When I look at role models whom I could ask for advice, I would often go real life runners that are a bit faster than me, whose times I could someday hope to achieve too, if I train well. Elites (locals and Kenyans) - they're great models too but way out of my league. My real-life role models are actually some of my teammates who are my best friends. Please read and enjoy, I hope they become your jogging idols too!
Chris Iblan (Elite Jogger)- is the #1 fastest runner in our Team Power Puff Boys. He's young, talented, motivated, and very methodical in his training methods. He's single but sorry girls, his priority right now is running - you'll need to run really fast to chase him. His 17'44" 5K PR is jogger elite level and he's still working hard to get it to 15minutes(National Class Elite Jogger). He's been running 4 or 5 years now, but he still have clear plans and goals for the next 4years of his running career. His advice to me was to perform 200meter repeats - this is how to achieve high top end speed. Once the body adapts to this, the discomfort of running 5K's would be tolerable. My #1 idol, I wanna be like him. For me, it's a compliment to hear people say I look like his twin brother - a slower twin brother but OK :-)
idol Chris Iblan is faster than that Audi car
AJ Bergonio (Amazing Jogger) - is a newcomer to our team, but I think he's one of the most talented and most motivated. He's still 20years old, he still has a lot of miles to run, but he's already very fast with a 5K PR of 18'50". His body is the stereotypical elite runner. He reminds me of a greyhound race dog. Thin, gaunt, lean, muscular, huge lungs, and very fast! I see him as Team Power Puff Boy's hope to qualify in the 2016 RIO Olympics (no, not Coach Rio's).
AJ's training method. Man, look at his awesome stride!
Joey Odhuno (Jogger Joey) - Joey is a Filipino who looks like a Kenyan Jogger (Shhh... that's what we tell our race organizers). Humble, Kind and soft spoken person, he knows how to speak Kenyan. He know how to crack jokes too, and he's one of the pioneers of "jogging" in our team. He's very methodical in his training, and has a built-in pace monitoring GPS inside his brain. Sometimes I even calibrate my Garmin with Joe's GPS. His training secret? The runnersworld.com's smart coach! He's my idol for the 10K race because he used to be a slower 42+minute 10K jogger, and then trained well for months and accomplished a sub 42minute 10K. Check his blog here http://teampowerpuffboys.com/2011/08/21/my-rununited2-sub-42min10k-race/. What's impressive is his continuous improvement and eventually he accomplished the coveted sub40minute 10K in the Milo Finals, finishing 39'55". Told ya he's really accurate with his pace. He's still drafting his 10K blog entry, I will give more updates on him later.
My next big marathon in mind is either Camsur Marathon or Sydney Marathon on September. Both of them are AIMS certified, which can be used for qualifying for the Boston Marathon.
My sister Genevieve, who’s now in Australia, is encouraging me to run in the Sydney Marathon. She’s also inviting her College friend Kat Kat, a very motivated runner from Kabankalan and she wants me to train her for the half-marathon, which I think she’ll debut in a decent time.
Genevieve, Me, and Katkat, struggling up McKinley hill. Thanks to LeStSkY Photography
I’m thinking the climate there would be much cooler than what we have here in the Philippines, during that time it would probably be spring there and the temperature would range from 10’C to 18’C, perfect for the marathon. In comparison, our temperature here in Manila would be 27’C to 32’C on September at the Camsur Marathon. In my experience, running in Belgium at 13’C temperature shaved 5minutes off my 21Km PR. We could expect around 10minutes faster times for the marathon. Following the trend-line I’ve made in my previous post, I should be around 3:23 by September (assuming my training goes well for the next few months), and running in Australia should improve that to 3:13 - still 8minutes slower than Boston. Another sure way to get faster is to lose more weight – lose 8pounds and I should finish at 3:03. There, now I’m qualified! No I’m just kidding, improvements do not sum up easily like that, and at 135pounds, I find it extremely difficult to lose more weight. 3:13 can be a realistic goal in Australia though, but it looks like those bridges could be quite some hill challenge. I obviously need to add hill training to my program.
I’m planning to follow an 18-week Marathon Training program that should start on May 7th. But what should I do 3 months leading to that? Well right now I’m still on a 5-week post marathon recovery program, where from almost zero mileage, I would gradually increase my mileage to 41miles/week in the end – @Feb12. Then, I could either do a base mileage build-up, or train and race for shorter distances. Let’s see…
Lydiard High Mileage?
