Its been a while I last joined a 32km race. The last time was last year, which I DNF’ed, ironically it was a Unilab race if my memory served me right. This was supposed to be a come-back long distance race mode. Checking my best time for 32km (3h:06m) at Rizal Day run 2 yrs ago, I thought I could easily do a sub 3 hours.  Here’s my recollection of that dreaded day: – race started at exactly 4:30am – I can’t believe I was 300 meters away from the starting line. Judging from the volume of runners that day for 32km (more than 2k!), I knew I was at the wrong place. I knew it would take more than 3 kilometers before I could run my race pace. – It was a slow start as I have to run and overtake slow runners for more than 3 kilometers. I blaimed myself, I should have positioned myself near the starting area – I reached the U-turn in Makati at exactly 1 hour.  I was so off but my pace is just fine. – I reached 25thKm in 2:40 minutes..good bye PR. – Last 3 km was unbearable for me. I started to feel sleepy, hungry and the freaking heat was annoying me. – Those friends/runners I overtake later, they started overtaking me. – I finished the race in 03:43:39. Its a pretty embarassing finish time for me. I set my

Titanium Runner to Me:  Sam see you on Sunday ah! Me: hhmmm…ano meron sa Sunday? Titanium Runner: 500 Smile Run! Me: aahhhhh  If it was not for Blas reminding me of this race, I would have slept over it. I was originally given a 10km race kit for this one but later on shifted to 16km, with the aim of  nailing a PR on this category as its been a while I ran a 16km race, heck I can’t even remember what was the last 16km race I joined. I’m not really a PR conscious guy, I just want to check if I’m improving or my running is starting to suck. With a relatively flat route and rainy morning that day, a sub 1h:30m finish should be achievable. So I met Beep Beep of Team Reebok to get my 16km and off we started the race around 5:45am. It was a late start,  the race should have started around 5am but due to a vehicular accident in Buendia flyover, we were told it need to start later to clear the area. We heard the announcer doing the usual count-down, and as the race finally started I ran slowly to make sure my form/stride is ok. I saw Beep Beep blazing off in the earlier part of the race and my plan was to catch up with him. Slowly I warmed up after 2 kilometers and with the 5:30ish pace, I started  to