Stills from the Recent 34th Milo Marathon Elims

Pictures 1, 2, 3 & 4 Courtesy of Photovendo

My 5th Marathon Race

After 8 weeks of marathon training, finally the green day came.... It was a nice time to run once again the most prestigious marathon event of the country.

Game plan: To finish the race in 4 hours and 50 minutes. How did I arrive in this figure? I studied the race route of my previous marathon (Condura Run for the Dolphins) and compared with the new route of Milo marathon. In my assessment, the race route of Condura is more difficult than that of Milo. I’m quite confident that I will be able to beat my Condura time of 4 hours and 57 minutes.

After my warm up drills, I found myself inside the 42K corral chatting with runner friends. At exactly 4:09 AM I was already crossing the starting line with my running buddy Edward. When we reach Km 5, my Garmin watch keeps on beeping due to my high heart rate. I know that it signals that my body have not been fully rested during the past days prior to the race day. I haven’t experience this during my training days. I can’t increase my pace since I was bothered by the heart rate alarm that keeps on beeping. I keep myself relax by maintaining an average pace of about 6; 40 min/km till kilometer 21.

To make the story short, as I was nearing kilometer 30 the agony started. I begin to slow down and I feel exhausted. It’s good that Edward was still running with me despite the fact that I repeatedly said to him that he may go ahead but he said we will finish the race together. Before we finish the third loop, we were already doing run-walk strategy.

Then came the final stretch of Roxas Blvd. It was again the longest distance of the race because of too much exhaustion. The heat of the sun, the temperature was like rubbing salt to an injury. Walking is more conducive than running during this moment. Time is of the essence, I need to go to beat my previous marathon time. Finally at kilometer 38, I gave up my goal time. All I wanted is just to finish the race. I had no cramps in my legs but I was too tired to speed up.

Finally, after 5 hours and 7 minutes I found myself in the finish line. Thanks God I made it again! My time may not be impressive but I’m lucky enough I have no injuries after the race.

"Five marathons have been conquered, a lot of lessons have been learned....and most of all a lot of running friends have been found along the way."

"Marathons are addictive; you will do it again and again no matter what it brings..."