Cebu City Marathon was a lot of firsts for me and it was definitely a big bouillabaisse of mixed emotions. It was my first race outside of Metro Manila and I really wanted to make it count.

I took a late flight to Cebu last Friday. It was bumpy as always because I really didn’t like any other form of transportation other than cars. I was so relieved to land a Mactan Airport and I was immediately greeted by my Tita who picked me up. I had a lot of fun hanging out with my cousins in Cebu last Saturday and it really helped me adjust to the atmosphere of the location.

My cousin drove me to South Road Properties or more commonly known as SRP. It was a long stretch of road that ran along the seaside. I could smell the sea breeze already and it was an excellent change from all the pollution that I suck in over at Manila. As much as I hate water, I love the beach as much so you could really imagine how awed I felt when my cousin toured my along the coastal road.

Saturday passed so quickly with me touring around churches, getting my race kit, and finally checking out part of the route I was going to run. I slept in at around 8 pm to be able to get up early the next morning for the run. 4 am was the call time and I was up at 3 already. I took a bath and dressed up. I was trying out a lot of new things in this run and for sure a lot of people would raise their eyebrows at me. Before I left I couldn’t find my hydration belt so I had to make an impromptu purchase of a hydration backpack since I wanted to try one out for the longest time. I just broke-in my new NB800 in my last race at the Rizal Day run and running it for another 42 kilometers with out fully testing it out was another eyebrow upper. These new things would probably haunt me in the race and they certainly did but more on that later.

I was out of the house by 3:15 and was at the venue by 3:20.

It was quite a relief running into the Takbo peeps and it really helped churn away that hurling feeling I always get when I join races. It was a long 30 minute wait for gun start but the long wait was somewhat eased with the company of the Takbo peeps.

As with any race, a countdown was always normalcy to psych up the runners. Countdown started as early as 60 seconds. It was funny hearing the announcer counting down from 60 all the way to 0. The countdown was doing its job well as I was slowly losing the hurling feeling and as it reached half of 60, fireworks began to shoot up to the sky. The early morning sky was riddled with colors and booms and that surely got me out of my rut. As the countdown reached a big ZERO, a big boom came along with it and that sent off the runners. It was my first marathon alone and I wanted to make it count.

At 4 am in the morning, I was expecting a cool breeze to help me through the race but it wasn’t there. Running through the city streets of Cebu felt humid and hot. It was a hard, hot and humid 7 kilometers out of Cebu City and into SRP. I wanted to get of the the city streets so bad because of the heat but I had to restrain myself because I didn’t want to run out of steam towards the end.

I felt so relieved to get into the coastal road. One of the biggest reasons why I joined this race was because of the the coastal route. I didn’t want to pass it up. I loved running along the coastal road. Smelling the fresh ocean breeze breathed back life into me. I tried to up my pace to a conservative 6:45. It was a long stretch of road to the end of SRP wich took us to kilometer 17.

That’s me at the half-way mark, roughly 2 hours and 30 minutes into the race.

It was a joy to see the sunrise along the seaside. Definitely loved it.

I exited SRP at kilometer 27 and a finish time of 5:30 was looking well into the horizon for me. I tried to maintain and keep the steady pace.

I got into a lot of trouble at around kilometer 30. I started to feel the weight of my hydration back pack coming down on my shoulders. 1.5 liters of gatorade can be really heavy after lugging it around for 3 hours. To make matters worse, I inadvertently took in a power gel too soon and with too little water. I felt like hurling because of what I ate. I could run anymore with the big weight on my shoulders and the sinking hurling feeling. I tried to a slow run and walk dance but I ended up walking a lot more than what I had expected.

That is me wasted at kilometer 32. Q was cheering me on and with what little strength I had left, I tried to run a little more. This was the final stretch. It was a run and walk mambo for me up until I saw the best motivational sign yet.

“When you legs are in pain, run with your heart.”

Amazingly, I was able to run again. That was around kilometer 34. With 8 kilometers to go, I was energized again. I was running again albeit a lot slower compared to how fast I started. I was happy to be back on track. I was happy to be running again. I was happy to be in the groove once more.

I continued my slow jog up until the 40th kilometer. I could already feel my legs giving up. I wanted to walk already but a part of me didn’t want me to. A part of me didn’t want to slow down. A part of me just wanted me to put one foot in front of the other. At around that time I saw Coach Mar walking to the finish. I joined him and we walked the second to the last kilometer. Even though I really didn’t want to walk towards the end, I couldn’t take the risk of injuring myself. The heat got the best of me while Coach Mar had 3 counts of cramps. There was no defeat in walking because we would be back to take revenge on the distance a month after at Condura.

We started running again at the last kilometer. We finished together.

We crossed the finish line together.

I loved the race.  I could say with utmost confidence that Cebu City Marathon will the race to compare all races for 2010. They certainly set the benchmark high.

See you all again next year.

I love my Mango Medal.

Thank you Takbo peeps for waiting for us!