At first, I thought of doing the classic Lydiard High Mileage Training, and that 100mile/week (160kms/week) is alluringly challenging. I have often fantasized on training this much, what I could often hear elites could only achieve, and what kind of aerobic benefits I could get out of these perplexingly long distances the human body could cover in short periods of time. “Breakthroughs” in racing times, I would often hear, would result in these mammoth kinds of workouts when 100miles/week were consistently applied for several months or even years.
Arthur Lydiard
I was already contemplating of doing this until yesterday; my father approached me and showed me a paragraph in Timothy Noakes’ book “Lore of Running”. Noakes said that after 125Kms/week (77miles/week) of regular training programs, they found little or no benefit in increasing training workload. In fact, he said that he and some of his colleagues found that when they have increased their weekly mileage too much, there is a point where they noticed they aren’t creative or productive in their day jobs anymore. Running too much stresses them that there are hormonal imbalances that distorts their way of thinking, their mind, therefore affecting their jobs, not meeting deadlines, and even affecting their family relationships. Wow thank goodness I have a dad who is wiser than me, who knows how to hold me back when he thinks I’m going overboard with my running. I would like to see how much I could push myself in running, right now I don’t have much responsibility – I’m single, no kids, middle aged man (Oh man, I’m such a loser aren’t I?) and my job right now has a great schedule to allow me a lot of free time in the morning even if I wanted to run 100miles/week. However, reading Noakes’ book (sounded like notebook, doesn’t it), I would never want running to affect my mind, or my brain, at least in a negative way. I may become an amazingly fast runner, but if this alters my behavior in a bad way, it changes who I am, my soul. Now it would sound like I’m selling my soul to the devil. It’s simply not worth it.
Train and race shorter distances first
To run under 3:05 in the marathon requires that I run in an average of 7:03/mile. To be honest, this is exhausting pace for me. I’m probably at the limits of my lactate threshold at that pace. Gee, that sounds redundant. I cannot imagine being able to sustain that for 26.22miles(42.195kms). Heck, why do we need to have both metric and imperial units? My top end speed is not much faster than this. Therefore, I believe I badly need to improve my speed and lactate threshold if I dream of running that fast in the marathon. Because of this, it may be a good idea to train and race for 5K and 10K for the meantime, prior to the 18week marathon plan. A well balanced runner should be a able to handle speedy 5K’s up to the long endurance marathons. I believe training in one end can benefit the other in some ways especially if we aren’t specializing yet.
Honestly, I feel that the 5K is my weakness, the improvements year after year here seems to be a lot smaller. But racing in this distance, the intensity of running faster than 6:20/mile(3:56/km) - gasping for air, longer strides, faster leg turn-around, arms pumping hard - it is here that I feel I’m truly running. My 5K and 10K personal records last year were 19’40” and 42’xx”. Improving that further, I may even get some place in the podium if I race in a not-so-competitive field. I'm now being challenged to do a sub40minute 10K. By myself. But assessing my current race times, a sub40 is going to be difficult for me for now. Hopefully with good training I should be able to do it 4 to 5months from now.
The Marathon. Oh wow what a race. When I started running 4years ago, I had no idea what it would be like to run a marathon. Media often glamorizes the event a lot, and even runners talk a lot about it. Unlike most shorter races from the 5K to 21K, the marathon does indeed have a lot of discipline and science behind it, and takes years to master. I have to say I still haven't mastered it. Normally if you raced a 5K, you could immediately predict your 10K, 16K, and 21K times quite accurately. Not for the marathon. For some reasons, if you (like me) haven't mastered it yet, your actual Marathon Race times will be significantly slower than your predictions. For the past 3years, I've had my own ups and downs on this race distance.
My Dreams
I dream of Qualifying The Boston Marathon someday, hopefully at its fastest Qualifying time of 3:05, which is for the age range of 18 to 34years old. I will be 35years old on July 2, 2014 - I need to run 3:05 or better before this date. It will be the most difficult qualifying situation for the Boston, because I will at the oldest of this range, yet the fastest qualifying time. Some would wait till they get older, but I am challenged to stay young - or at least run like a young runner. So can I do it? If not, my next dream is to simply run under 3hours someday - no time pressure here, possibly aging and genetic limits could be my obstacles.
