For the Rexona Run, however, I decided to make an exception for two reasons.

First, there is the Camsur Marathon a month and a half from now. I already mentioned that I’d be joining long races in preparation for that. We don’t exactly have half marathons weekly, and the Rexona Run falls nicely into the training schedule.

Second and more importantly, I decided that I really couldn’t go on talking or writing about these expensive Runrio races without experiencing one firsthand. So I guess the couple more hundred bucks would be my “experience/immersion” fee.

For those who haven’t been following this blog long, this is not my first Runrio race. I had joined many Runrio races before, like the Run for Home and the Greenfield Run. So yes, I am fully aware of Coach Rio’s attention to detail when it comes to his events, and I am glad to report that this race is no exception.

I must mention here however that Runrio seemingly upped the ante in this race. Perhaps in reaction to what happened in the Milo Eliminations where a runner died, the emcee announced health precautions several times before the race started. He also did not fail to mention the presence of 17(!) ambulances on standby for the event. Wow, talk about covering your bases.

Water was never a problem in the previous Runrio races that I joined, and it also wasn’t in this one. It was my first time to drinking from the “water bombs” however, and I must say that it is less wasteful and more hygienic than the pitcher-and-paper cups.

The marshals of Runrio are among the most competent I’ve ever seen, and they certainly delivered in this one, despite the challenge of last-minute route modifications. The distance, as usual, is damn accurate.

I would no longer elaborate on the wonders of D-Tag, the timing system used in the race. Suffice is it to say that it is accurate, as it should be.

Water, check. Marshals, check. Distance, check. Rexona Run certainly passed the criteria of a good race. But is it worth 700 bucks?

I really can’t say anything bad about the race. You could really see where the extra money went. Hindi mo masasabi na kinuripot nila Coach Rio yung mga mananakbo. And yes, it is certainly better than the 500-peso half marathons I joined lately(think Philippine Independence Day Half Marathon). In a nutshell, yes, Rexona Run is worth the 700 bucks.

Nevertheless, I still believe that it is possible to have a decent race with sufficient water, accurate distance and competent marshals for way less. The problem, I think, is that some organizers think that by charging less than 700 bucks, they are given a valid excuse for being sloppy and irresponsible. “Mura naman e, kahit na babuyin na natin. Problema na nila yun.” The challenge then is finding the few decent “cheap race” organizers out there, and avoiding the bad ones.

Would I run in a Runrio race like Rexona Run again? Yes, why not. Provided that there’s something novel about the race like the time(a night race?) or the route(no more MoA please), I would definitely consider it. Wag lang siguro every other week, masakit na sa bulsa yun.

***RACE SUMMARY***
Event: Rexona Run 2010
Date/Time: August 1, 2010, 5:10am
Venue: Mall of Asia
Length: 21 kilometers(half marathon)
Time: 1:44:47(official)
Racer/Bib Number: 8066

This year however, seemingly presents a different story.

Roger Federer staged a surprising comeback last year(after a forgettable 2008), winning two of the four Opens, and finally clinching the French, the sole missing hardware in his collection. This year however, he is on freefall again. He failed to make it to the semifinals of the Wimbledon and the French Open, both of which his younger rival Nadal won.

Lance Armstrong finished a very respectable third in the TDF last year, after which Radioshack built a team centered around him. Armstrong did not even make it to the Top 10 this year, although his team did finish first. He won’t be back next year.

Michael Schumacher wasn’t on the F1 scene yet last year. His return to the race track this season certainly raised hopes which were dashed early on. F1 greatness, of course, is a combination of driving and engineering mastery - a great driver couldn’t win without a great car. While Schumacher shouldn’t be blamed for Mercedes GP’s shortcomings, it is still disappointing to note that he has consistently finished behind the other Mercedes GP driver Nico Rosberg.

A year certainly doesn’t make a career - with the exception of Armstrong, these guys would be back next season or next year(and who knows, Federer could still win the 2010 US Open). Nevertheless, as early as now I guess we could say that 2010 wasn’t exactly a good year for (relatively)old men.

With or without “fight” problems, I would have joined this race because of my ties to the College. Not only was I a student there for 7 years, I am also now a part of the faculty. And years ago, I was also tangentially involved with the College’s Student Council, which is the entity behind the event.

