Kilometer 349: 33rd National Milo Marathon - Manila Eliminations(Part 1 of 2)

Posted July 5th, 2009 by wilson

The gamechanger. Compared to the Botak marathon, I did a lot of things differently in this race. The greatest change however, was centered on something that I got only 2 days before the race. As a super early birthday or Christmas gift, I got a 405 from my mom(are mothers great or what?). It is no secret that my lack of pace control at long races is very much a liability, and while that could be learned from training, I haven’t had enough of that to learn the skill. The 405 would hopefully help with that problem. Deviating from my plan to not run anymore 3 days before the race, I took the 405 out for a spin at the Acad Oval. The 6.6 km run revealed three things 1. Most of my training runs were done at high 4 to low 5 mpk. 2. 5-6 mpk seems comfortable enough and 3. 7 mpk feels somewhat constrained. These three things would form the basis for the Plan.

The Plan. Several people made their plans public a few days before the race. Sam would utilize a heartrate based approach. Rodrunner would rely on 5-kilometer splits. I haven’t had enough experience with the 405 to be able execute such complex plans. Believe it or not, the only thing that I know how to do with the 405 as of now is reading pace and distance. So my plan was very simple: stick with a 5 something mpk pace the entire race. Yes, while finishing was the main goal, my plan does aim for a qualifying finish. I would just stick with the pace for as long as I can, and then bahala na.

The first 21 kilometers. The first 21 kilometers were uneventful. I followed the Plan, maintaining my pace within 5-6 mpk, except in flyover ascends wherein it would dip to 6:30. I also consumed a gel packet every 7 kilometers, meeting my support crew at designated points along the way. Already I knew that it was going to be a vastly different race from Paa-tibayan. I was still strong after kilometer 21. Pretty soon I was leaving Makati behind and heading to The Fort.

Hell. My personal nickname for the Lawton-Bayani Road area is Hell. I knew that it is the most difficult segment of the race.  The return route in particular is very difficult, nearly a continuous ascent that offers no chance for recovery. I braced myself for the worst. Soon enough I got to the second of three turn around points, and then after that I went down Bayani Road. My father started pacing me at this part.

It has been said that rain is an integral part of the Milo marathon tradition. I was kind of expecting that it would rain at the beginning but it didn’t. Nevertheless, I surprisingly got a piece of the experience when it rained hard at the Bayani Road area around 2.5 hours into the race. It rained the entire time that I was around Heritage park. I’m not sure all racers experienced this though. According to my mom, it hardly rained in the area near Embassy where they were waiting.

30 in 3. We got out of Hell and began heading back to the Kalayaan flyover. It was then that I realized that I just covered 30 kilometers in 3 hours. I was actually amazed, I knew I had been following the Plan, but I never knew I could do it that long. As I said in a previous post, I was never able to break that barrier in training. It was also around that time though that I took my first recovery walk. The hills of Hell took their toll on my legs despite attempts to conserve energy. I started to feel the onset of cramps although it was not as widespread as the ones I experienced during the Paa-tibayan. It was also around that point that my brother started taking over the pacing duties, something which he would do till the very end.

Changing goals. My brother and I were able to reach the 32nd kilometer at around 3:20 or so. My PR for the 10K is 41 minutes: so if I am to qualify to the Finals, I would have to dish out a PR-setting 10K. I try to set new PRs in every race, but a new 10K PR in the tail end of a full marathon? Qualifying for the Finals would have to wait another year. I must admit, I didn’t feel at all that bad. The plan was to remain in contention for as much of the race as I can, to try to qualify. I didn’t do too bad in that. The flyover was filled with people alternating runs with recovery walks. Whenever I talk to them, the same line always come up - hindi na ata tayo aabot sa 4. In other words - I was in the company of people in the same predicament. They too tried to remain in contention, and for some time probably were in contention. Nobody there was originally aiming for a 5:00 finish, and just got off to a “pretty fast” start. I actually felt honored to be in the company of such men.

I remember thinking that at the very least, making it to the cutoff is already a done deal. So qualifying is out of the question - what now? I said before that this would be a run-your-heart our affair.  I could make a goal of beating my maiden marathon record by as much as possible, but that is kind of vague. I then decided that I would gun for a 4:20 finish: an hour difference from the old record.

Pain and suffering. The run-recovery walk cycle continued in Makati. Our vehicle had to meet us many times to give us water, as I was drinking like a camel-after-a-desert-trek, and the drinking stations now seem really far from each other. Things did not get easier. Our recovery breaks were becoming more frequent, and the sun was beginning to beat down hard on us. I originally thought that making it to the absolute cutoff was a done deal. I seriously began doubting that. With the way things were going I began worrying that I may still fall victim to the 5-hour limit.  Even when we run, we were only pacing at 6-7 mpk, sometimes even beyond that. Running at 5-6 mpk, moreover doing so for 3 straight hours, seemed to have happened to someone else. Mercifully, polluted Buendia came to an end and we were at Roxas Boulevard: 3 kilometers left. It was then that I realized that I won’t even make it to the 4:20 target. Knowing that we were already so close to the finish line made us work harder. I was at my limits, part of me didn’t care about the time anymore and just wanted it to be done and over with. Driven by the finish we lengthened our runs. Finally we had our last recovery walk at the Baywalk, and ran from the Kilometer 1 marker to Kilometer 0.

How badly do you want it? The Milo Marathon is different from most races in a sense that the starting line and finish line are different. You start at Kilometer 0, but you finish at the Grandstand. Now anybody who has been to Luneta would say that that is not a great distance, even if you don’t take a “shortcut”. So how difficult could running it be? You have no idea.

Soon enough we were at Kilometer 0. But of course it didn’t end there. Looking at the 405 I saw that it was already past 4:26. In a crazy-but-still-functional part of my mind, it clicked that I could still beat 4:30! What followed was without question the most difficult finish line sprint so far in my life. I had been in many finish line sprint battles before: I won some, lost some. This time though I was only battling myself and the clock. Every step was a pain, and every meter was unbelievably long. My mind was no longer functioning clearly, I was only aware that I should put one foot in front of the other. Connect with the ground, and push. Finally the finish line was in sight. After what seemed like an eternity, I crossed it. I had finished.

Tags: 33rd National Milo Marathon, 42.195K, full marathon, Manila Eliminations