Boston 2013 Qualifying Times (effective September 24, 2011)
Age Group
Men
Women
18-34
3hrs 05min 00sec
3hrs 35min 00sec
35-39
3hrs 10min 00sec
3hrs 40min 00sec
40-44
3hrs 15min 00sec
3hrs 45min 00sec
45-49
3hrs 25min 00sec
3hrs 55min 00sec
50-54
3hrs 30min 00sec
4hrs 00min 00sec
55-59
3hrs 40min 00sec
4hrs 10min 00sec
60-64
3hrs 55min 00sec
4hrs 25min 00sec
65-69
4hrs 10min 00sec
4hrs 40min 00sec
70-74
4hrs 25min 00sec
4hrs 55min 00sec
75-79
4hrs 40min 00sec
5hrs 10min 00sec
80 and over
4hrs 55min 00sec
5hrs 25min 00sec
Unlike previous years, an additional 59 seconds will NOT be accepted for each age group time standard.
2007 to 2009 - Sub4hours target. Success.
When I first trained for the marathon, I aimed for a Sub-4hour debut marathon, it was hard, but I was proud to have accomplished it. I trained well for it, read a lot of training materials, books, blogs, and listened to a lot of advice from fellow runners. My real-life marathon idols were Rolan Vener and Jay Nacino. At the time, they were both significantly stronger and faster than me and were well below the 4hour marathon. I targeted the 4hour marathon because at the time, it was Milo's Qualifying time. To finish under 4hours, my average pace needed to be 9minutes/mile (5:35/km). I trained by running several 20milers at 9minutes/mile. I felt fine. Strangely, I would hit the wall (glycogen depletion) after 20miles during the race, felt severely fatigued and depressed while running due to low blood sugar, but seeing the finish line with the timer at under 4hours, I sprinted to a 3:57 finish. Immediately after the race, I was in pain, and it even got worse the next day. I walked like a toddler for 2 weeks. After a month, I discovered that the marathon injured me and got the dreaded ITBS (Iliotibial Band Syndrome) on my left leg, and couldn't train heavily for the Milo Finals even though I qualified. I couldn't run like a marathoner for 6months.
Marathon Marathon Elims 2009
2010 Milo Marathon Elims - Humbled
My ITBS injury eventually healed and I was able to run a 21K Condura Marathon 2010 in 1:45. I trained well for the succeeding months, at times trained 20miles at 8mins/mile pace, and my 5K and 10K race times gave me a 3:30 predictions so I got cocky and aimed for a 3:30 in the Milo Elims. Like I said, marathon is strangely cruel, that I hit the wall again, walked a lot, and so I couldn't even finish below 3:45 for the new Milo Qualifying Time. I was humbled and finished at 3:49.
The Marathon Wall humbled me and I was forced to walk.
2011 - Condura Skyway Marathon - OK lang
I wanted to redeem myself by running a 3:30 in the Condura Skyway Marathon. I got tips from a 50year old Raffy Castandeda, a Boston Marathoner with a low 3:30ish PR. He said he noticed that in my blogs, I was training too fast in my long runs. At 5mins/mile pace of long runs, I was basically racing my 20milers, too fast or my own running level. It was like I have already peaked, then ran a race, so I was too tired during the actual Marathon Race. He suggested, that for a 3:30 target, my long runs should only be 9mins/mile pace or a little bit slower. This would allow me to have fresh legs prior to the race. I did follow him a bit, but 9mins/mile felt too slow, so I did 8:30/mile pace in my long runs. During the Condura race, I ran with my Team Power Puff Boys Teammates, one of them Nick, told me we should target 3:20. I said wow, ok. I said to myself if he could do it, I could do it too! So when the gun started, Nick ran too fast, probably at 6mins/mile pace like a rabbit. I was running too fast too, like 7:20/mile pace. Eventually at only 10Kms, I got tired and the Skyway long hills punished me. I got slower and slower but I still caught Nick, he too slowed a lot. At 20miles, I hit the wall again, forget the 3:20 target. Forget the 3:30 target. I just needed to hang on. I remember in 2010Milo Marathon where I walked a lot in the closing miles, this has really slowed down my average pace, so I decided to jog the remaining 10Kms. Jogging is faster than running, I said to myself. I willed myself to finish 3:39, still a new PR. I wasn't impressed with my performance, a little disappointed, but OK.
