The CR incident made me think what went wrong as I don’t want this to ever happen again, much less on a marathon race! I have theories why I have to poop during the marathon race:

• I religiously do my poop session every morning when I wake up. This is not a conscious effort but rather my body just got used to it. I wonder if my brain “remembered” this task and forced my body to execute the act.
• Banana. A week before the race day, I’ve been stuffing myself with at least 2 bananas a day (because 711 offers free cappuccino coffee when you buy 2 bananas ) and at least one banana every morning (as detailed from previous post). It was only now I realized after doing some research in the Internet that eating bananas can increase bowel movements. Very nice.
• Hammer Gel. As it was my first time to try this product on the race day itself, I suspect that it might not be compatible with me. Although I did some research and I can’t seem to find any link, maybe trying another brand (GU) will work.

I’m sure most runners have similar experience and I guess this is one for the book! Now I have my own share of my “crap” runner story to tell.

While traversing the 5th avenue, I find it very difficult to continue my momentum. With an empty stomach, I thought of consuming again another hammer but was too afraid I might again poop. I continued my run and noticed that my heart rate dropped to 145-150 (from a race mode of 155-165) and this made me realized I’m running to slow. Somewhere along Lawton Avenue , one of takbo.ph biker support guys, RJ showed up paced with me. Alas muscle cramps would start to creep on both my legs and I have to stop while RJ helps me stretch my feet. I’m really glad RJ was there with me (man if you’re reading this thanks a lot!) during this moment. After a brief stretching session with RJ, I continued my pace and a nice babe offered me her Gatorade. I said I’m OK and soon enough, I was running faster until I realized that I already left RJ from our usual pace and off I ran alone again.

Somewhere along this road I saw PG guys giving Gatorade and another one spraying Salonpas to their runners. As a true blue Boy Scout, I have my own Salonpas but not the “spray” type. It was just a plastic bottle with a small hole on it. I tried applying it on both knees (as this was where the pain in my legs seemed to concentrate) while using both HANDS to evenly distribute it while at the same time applying some compression. It was such a relief feeling the immediate effect of this product….UNTIL I had to wipe perspiration off my face and guess what…some small amounts of Salonpas liquid find its way to my eyes. I blurted out expletives (Tagalog, English and Bisaya) not worthy of blogging here blaming my stupidity. At this point I was thinking of pouring all the contents (Gatorade red) of my hydration bottles but realized its got some amount of sodium it might just dry my eyes and made the condition worst. But honestly, it still amazed me up to this day how I was able to process that there’s sodium content in Gatorade while forgetting there’s a great deal of Salonpas liquid on my hands that I had just used to wipe my face. It was already raining at this point but not enough to help get rid of Salonpas liquid off my eyes. I prayed the most sincere prayer of my life asking the Lord for forgiveness but begging to send a signal 3 storm on that road targeting just my face. Help came in a few seconds and a nice lady gave me her surprisingly cold mineral water after seeing my face. I consumed ALL of it, slowly washing both eyes and just when I was about to say thanks to the lady, she’s gone. G.O.N.E. I don’t want to concentrate too much on this incident but this made me realize that God is indeed so good to me.

The road going down to Bayani road was the place where I felt so hungry. I courageously tried another hammer and 10 minutes later, I was looking for another toilet to release. Oh no not again! As I couldn’t find any public rest rooms in this road (nor I’m aware if there are any public toilets in this road), I have to thicken my face (is this how you translate to English “kapalan ang mukha?” hahahaha!) and asked one of the bystander if I could get inside her house to do my crap duty. She did allow me to use her C.R and while inside, I could hear her and her kids laughing in the background. After my poop session, I also vomited a huge amount of liquids. I got out after 8 minutes and felt very weak. I continued my slow run and reached a Gatorade station along the road serving the sweetest and what I though like concentrated version of Lemon flavored Gatorade. I was really disturbed of the taste and so I asked for water instead. I met Rico, Migz and Biker RJ along the way. They were already on their way up while I was still on my way to reach the end of Heritage road. Several minutes later I was already at the end of heritage road and I stayed there for 7 minutes applying crushed ice I asked from Milo guys. I looked at my watch and realized that with the CR breaks, various stops and walks I just did, there’s no way I can achieve the 5 hour cut-off time. I already submitted to my fate, I was so down I was already wishing a Milo sweeper vehicle to appear somewhere to “sweep” me away from the road. My aim for this race is 4:59 or 5:00, not 5:01 or above. I was so disappointed I thought of just finishing the race, without so much effort on improving my time anymore.