It is also true however, that I came into this race with the goal of re-learning how to go all-out - to push the boundaries, exceed limits, and simply “hang on” till the finishline is crossed. After 44 minutes of hard, consistent effort, I could say that there is still some “fight” left in me after all. I could still “pull the trigger” and “live on the red line”, so to speak. True, it was still not a PB(the distance is short of 300 meters), and a full is way different from a 10K, but it is still a big relief for me.

Anyway, enough about me. Let’s talk about the race.

Fail

As satisfied as I was with my performance, and as much as I love the institution, I would not say that it was a “dream race” or that it was “close to perfect”. Because the truth is, it’s not. Far from it.

It has the typical shortcomings of a small event missing the leadership of an experienced race director.

The race started off late.

When I first came across the water stations, volunteers and Council people were simply standing there, doing nothing. I had to tell them to get more involved by handing out cups to runners.

And the race marshals - well, well. Sad to say, they were the weakest link this morning. A lot of runners got lost this morning, although it was not as disastrous as the PID. The worst that happened was a change in the “coverage sequence”.

(To give you a rough idea, it was supposed to be something like Loop - Oval - Loop - Oval. Some ended up doing Loop - Loop - Oval - Oval. Go figure.)

And I already mentioned the distance being short by 300m.

The race was not entirely without merit though. There is, after all, Itemhound.

What’s really exciting

Okay, it is still RFID technology, no different from the ChampionChip(there is a difference when it comes to the frequency range, but I won’t get into that). Accuracy-wise, there is no difference. Truth be told, I won’t be surprised if it is still somewhat “buggy” at the moment.

(Itemhound actually first tested its technology in the Sun Cellular Event months ago)

What excites me though are the possibilities that Itemhound represents. I no longer have any hope for the registration fees going back to their old levels, but I am hopeful that our 300-500 would eventually do more for us. I mean, just look at this race - it’s a usual 300-350 race, there is no Runrio or RACE behind it, yet it has chiptiming(”striptiming” actually). That could only be possible with a local alternative to ChampionChip or DTAG(the technology that would be used in CAMSUR) - the best of which at the moment is Itemhound.

My dream is that in the future, almost all of our races, even those with just 300 pesos registration fees would have chip or striptiming technology. It would be so normal in races it’d eventually “phase out” barcode based timing. That’d also remove the excuse of the bigger races for being expensive - “It’s because of the timing chip!”. That won’t eliminate the “expensive” races, but chiptiming in low-end races would force them to clean their acts up, improve, and provided even more added value.

What about the bugs? Well, I know the people behind Itemhound personally, and believe me, things could only get better from here on out. There are pretty talented guys working on this thing, and it IS going to work. Brace for change, people, because it is coming.

If that’s not worth getting excited about, then I don’t know what is.

Oh, and did I already mention that Itemhound is a startup company from the College? Simply fitting for the event, right?

Nice number!

***RACE SUMMARY***
Event: Eng’gfinity: The Engineering Centennial Run
Date/Time: July 18, 2010, 5:30am
Venue: UP Diliman
Length: 10 kilometers
Time: 44:00(unofficial)
Racer/Bib Number: 385

As I said before, a lot of things obviously went wrong in my Milo race. Two weeks hence, I already have a short mental list of the things that I obviously have to improve on before September, if I want to do better in CamSur.

One thing that I figured out early(right after the race in fact) was that I considerably had less “fight” in me during Milo compared to my other 26-milers. I mean, there was some physical aspect to the Milo fiasco, true, but truth be told, in the latter kilometers, tinamad na ako tumakbo. I was fatigued, but then it’s not like it was a level of fatigue I’d never experienced before. It’s almost as if I lost the capacity - or worse, the willingness - to suffer. In comparison, in QCIM and the SIM, the racing effort rendered me unable to walk for some minutes after finishing. Even SCSM, walk-ridden as it was, was a sufferfest. In terms of marathon suffering, I suffered the least in this year’s Milo - and it’s obviously not because I suddenly gained proficiency in tackling the hallowed 26.2. I simply lost the fight in me.

A lot of the people who know me cheered when I encountered them on the race course. I don’t know whether I looked dejected or disappointed to them, but truth is, during those walking moments, I was calm - I certainly wasn’t bothered. It was only after I crossed the finishline that it dawned on me: “What the hell just happened? What the heck did I just do?”

Personally, I think it has something to do with my vastly decreased racing kilometers prior to the race. I know, I know. I did write about the unintended benefits of racing less. But it can’t be denied that I’m experiencing less “suffering time” now than before, when I raced more often. I guess it still takes a real race, complete with a running clock and competitive “roadmates” to tap into that “chase-down” mentality.