OK lang ;-)
2012 Cebu Marathon
2.5years after my first marathon, I have finally run under 3:30 in Cebu. Wow, that took a long time, I thought I would improve sooner than that. If history repeats itself, and it does, it will take another 2.5 years for me to break the 3hour marathon. But normally the progress even gets harder as you improve.
Plotting my marathon times and predicting my future performance
In order to get a realistic view of my Marathon Future, I've plotted my times (in blue) and its trend line (in red). Hoping I'm still on my way for a sub3:05 before I turn 35years old.
Add caption
If the graph is correct, it looks like I'm on track for a 3:04 marathon on May 2014, I'll still be 34years old. I could probably even break the 3hour marathon on September 2014, but that would make me 35years old, but there's no time pressure here. I'll be updating this graph every time I run my next marathon races. This is probably what is going to happen if I simply continue my training for the next couple of years. Or should I?
Running to the Limits
Early this week I watched a documentary film about running a marathon, entitled "Running to the Limits", about an ordinary fat British filmmaker Alex Vero with an ambitious goal of qualifying the 2012 Olympic Marathon. This meant that within 2years years he had to train from a Run/Walker to a sub2:20 marathoner. That is elite world class level, the qualifying time for the Olympic marathon. He trained real hard, reaching over 100miles/week(160kms/week) and had good coaches to train him, and eventually he was able to run a 1:13 half-marathon, and a 2:58 full marathon. He had a heat stroke in that marathon, and the succeeding attempts were futile as he was faced with a lot of serious running injuries. Watching the film got me fired-up and motivated that my easy recovery run in the morning turned into a tempo run, even if I was still on my 2nd week of marathon recovery.
Alex Vero - Running to the Limits
There were little information about his physical/athletic background, so it's hard to compare, but his achievements impressed me a lot. At the beginning of the film, the doctors tested him and told him his realistic marathon time for his genetic potential was 2:40 to 2:30. At the end of the film, they said he could well do 2:20. Unfortunately he had a serious Achilles heel injury that he couldn't test his limits at the end.
Conclusion
Historical data does predict I can someday qualify the Boston Marathon in its fastest most difficult age group and at my oldest before I reach 35. Should I relax and let it be? Or should I like Alex Vero strive harder and harder to my physical limits and see how good I could really be? It's really tempting. What I do know is the risk of injury gets higher as I train harder. But I've faced a lot of injuries in the past and never repeated any of them. In fact, I think I encountered all running injuries already. My body's probably more mature now, and I am stronger to face the next hard challenges ahead. On the other hand, one thing I've learned in the Cebu Marathon race is that patience pays a lot. Time will tell.
My plan to go to Cebu and run the Marathon there goes way back to July of 2011, I think... It was Rolando, my Marathoner friend from Ireland (ilonggo descent) told me he'll be visiting the Philippines and run the Cebu Marathon along with his friend Jonas. Rolando and I became friends in dailymile.com, and met in Belgium last 2010 and we even visited Amsterdam.
Window Shopping in Amsterdam (Rolando, JoggerNatz, with my officemates Rose, Ebet, and Agot)
A Dutch girl wrote this on my body. Whew!
We had a fun night (crazy was more like it) in Amsterdam. The next day, He and his wife Mercy went to Brussels to do a lot of sight seeing. I think Rolando enjoyed a lot of Belgian beers there too. Unfortunately I had to go back to work and we weren't able to run together there. So our real run together would be in the Cebu Marathon.
Good thing we have another friend in Dailymile who lives in Cebu, who registered me in the Marathon. Her name is Coleen, and it looks like she's quite popular in dailymile! I thought she was an ordinary runner, but later when she told me her PR's in 5K and 10K, I was surprised how fast she could run. She was about as fast as I was 2years ago: xx-minutes 5K and xx-minutes 10K, I think. Waaah! Coleen told me to hide her PR's, but I guarantee you, she's fast! I guess in running, your PR can make you popular, and in Coleen's case, her looks as well. She has been running Ultras as well, placed 3rd on a 60K trail run in Cebu.
Coleen winning the 60k ULTRAmarathon
I was glad the Marathon's schedule was in January, one of the coolest months of the year here in the Philippines. I remember also asking Coleen if the course was flat, and I remember she said it's relatively flat. She now denies this and I would suffer not training hills later on. When we did finally meet, she told me the last 10K was uphill. I realized SH!T!