On my way up back to Lawton Avenue , I saw Doc Roy and gave him my crushed ice in plastic. Seeing Doc Roy was good, he seemed to enjoy the race as he was all smiles when he saw me. I especially love his attire with his green hat matching the Milo green logo I thought he could give Zorro a run for his money. I ran slower and walk my way up with the intention of Doc Roy catching up with me so we can run and finish the race together. Soon enough Doc Roy and I were together and as we traverse Lawton road, support biker Julius and RJ (or was it Ronald) gave us Pocari Sweat and Banana which doc and I shared together. We were talking as we ran/walked the route and we both resigned to our fate that we cannot finish within the 5 hour cut-off time. As we reached the Fort, Carmen and RJ would paced with us as we ran/walk all the way to the Kalayaan Flyover. Soon enough Aries would be running from behind and overtook both of us. My competitive self wants to run now but thought leaving Doc Roy was a major sin. The road from Ayala all the way to Buendia was a test of our character.

Roy asked me how I felt and I told him that I’m disappointed. To be honest, I thought of myself as a source of discouragement to Doc Roy than encouragement as I kept on saying all possibilities that might happen that day. I asked him what was the sense of finishing the race if Milo already dismantled the Finish Line structure, we would be running like idiots with no structures around hahahaha. I opened up the idea of calling one of our takbo.ph guys to get us out of the mess via their car instead of having Milo sweeper vehicles picked us and then send us back to Finish line. Biker Carmen and RJ were both with us and I’m really grateful they didn’t left us because if they did, I might lose hope. RJ was especially encouraging when he told us that one of our 21k runners even if he wasn’t able to finish cut-off time, he was still allowed to pass through the finish line. Just when I was already considering having somebody to pick us up and submit to our fate that this race would be my first DNF in my running career, I began to think of all the hardships I’ve gone through. I did a quick glance of my life and realized that there were many sections in my life where a “mini” setbacks would crashed me down entirely. I realized that I have total control of my situations, and that allowing life’s wind to just course me through is not right. I told myself this needs to stop. And so together with Doc Roy and biker friends Carmen and RJ, we did a couple of run/walks until we reached Roxas Boulevard . Finishing the race now was my priority and my job now is to make sure Doc Roy will not be alone running the race. Rod and Ronald would soon join us along the way. Ronald was especially helpful for the jokes he would dished every 3 minutes and was especially very encouraging in helping us bypass each P&G runners along the way. The road to finish line was long but upon seeing takbo.ph guys celebrating like as if we were podium finishers I thought of sprinting all the way to the finish line. But no, I decided that I will cross and finish the race with Doc Roy.

Congratulations from fellow takbo.ph peeps followed after we crossed the line. Fewer minutes later, I silently sneaked out of the scene and went to one corner where I placed the white towel Patt gave us earlier…and cried. I cried because I’m so disappointed of my performance, but was happy too because I finish my very first marathon. And as I was typing these sentences, tears are flowing now as I rekindle the moment that helped me realized my weakness, strengths, character and resolve to finish a race.

Although I finished it beyond my target expectation, I’m happy to say the following sentence:

I AM SAM, I AM THE RUNNING NINJA and I FINISHED THE MARATHON WITH MY CHARACTER AND INTEGRITY INTACT.

Milo, we shall meet again in the future…..

Hahahaha this is me trying to cover my face (embarassing finish or tears of joy hehehehe)

If you’re a follower of this blog, you know that I only started running February of this year and just joined my very first road race (Condura) the month after. My aim was really just to lose weight. That was then. After experiencing my very first road race and several races later, I realized how fun it is to run with other like-minder runners, improve my speed and simply exceed my own expectations. I’ve had my fair share of ups and downs during races and I made sure I listed them down in this blog to help other newbie runners. And now I’m ready to take the next plunge. Hopefully, my experience will also help other beginner runners dreaming of calling themselves a “marathoner” someday.

When I told people I’m joining marathon, I was met with skeptics and people who offer encouragement. Bakit nakakailang mileage kna ba every week?! You cannot avoid people who will belittle your abilities. In fact you can only treat them as a source of encouragement to push and believe in yourself. I consider this a battle because this will be a test of my physical endurance and determination. In fact I believe I’ve already won 50% of the battle, and that is the courage to join the race. The other 50% is if I make it within the cut-off time.

For my reader’s information, I’ve been working my butt on my trainings (10-15km on Mon-Wed-Fri with 30km-35km long runs on Sundays). I must admit that I didn’t train for six months like what I’ve been reading from marathon related literatures. Where my short-training will carry me is the next big question. Personally, I do believe I can finish this race-but within the cut-off time of five hours, I don’t know. God willing, I will be able to do this and really hoping I’ll call myself a marathoner on that day.

Wish me luck!