Anyway, whatever it is, I’m scheduling more races before CamSur(and practicing “suffering” in training as well).

Let’s begin with tomorrow’s Eng’gfinity.

This race certainly didn’t go as planned for me. I never got into the rhythm, never got in the zone. I was only in sub-4 contention for just about the first two hours. It was so bad, that I ended up actually being happy for having eked out a 4:37 finish.

It wasn’t just that the course proved to be way tougher than what I expected, or that the weather was a bitch this morning. Truth is, a lot of things went wrong for me in this race - not just in the race itself, but apparently, in the preparation for it too. So many, in fact, that I’ve yet to find out what exactly they ALL are. For certain, my run logs and Garmin data files are due for a very close review.

Do I feel bad about the race? Of course I do. It was a very important race, and I bungled it it-big time. But I don’t feel that bad. I certainly felt worse in SCSM, where I was injured. More than the race itself, I feel worse for the fact that I can’t seem to put in a consistent performance for this distance - I mean, I’d have a bad race(Singapore), followed by a good one(Hong Kong), and then it’s back to a bad race again. Consistency is something I still badly look for.

Ack. I’ve got a lot of things to figure out and do before CamSur.

Race bib

***RACE SUMMARY***
Event: 34th National Milo Marathon - Manila Eliminations
Date/Time: July 4, 2010, 4:00am
Venue: Roxas Boulevard
Length: 42 kilometers(full marathon)
Time: 4:37:00(unofficial)
Racer/Bib Number: 40113

Just when the entire running blogosphere is singing praises to Milo for “modernizing” the well-loved series(even letting them “get away” with a hundred percent increase in registration fee), they unleash this upon us

Three loops, Milo, seriously?

Personally it feels like Milo took 3 steps forward, and 2 steps back. I mean, forget about the timing chip, we could do without that - just don’t make us do three freakin’ loops! Seems like I spoke too soon about Milo being the de-facto national marathon. A course like that - for our premiere racing event? You’re kidding, right?

I dunno whether they got lazy, made the course easier for newbies, ran out of money, or whatever, but I hope they are aware that the change(to this specific course) just undid whatever advances they gained in technology or qualifying rules.

On a very limited upside, this is a much easier course now - we all know qualifying races are won and lost in the Bayani-Lawton Area. They also have no excuses for logistical screwups(water, etc) now - it’s just a 13 kilometer loop, for Christ’s sake.

But as I said, those are very very limited upsides. I’d rather have none of those if what we get as a trade-off is the bore(and confusion)-fest July 4 is shaping up to be.

Four hours is just about the only average standard I haven’t broken, and I couldn’t imagine a better setting for doing it other than the Manila Eliminations - so that I would qualify for the Finals at the same time. Few finishes would be sweeter - in my imagination, anyway.

To my surprise however, I found out last week that Milo is implementing an age-bracketing for its Finals qualifying this year! That changes my required qualifying time from 4:00… to 3:45! From just having to shave off 8 minutes from my PB, To qualify now I’d have to shave off 23 minutes! Whoa.

Don’t get me wrong, I actually agree with the age-bracketing of the Milo Marathon. It is a good sign of Milo keeping its standards. More than that, it is a sign of progress. Before the Boston Marathon became age-bracketed, it also had an across-the-board cutoff. Now both Milo and Boston are age-bracketed, although Boston of course is still way more stringent.

Also, it is more fair to the older runners. Funnily enough, I know a lot of people originally aiming for sub-4 this July, who no longer have to do sub-4 to qualify. In fact, many of them, they discovered, are already very capable of qualifying, based on past performances.

As for me, I must admit that it was a bit shocking at first: “Am I really supposed to be running this fast? Am I really underperforming by that much?”.

But really, it’s okay. I’m taking it as another challenge to do even better and to train even harder. While I’m not totally counting out going to the Finals - I’m prepared for whatever would happen, sub-4 or not, Finals or not. And even more important than that, I’m prepared to give it my absolute, no-holds-barred, best.

Dear Mr. Organizer-of-Philippine-Independence-Day-Half-Marathon,

First, I would like to congratulate you for coming up with the idea of a race on Independence Day. Great thinking on your part there! I would also like to commend you for the reasonable registration fee. As someone who does not wear suits to work or rake in a 6-digit salary monthly, I really appreciated that.

Okay, now that the congratulatory stuff were said, let’s move on to the other things that I want to say.