Gameplan:
For the race, I estimated a possible finishing time of 3:25, or maybe 3:20 if I'm lucky. Unfortunately Rolando told me he just came from an Achille's heel injury and is under-trained. He and his friend Jonas' who is also a Filipino-Irish, only had a longest run of 10miles prior to the race. So I told them we could run the first 10Kms at 8minutes/mile then see later on how we would feel. He told me we should run 7:50/mile pace. That sounds like a 3:25 finish. Personally, I'll be happy to just finish under 3:30. Why? My marathon race times were 3:57(2009), 3:48(2010), and 3:39(2011). Each year I improve by exactly 9minutes. Strange but true. I was hoping for a better time, but I was seeing a much likely 3:30. Also, i had a dry cough that has been bugging me for the last 2weeks that I hoped would disappear, but was still there. If the cough would make me feel weak, then I'll relax the pace and not hope for a new PR.
Carboloading:
Days before the marathon, I read an article that carboloading is best done for the last 2 days leading to the race, with 90% of the calories coming from carbohydrates, and I need to eat 1,000calories more on top of my 2,000calories daily requirement. So that means eating 3,000calories/day. That sounded easy but it isn't, especially if you're no longer hungry. 2nights before, I ate a huge bowl of Spaghetti Bolognese in a fine 5-star Hotel restaurant. Then night before the Marathon, I just ate 2 servings of spaghetti in Jolibee.
Carbo-Gels:
I remember only bringing and eating 3 to 4gels during my last 3 marathons. I always hit the wall the last 10K. I remember Lance Armstrong eating 16gels in his marathon races, but I thought he's nuts (Yeah I know he's a sub3hour marathoner). I asked Rolando and Jonas how much gels they ate, they said 8 or 10, and they never hit the wall. So that must be it! This time, I brought 6gels into the race. 4 gels into my racing shorts, and 2gels I just carried with my hands. Rolando gave me 2gels that looked bigger than normal, and I bought 4more gels in RUNNR store in Ayala. Thank goodness they have RUNNR store in Cebu!
Rest before the Race:
I declined Rolando's invitation to have a couple of beers before going to sleep, and I guess this was a bad move. I couldn't sleep the night before the race, and I badly needed the rest to help with me my cough. Sadly this wasn't the case, and when I did finally sleep a couple of hours, Rolando texted me at 1AM when I set my alarm at 2AM! Darn it, then I couldn't sleep anymore so I prepared and took a cab ride to his place.
Too excited to sleep
Pre-Race:
Rolando wasn't able to drink coffee in his hotel because they had no warm water in his room, and the restaurant was still closed. Good thing there was coffee in Jollibee near the race course, and we just had to walk there. I met KB runner on the way there, and he pulled me for a Photo with the Manila Based Runners:
Manila Runners in Cebu Marathon
Let's get it ON!
There was no problem getting to the starting line, Rolando and I was able to start near the line, so we had a good start. I was surprised by the fireworks there, they really looked great but too bad I had to concentrate on running or else I'll get tripped over or get bumped by other runners. Opening pace was a little slow, Rolando and I still had to weave through a lot of runners. We were running a little slower than 8mins/mile(5mins/km), yet people slower than us had the courage (or maybe plain yabang) to start in front. The first 10kms were indeed downhill, so this had me worried so I told myself to be conservative and stick to the plan. Good thing my cough was further reduced when I run, but they would occasionally itch and then I would have to cough. Rolando would stick by me but he wouldn't run exactly by me. He was a little behind me. First I thought he was struggling.... Then I heard noises... fart noises! Looks like Rolando had problems with his tummy and had audible farts along the way. His pace seems to increase with each farting noise, so the gasses must've propelled him a bit. A smaller runner ran with us, his name was R.A., we chatted for a while, he said his last marathon was 4hours, and he was hoping to run 3:45 or better. He was going to stick with us for us long as he can.
Rolando, JoggerNatz, and R.A.
