Subic Marathon 2008

So we went to the "international" Subic Marathon which officially marked my foray into the half-marathon category. 21k of flat terrain mixed with rolling hills.

DAY 1

B and I decided to drive up Friday afternoon just so we could have a head start and avoid the traffic, settle down and be familiar with the terrain. As soon as we got to Subic, our first order of business wasn't to go to the house to settle in and rest... we started retracing the race route by car, which starts at Remy field. We wanted to see what the 42k route was so we ended up going all the way to Ocean Adventure which was the turn around point. Of course the nerds that we are, we took note of markers for the turnaround point for the 21k which I figured was a little bit after Triboa. Dusk was approaching and it was a nice ending to our route-mania as it kinda simulated the 530am start we were anticipating for Sunday. That night, due to the insistence of B who wanted to wake those muscles up, we did a quick loop around the East Kalayaan hills....quick, yes (40 minutes) but hill-wise, they were a plenty. Then off to the grocery to buy much needed bananas and water. Carbo-loaded Pasta and Salad in Extremely Espresso for dinner. Have to try their nachos! They looked so yummy seeing them from the other tables hehehe.

DAY 2
Woke up to the phone ringing. Good news for me as job hunt is progressing as I expected. Ate a healthy lunch in Aresi and ordered a Ceasars salad, Chicken and Cheese dip with Bread and Seafood Pasta. After that, shopping na! Went around the various groceries basically looking for junk haha. I know I shouldn't eat high sodium stuff the day before race but it was too good to resist. Must say the new Pringles line is superb...the Parmesan flavor and the Sundried Tomato chips are really good. And only in SUbic will you find an assortment of Gatorade variants! Gatorade regular, Gatorade Fierce, Gatorade Rain....

Waited for K, K and H to arrive from Manila..they got there just in time for dinner, which we again had in Extremely Espresso. Their pizza as actually good and very LARGE. But then again carbo-loading time so it wasn't a problem. ALso met up with M, B and the other runners so it was a welcome break since I think we all had one thing in common, WE LOVE TO EAT.

DAY 3 RACE DAY
Woke up at 4:00am to get ready. I don't really like eating before a race but dutifully downed a bottle of Gatorade and a banana just so I'd have enough energy. GOod thing K and H will be running at a later time so they're actually going to be our support team. Taray! Naka CLK pa! That's what you call water with style hahaha.

When we got to Remy Field it was still dark but there was no wind and I somehow felt that it was going to be a hot day. Then DULCE came on and sang "Ako ang Nag-wagi". Winner! hahahaha. And of course they announced that they will be moving the 21k start to 6am instead of 5:30am, together with the 5K and 10k runners. Bummer! What a waste of cover. That 30 mins would've saved a lot of people from the Subic heat. Oh well.

Around 15 minutes before the race I downed my prefunctory Gu and as the race started, I felt fairly optimistic that I wouldn't crash, as I also read the CHI running book the day before and somehow got tips from that. I mean, my last long run was a disaster, with me limping by km 19 and walking all the way to km 22. But when I reached the halfway mark which was waaaay after Triboa, I still felt pretty strong. And so the battle goes on.

What made the run memorable was I met a lot of nice people along the way. Like these two PNP guys who paced with me for km 6 to 9, they were actually very nice and kept my mind off the heat. By km 10 I left them already and I was alone again. By km 15 these two oldies but really strong runners became my pacers. It was entertaining as they regaled me with stories of their glory days, of the marathons they've been to here and in other countries. I actually learned a lot from them. They told me about their experiences in the NY marathon and how challenging it was as there were a lot of competitive runners there. Galing!

At around km 17 the support team arrived. Actually hard to miss with the red car and I was okay with the water supply and just dumped my empty bottles with them.
My God!! My Polar started to register that we were going over 21k! They even moved the finish line inside the track oval which really didn't make sense to me. B had friends who measured the race route again after the race and it really registered as 24k. So now I know how 24km feels like...it's not really so bad after all.

Right after the race, I noticed M and the others were at the bleachers and finally took a nice pic of me crossin the finish line. See! It pays not to be the first, you end up with great pictures.

And that ends my first ever 21k. I can't wait to train for the full marathon. It's officially an off week for me so I can afford to bum around and not train. But next week it will be a different story...