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Published: Jul 21st, 2009
Category: LSD, Press Release, Races
Comments: 23

Globe Run For Home race: First PR and a Surprise

If you’re an avid reader of this blog, you would noticed how I would religiously post my race preparations especially my first marathon race where I became so obsessed with it I even detailed my actions on per hour basis prior to the actual start of the race. For this race, I decided to screw my usual pre-race preparation post because I realized however detailed my preparations are, the expected outcome usually never happen because of several factors I don’t have control. However, I always make sure to study my previous race and learn from any mistakes I encountered. Hence in this race, I did some adjustments:

Banana
Pooping twice on your debut marathon race will sure going to destroy your game plan. My mistake from my marathon preparation was that I was eating 3 bananas per day up to the actual race day. Later I found out that eating too much of it can simulate bowel movements. Hence I totally ignore banana on most days but I did eat a small one coated with honey during the race day for my breakfast.

Immodium
I’ve been hearing this from fellow runner bloggers that taking Immodium an hour before the race will ensure no stomach upset. I did try this on Thursday and Friday during my usual morning run and seems to work OK on me. This worked well on the race day as I didn’t experience loose bowel movement. If you should try this, please try it first during your training to see if it will work well on you. NEVER try anything new during the race.

Hydration
During my marathon race, I remember drinking 3-4cups of Gatorade/water for every water station. This made my stomach feel so heavy which probably contributed to having to release my bowels during my last race. So for this race, I probably bypassed five liquid stations but relied more on my hydration belt plus a cup of water from 3 or 4 stations.

As for my race strategy, I did prepare for this one. I reckon that after doing two 5km races (Condura and Air Speed), two 10km races (Greenfield and Southern race) , a 16km (Earth Run), 15km (Mizuno Infinity), a 21km (Botak Paa-Tibayan) and a marathon (Milo 33^rd elimination), pushing for PR this time for my succeeding races will make sense. I was hoping the training I did for Milo and a week before this race will help me improve my disastrous/severely dehydrated 21km finish time of 2:37 via Botak Paa-Tibayan race. Furthermore, I was hoping that my CWX Ventilator tights that I got from Runnr store will provide support to my knees and help keep sweat away from dripping into my feet. The tights did work and I believe this also helped me recover very fast. A review will be posted later.

The race started on time and I found myself running comfortably fast during the first 4km. This is the first race where I did challenge myself to look for potential running targets with the aim of running faster. I would increase my pace once I’ve identified a target then once done, I would slow down and maintain a certain speed, look for another running target and increase my pace again and so on. This would go on for the first 11km until I get tired of it. I know its fun as it gives me “mini-success” during my race, it also motivates me every time I over ran my target but it’s not maintainable. I wasn’t checking my heart rate monitor watch but rather my time but upon checking my heart rate I realized that I was running way beyond my aerobic zone (133-153) and my heart rate would range somewhere between 165-175. I knew right-away that muscle cramp will soon find its way on my legs and true enough; it attacked me along the Lawton-Bayani road. There’s something about this road I hate about. This road always gave me cramps for some reason. I remember fully stopping in this road and applying my ever trusted roll-on Salonpas from time to time. Everytime I would continue my run after a brief stop, muscle cramp would appear every 10 minutes. If some runners dread the Kalayaan Fly-over, I dread more this part of the road! If this road goes further down to Heritage road, I knew I would not make it within my target time. Alas, the u-turn going up was so quick and I soon find my way to the Fort again. Six hundred meters away from the finish line, I was running fast but muscle cramp near my hamstring would soon attack me. This happened three times that I have to stop, do a walk and soon jog. The last 100 meters, I was already running, giving all my best and before I knew it, the finish line was just a few meters away. I saw two ladies ahead of me and wanting to overtake them, I sprint. One of the lady runner (which I later learned was a takbo.ph member) saw me coming from her behind and tried to increase her pace too. Alas, the ruthless running ninja will never give way to a lady for strong finish and so I sprint and overtook her.

After the race, I asked a fellow takbo.ph runner what was his time as I was just behind him and told me 2:26. So if my estimate is right, I finished this race somewhere between 2:26-2:27. A ten minute improvement from my previous 21k race woohoo! Later after the race, we did our usual post-race carbo loading at Jolibee. Unknown to me, Rico, Chris and the gang prepared a mini program to give medals to fellow takbo.ph members who finished 42km run last Milo race. While I understand Milo has nothing to do with it, I did appreciate the fact that my running family recognized the hardship I did to finish my first 42km run.

I went home very happy knowing that I did improve my race and even more, knowing that my running family will always be there to support and encourage everyone to achieve their personal goal.