Just imagine the horror of having to wait in line for 2 hours just to claim a race kit. My son got so tired that he fell asleep as I was carrying him. Somehow, the system they devised to distribute the kits was not working.

The 21k race itself was great. The course was challenging and there were enough water stations. Best of all, I finished with a time of 2:11:18, a new PR! When I asked my wife about her race, she said that she wanted to file a protest. What?!? She then explained that although we don't have gadgets that measure distance, she felt that the route was much longer than 5k. At first I thought it may be possible for the route to be slightly longer than planned. I was later on surprised to find out that other runners were also complaining about the distance. Some even said their Garmins measured a distance of 6.45k instead of 5k. Hmmm...

It took more than a week before the results were released. Interestingly, the results were released in Facebook. Too bad if you didn't have an account. I was quite disappointed that only the results for the 21k runners seemed reliable. I heard a number of complaints from 5k and 10k runners that the results were far from what they were expecting. In some cases, many runners shared the same finish times. In many other cases, runners couldn't find their names nor their bib numbers. Perhaps somebody can explain to us why this is so.

In the end, I just wanted a great experience for my wife. For myself, I wanted to celebrate the past year in running by joining the same race that started it all. For the Adidas KOTR organizers, I hope you listen to the feedback and take steps to address them.

Through the Streets of Quezon City

After all the preparation and controversy (Don't ask!), the Quezon City International Marathon has passed, and although I can't explain the great experience of running through the streets of Quezon City, I can at least try.

I wasn't really expecting to do well in this race. I just wanted to force myself to do the distance since I was originally preparing for the 21k of the Adidas KOTR. I was quite happy to cross the finish line at 2 hours 15 minutes with just some soreness in my legs. Below are my unofficial results from the Runnex website.

Perhaps the best image I will take from this race was the view of Commonwealth as we turned the corner from University Avenue in the U.P. Campus at around 5:25 A.M. All of a sudden the road widens to around 8 to 10 lanes and it's free from traffic.

Overall, the race was well organized and there were many friendly and familiar faces. I hope they do this again next year. To the race organizers, please come up with traffic advisories. It was hard to talk about the race to people who were too angry about the traffic it caused.

Unplanned Race

By some unexpected turn of events, I'll be able to run the half marathon of the Quezon City International Marathon. Three cheers to those who helped me with this and thanks!

Competitive!?!

Time and again I surprise myself when I realize how competitive I can be. If you knew me, you probably wouldn't believe it if I were to tell you how competitive I am, but my competitive self is there and I've been seeing him deep within me more and more times in the past year. On the outside, I think I can say that I would appear quite timid and perhaps even shy. But deep inside, I've caught myself comparing and measuring up to other people in certain ways. Of course, I try not to let it get to my head.

The same can be said about my experience in running. The beauty of running is that I think it is both competitive and non-competitive. You can measure yourself against other people in your age group, gender, and experience in running. At the same time, you can set goals for yourself and try to beat them and achieve your own personal victories. Many of the blogs I've read talk about how running is more of a sport wherein one tries to surpass one's limits. That's great and all and I do believe that if a runner doesn't have this perspective, he or she will always be disappointed that there is always a faster runner somewhere out there.

Just to illustrate, at my first road race, I'd check out the runners on the first kilometer and benchmark my pace with theirs. At others, my goal would be to finish not so far behind certain people. Recently, I would have secret goals of finishing ahead of those same people.

My point is that I just want to share that it does happen. But before you judge me, I want to make it clear that I still don't believe that finishing ahead of another makes me a better runner. It's just a competitive nature that shows itself from time to time.

UP Oval at 4:30 A.M.

I just want to share that had my first experience running at the UP Academic Oval at 4:30 A.M. last Sunday and it was great! It was still very dark and there were very few runners along the oval. My favorite scene was when I had just passed The Oblation going counter-clockwise at around 6 A.M. and they had just turned off the street lamps. I could see the natural light of dawn like a mild glow that was getting stronger and stronger against the silhouette of the trees all the way down Quezon Street.

What was I doing in UP at such an early hour? To answer this, I think it would be best to explain it this way: Our household help left last Saturday to attend to their relatives in Marikina so my wife and I would not be able to run at the same time on Sunday morning. Here is a conversation between me and my wife:

Me: I need to run at least 6 rounds around UP tomorrow.
Wife: I need to run period. It’s been such a long time since I last ran.
Me: Okay. You can run tomorrow morning. I’ll run in the afternoon.
Wife: You can’t run in the afternoon. We’re going to the Dutyfree.
Me: How about I run in the afternoon and you go to the Dutyfree?
Wife: (No words. Just Dagger looks.)

I ran. She ran. And we both went to the Dutyfree.