Have you heard of the “staggered gunstarts”? Basically it means sending off your runners at different times, depending on the category. Local organizers send off the longest distance first and the shortest, last. But it need not be that way. In Hong Kong for instance, they do it the other way. Anyway, the order is not as important as the fact that the starts are staggered. You should try it sometime, it would be less of a headache - not only on your part but on the runners too!

(Oh yeah, we(at least most of us) also appreciate it when you start the race on time. Ask Rudy Biscocho for pointers on how to do this.)

When I first saw the map of the 21K, I was first appalled by the “partial looping” - in essence, having two loops but the second is just a largely clipped version of the first. I remember thinking, “Magulo to”. But then I placed my doubts aside, believing that you could pull it off somewhat.

Boy, did you prove me wrong.

When I was in my de-facto second loop, as I was about to go down Lawton Avenue again, I was told by one of your marshals that the route was changed and no one is supposed to go down Lawton Avenue again. According to him, we just have to do the rectangular loop again, and then head to the finish. We even had an argument there - I knew that the rectangular loop is just roughly 3K. So, if that is all I’m going to do for my second loop - that’d be just 15K(1st loop) + 3K = 18K! Simple math, right? Anyway, sensing that arguing is useless, I grudgingly complied.

It was such pandemonium out there this morning, it was almost as if different 21K runners ran in different races.

A friend of mine ignored the marshal and went down Lawton again - problem was, she couldn’t find the turn-around point! After kilometers of running, she realized that there was NO turn-around point there, and headed home.

My brother, who was a few kilometers behind me, was told by a marshal near the finish line(not the one I argued with), that he has to do three rectangular loops. Now that made sense(15 + 3 + 3 = 21). But no one counted the loops - there were no more ballers given. Honesty system, baby! Also, it was a bit too late, before your people had the sense to tell the runners THAT, hordes already finished.

Maybe you are now thinking “Yes, we changed the route, but we announced it in the PA system before our massive-slash- we’re-all-in-this-together-slash-sama-sama-tayo gunstart!”

Sir, I hate to break it to you, but almost nobody listens to the stage announcements - pre-race or post-race.(And by the way, the audio system sucked).

That is why Coach Rio makes sure that there is always a huge map in the start/finish area.

And since not even everybody checks THAT, he(and most other race organizers) place direction signages. They don’t have to be beautiful or eye-candy-ish. I know you operated on a tight budget. A cartolina or even manila paper would’ve sufficed. Even that would’ve been way way better than making your marshalls shout directions.

Also, knowledgeable marshals are always appreciated and always necessary. Very crucial(and largely lacking) this morning, since you depended on them so much.

And no, it being your first event, or the race being for a good cause, or the registration fee being cheap - none of those excuses you from these deficiencies. Regardless of your experience, the cause of the race, or the registration fee, your responsibilities towards the runners remain the same.

Your race packet and promotion posters proudly proclaimed “This is no ordinary marathon. IT IS A GATHERING OF PATRIOTS!”.

I don’t think that patriots deserve to be treated that way.

Happy Independence Day.

Love,
Wilson

Race bib

***RACE SUMMARY***
Event: Philippine Independence Day Half Marathon
Date/Time: June 12, 2010, 5:30am
Venue: The Fort
Length: 21 kilometers
Time: 1:38:00(unofficial)
Racer/Bib Number: 568

Days like that, I discovered, are perfectly capped with a mid-distance run at constant pace. In those runs I am reminded how step after step become meters, how meters after meters become kilometers, and how kilometers build up one by one to ultimately cover lng distances. It’s all about small seemingly inconsequential things building up in succession - except that nothing is really inconsequential. There are really no shortcuts - to get to the 10th mile, you have to go through the 9th, and before that, the 8th, and so on. But eventually, you will get there. In tough stretches, laps, rounds, or kilometers, you simply have to keep on going and tell yourself “This too, shall pass.”.

They say that only patient, reflective people could become long distance runners. I’m not so sure about that. I don’t exactly consider myself patient, but I think I definitely have more patience now than before. And that, I believe, has a lot to do with repeatedly facing mile after mile of the Concrete Truth.

PAGASA says the hot spell might persist till the second week of June. I sure hope they got it wrong. I still have lots of miles to log for my Milo preparations. Not only would lower temps make longer runs possible, the sporadic June rains would also provide training for conditions usual in a Milo Manila eliminations race(it rained last year mid-race).

Happy training, everyone.