A lot of you were asking how the night race turned out. I'm happy that some of you have shown interest in running and are actually looking forward to joining fun runs and marathons in the future. I am equally looking forward to seeing your own updates in the future. For now, here's mine.
I was excited last Friday to have my hands on these. I think my trusty Blackberry did justice to the color, after several shots. There's the baller and and glow stick (that doesn't glow much):
A more detailed look at the baller (cool huh?):
We arrived at the University of Sto. Tomas grounds at past 5pm on Sunday. The sky was clear with few stray clouds here and there. Looks like no rain which is what I was praying for. The runners were still roaming around, some taking pictures or going for last minute trips to the rest rooms. We took photos of course.
When the race was about to start at 6 pm, I could feel raindrops. I was unfazed, but as the drops turned into little sprinkles, I started to put away my music player and phone and stash them away inside my belt bag. Soon, the raindrops turned into a drizzle, and the drizzle to a full time rain. All of us took shelter wherever we can, and waited it out for a while. The rain got even stronger and we were already wondering if we'd run in the rain. I am resolved to run, rain or no rain. I just felt a slight pang of pity for my shoes hehehe. Finally, the rain stopped after about 20 minutes or so. There was an uproar of cheers as everyone started to take position at the starting line.
We heard the gunshot and everyone started moving. No running yet as we're crowded at the starting line. Soon the runners took to their own pacing and at last I could run. The first five minutes of the run, I was hopelessly untangling the headset of my music player. I finally straightened it out so I was able to enjoy my run even better. I find that I can run longer while listening to upbeat music.
While running, I remembered that to make a full 5K run, we have to do four laps around the campus, but I'm left wondering how I would know that, since it's a bit dark and I'm running on unfamiliar grounds. Good thing there were student marshals and at the end of one lap, they give out glow sticks. Cool! I finally figured out that I had to collect glow sticks, so on the 3rd one, I was told just one more lap to go. Good! Because despite the short rain, I could feel the air getting humid or maybe it was because of all that running.
All in all, it was a well-organized event, except that there were vehicles inside the campus and at some point, I had to hold my breath or inhale combustion gases. Water stations are available, and no untoward incident happened despite the wet pavements and water pools at certain spots.
I don't think I beat my record time. We don't have timing chips so I couldn't get the exact time but my estimate is, I finished at almost the same time with my first run. I enjoyed the run, knowing that I was also able to contribute to someone's future while I'm running for health.
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| Kinda blurred but that's me on the right side - still very much alive |
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| Finis - the "H" was cut off hehehe |
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| Me with one of my running buddies and her son holding out their certificates |
Two days, after, it's only now that I'm feeling slight muscle pain in my thighs. I'm used to this good pain already. In fact, I get much worse pain after workouts. This one is very much tolerable, and I'm happy knowing I am building leg muscle. As if I needed more bulk with my already big legs hahaha!
Well, hope one day, I'll get to see you guys in one of the running events.