Midrace:
After 10kms or 6miles, we went inside a long tunnel. Garmin couldn't get anymore signals, and Rolando's Garmin just gave a big error it wouldn't operate anymore. Then running up the tunnel, going outside was then mostly flat. Our pace then got faster and faster, and we were averaging 7:49/mile all the way! Looks like a 3:25 finish according to Rolando. Unfortunately after 10miles, Rolando had to back-out. I thought he burned-out... Then along the way, we saw the elite coming their way back really fast. They were all KENYANS!!! I just have to admire their fluid running form. For me, looking at the Kenyans run is like looking at a Ferrari Car speeding down the highway. I drool at them. I wanna be a Kenyan elite runner and own a Ferrari Sports Car. Why can't I have both? At the U-turn-around point, it wasn't 21Kms in my Garmin yet, but I thought perhaps the tunnel messed up my Garmin calculations and it would be indeed 21K. If so, the time was 1:35, and we were heading for a 3:10 finish, which was just too fast! I asked the marshals, what Kilometer we were and they didn't know! Damn... :-(
Top 9 runners were all Kenyans!!! Awesome sight. For me, it felt like looking at 9 Ferrari Cars racing each other.
Few Kilometers after the turnaround point, we saw Rolando. He said he took a poo-poo break on the sidewalk's grassy area. Eeeew... so that's why... I wanted to gave him a high-five but had to canceled it. At 15miles, A.R. had to say goodbye to me, and another runner, an American with the name John, I think, ran beside me. He was a 40year old Boston Marathoner with a PR of 3:10. He was running strong with a Galloway style of RUN-WALK. His RUN part is really fast! Unfortunately our cool January weather was too warm for him and he had to slow down while I maintained a 7:49/mile pace. I got face to face with the slower runners still on their way to the U-Turn. I got a few cheers most likely because of my Team Power Puff Singlet. Then there was this point where I was alone, no runner in sight was in front of me and no runner was behind me. I was alone, lonely, but I was smokin fast! I increased the pace till I averaged 7:47/mile. Whoa!
Fast Alone.... at this point my average pace was 7:47/mile.
At some point I had to go back to the bridge and meet the 21K runners at their turn-around point. I decided to go to the other lane where they didn't run, so I could run uninterrupted :-). When I saw the 32K point mark, my Garmin said it was just 18miles or 30Kms!!! Shit, i must be heading for a 3:10 marathon! I must slow down a bit or risk burn-out, but I felt strong... 10minutes or so later, I went inside the tunnel again. And guess what, it's the 30Km marker!!! The organizers must have accidentally swapped the 30Km with the 32Km mark!!! Worst joke for all Marathoners! Everybody noticed it when I talked to anyone after the race! So I slowed down, and then Garmin told me it was 20miles. Still OK for 3:25 marathon finish. Damn markers. Then there was the missing 2kms. The race marshals told us to go right while the 21k runners could go straight ahead. We had to run a long 1kms straight that seems to go nowhere. After the turnaround point, we had to go back and resume the straight path of the 21Km runners. Somewhere in the middle, I saw Rolando again, and he was running strong! He was gaining on me.
20miles+.... Start of Cramps!
After I went uphill to go out of the tunnel, my worst nightmare came true. I had Quadricep Cramps! On both freakin' left and right legs! I panicked, so I started walking. This is the only time I walked. I never stopped or walk the whole 20miles(32Km). What was worse was that walking didn't stop the cramps. They would come on and off.
Ouch! Cramps Cramps Cramps!
The good news is, I didn't feel tired or fatigue at all, I had lots of energy - meaning, I haven't hit the wall yet. Thank goodness for proper Carboloading. Thank goodness to 6gels! The only problem I had to solve were the cramps. My average pace (i added an average pace in my Garmin) started to slow down as I slow down with the Cramp. The Cramp started in the last uphill, just like what Coleen said, the last 10Kms were uphill. I realized I didn't do any hill training prior to the race. Somehow I didn't want to give up. If I slow down, I wanted at least a 3:30 finish. I wanted it so badly I looked for ways to reduce my cramps. I started running backwards, it helped but it was too dangerous. Then... I noticed that when I increase my stride length, my knees would always remain bent, and my Quads wouldn't fully contract - they remain partially stretched, thus removing events of cramps. So I ran, but increasing the stride length made me run faster than normal, even reaching 7:40/mile uphill, and this was more tiring. What gave me the courage to continue was that whenever I momentarily reached a flat road, the cramp would disappear and I could resume a 7:49/mile pace and not feel tired. I felt strong.
