December 30, 2009 was a day to remember. A day to celebrate and pay tribute to our national hero. A day to relax and enjoy the break. It was the day I ran 32 kilometers for the man responsible for half of my name.

As always, just with any race, I wake up early for it. I was a little worried if I was going to be able to do 32 kilometers with very little training. Before race day, I was put on the sidelines because of work and the holidays. A week before race day, I only ran 20 kilometers. I was doubtful if I had enough stamina and endurance to finish the race.

I got into this situation before where I would have log little to zero kilometers and then run a long race at the end of the week and it the outcomes were disastrous. I ran the Botak Paa-Tibayan 21k with little training and I collapsed at around kilometer 16 and walked the rest of if. I ran the 16 kilometers Octoberun after taking a two week hiatus and I walked more than half of it. After the race, people thought I was injured or something. Going into the 32 kilometer Rizal Day run with only 20 kilometers worth of mileage in a week was nerve-wracking. I didn’t want to repeat history. I didn’t want to mess up again.

I got to Camp Aguinaldo very early. It was still very dark and I couldn’t see any of my running friends. Surprisingly, we all managed to park beside each other, all four of us. It was a good long 30 minute chat with my running buddies. The chatting somehow eased my anxiousness.

The race started on time and the runners were off. I started slow and gradually went faster after the first 3 kilometers. The route was 4 laps of a 7.5 kilometer loop. It was a painstakingly hamster-ishly feel of run because of the repeated loops but it was all good.

Completed my first loop at about 45 minutes. Not a bad pace for me. It wasn’t too fast or too slow by my standards. I was able to maintain for another loop. By the third loop, I started to have to trouble. I started to feel hungry. Fueling myself with just two bananas isn’t really a good idea for a 32 kilometer run. It worked for 21k but with 32k, it was a different story. I started to slow down at the first water station. It was a good thing the station was serving food. I got a pack for pineapples and ate them along the way. It somehow slowed me down because I had to eat them with a fork. By the second water station, Team BZ caught up with me and I gladly joined them. If it weren’t for them, I would have slaked off and did a run-walk-run-walk affair for the rest of the run. There were 1 and a half loops more to go and I would have surely slacked off with out some guys to push me.

I was so glad to bump into BongZ, Ellen, and Joyce. If it weren’t for them, I would have really slacked off. I was gradually lowering my pace towards the end of the 3rd loop and if it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t have been able to maintain the 6:30 pace.

It was nice chatting with the team. We had some great laughs and stories to tell since Christmas had just ended.

Towards the end of the 4th loop, I was dead tired. Ellen sprinted the last 3k with a 5:30 paced and left us three behind. Joyce and I didn’t mind. It was an easy run for marathon training.

We made our way to the finish line and clocked in at around 3 hours 17 minutes. I was a decent finish. A very damn good decent finish.

Thanks a lot guys for pacing with me!

Looking back the the race, I couldn’t help but think if I could run the Cebu Marathon at this pace and finish with a sub5 time. I had a hard time completing the 32 kilometers last week and if it weren’t for Team BZ, I would have gotten a far worse time. I hope I could replicate the effort and strength I had in last week’s run for this Sunday’s Cebu Marathon. Wish me luck peeps!