Last 2miles and finish
I remember the last 2miles were steeper uphill again, and I would cramp so hard it was discouraging. Then I felt fatigued. But it wasn't the wall. Then the jogger in me took over. Jogged at 10mins/mile pace. At the last mile, I figured 3:30 finish was still possible and so that gave me strength to run stronger and I did. At the last 400meters, I increased the pace further, and when I finally saw the finish line, I sprinted my fastest pace possible. Oooohhh! a 3:29'21" finish! My official chip time was 3:28'08". MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. In the race result, I finished 19th among the 1,009 finishers. If you don't count the Elite Kenyans, I would've finished 10th among the Filipinos :-) I'm a Topnotcher, according to my sister :-)
New PR by 10minutes. Mission Accomplished.
First Aid
Right after I crossed the finish line, my Quads started to cramp again, and I walked like a limping monkey. The medics saw that and rushed to take care of me. They iced my quads, took my blood pressure and gave me fluids. They treated me like a baby. It wasn't necessary, but I appreciated it.
Post Race Analysis
This is obviously my best marathon yet. Improved by 10minutes since last year. I could therefore expect to finish 3:20 next year. Still far from my Boston Qualifying Dream. At least I've learned a lot. I think I've finally conquered the dreaded wall by eating lots of Carbs. The room for improvement for me now is adding Hill Training. I hated hill training, but it's a must, and I realize it now. What I'm really proud of was how I learned how I could overcome my own fear, remain calm, and challenge myself in the midst of crisis. For me, this gave me great confidence in believing in myself. Hopefully this great lesson would help me in real life whenever I face harder personal crisis in the future. I had tough personal moments for the past year, I had to struggle with grief a lot, but this was a great high for me. Like Emil Zapotek once said, "If you want to race, run a mile. If you want to experience life, run a marathon."
Rolando's Tummy Struggle
Rolando had tummy problems during the race. He told me he had to do 2 pit stops along the race course. We chatted a bit, and figured out it was because he didn't drink coffee before going to the toilet early in the morning.
Rolando obviously didn't want to be like the dude who shits his pants in the Marathon.
Rolando still managed to finish an awesome time of 3:35, just a little slower than his PR of 3:24!
Normally coffee acts as a mild laxative, so I drink coffee right after I wake up. Then I go to the toilet and my bowel movement feels smoother. Unfortunately Rolando missed this opportunity and drank coffee in a restaurant minutes before the race. His intestines would then do its business while he was running the race, and therefore had to stop a lot. Good thing he still ran strong and was only 6minutes behind me, a 3:35! Too bad we couldn't finish together but maybe next time.
Every Marathon Finisher is a Winner against Himself, Time, Cramps, Accidents, and even SHIT!!!
Jonas' Cramps
We waited for Jonas, he finished at 4:33. One of his slowest times because he had a lot of cramps too. But his reason was under-training. But to think of it, 4:33 is pretty fast, but for Jonas is is quite slow because his PR is 3:40ish.
Jonas suffered a lot from Cramps too.
Coleen's accident
Coleen was aiming for a 4:30 marathon, however early in the race we had to go to a road with very poor lighting. I had no problem seeing the potholes, I have great 20/20 vision. Coleen, however, forgot to wear her contact lens she stumbled into one of these potholes and got a bloody right knee. That affected her momentum a lot and had to relax and settle for a 5hour+ finish.
Coleen suffered a nasty right knee scratch and had to settle for a 5:26 marathon finish
Post Marathon Fun Fun Fun!
After the race I ate a huge Big Mac at Jollibee to get protein for faster muscle recovery, and went to my hotel for a 2hour nap. I felt like I needed to sleep the rest of the day, but it was my last day in Cebu. The day before, I had to fully rest too so I haven't seen a lot of Cebu. Rolando and Jonas invited me to join their family for a trip to the mountain TOPS to see the whole view of Cebu. It was magnificent. We saw our race course, and had to admire how far we ran :-)
At TOPS, we are experiencing Marathoner's Running High, literally!
Hanging out with Rolando and Jonas' Irish-Filipino Family
Marathon makes grown men act like Karate Kids in the Chinese Temple. I think we're turning Japanese, I'd like to think so.
At night we went to Rolando's friend Jonas' wife's friend who owns a Bar and Restaurant with live band. It was great that Coleen still had the time and energy to join us. We celebrated by doing a "recovery dance". Jonas and I had problems dancing, we suffered from cramps, Coleen seems OK but she seems to be hurt with the scrapes on her knee. Rolando, on the other hand, was the life of the party, and showed us how to dance moves like Jagger.
Marathon runners never get tired of Partying, do they?
