Race intimacy. I do not know if there is such a phrase, but this is something I have been longing for the past few months. I miss the good, old, inexpensive races. So when my left calf muscle finally loosened itself, I let go of Php300 for a chance to do my 4th Yakult 10-miler.
The Yakult 10-mile race is a classic and it never fails. Once again, Rudy Biscocho started earlier than advertised and I was late again. I did better this time actually. My friend Sid and I were just 4 or 5 minutes late! My Yakult tardiness record is about 30 minutes, so late I ended making a wrong turn at the start and running a total distance of 21kms instead of 16!
Sid and I were taking it easy after an arduous Sierra Madre ride the day before. Easy runs can do wonders to the body and spirit, especially on asphalt roads and cool weather. With no time pressure and under the cover of darkness, we even managed to do pee stops along more rustic portions of Roxas Boulevard (We were too late for the portalets at the start). Peeing on the road - one of life's guilty pleasures and something I have yet to do on the "sosyal" grounds of Bonifacio Global City. I did pee on the road on queaky clean Singapore during a marathon along with dozen others unable to find an open restroom in the wee hours of the morning.
The Yakult course is two loops along scenic Roxas Boulevard - best road for a run in my opinion if a race starts earlier than pollution. I am glad to report that I ran all throughout, even on the flyovers, and catching with many others along the way. Sid and I gradually caught up with the race crowd, and by km12, I upped the ante a bit by promising myself and my faster companion that we should overtake at least 20 runners from then on. We were on a negative split mode so it was a good challenge. Slowly we overtook them, mumbling the count to ourselves a good distance after every overtaken runner. Halfway through we already reached our target, so we simply counted how many more we can overtake. By the time we reached the finish line, the count has reached 42. We outlasted all 42, even the lone brave heart who tried to overtake us back. Not bad at all for an easy, cruising run capped by 3 bottles of Yakult.
It was fun observing the runners running towards or away from us. This crowd is clearly different from the usual crowd, but on that particular morning I actually welcomed the change. Like us, this crowd was here for a basic run, and we got what we wanted. There were two Kenyans, a generous sprinkling of nameless, serious runners, and hosts of ordinary people out to push themselves a bit. I saw familiar faces from Adination BHS, MOA and Alabang, running ninja Sam, forefoot runner Mar, as well as meek runner Anna taking photos and still basking on her TBR marathon finish :-)
In the middle of the run, Sid and I encountered a runner or two shouting "Endure" to us. We smiled and nodded back. I thought maybe they recognized me from my blog, or from our recent Endure BlackBerry Aquathlon, but our funny conversation from some people at the finish line made me think otherwise. At the finish line, we made small talk with a parent of our aquathlon participant. Before leaving they had a photo taken with us. They were on their way out when suddenly the dad blurted, "Wait, Sid, ikaw ba yung nasa Endure video "Halika Bata, Mag-Triathlon Tayo". We all had a nice laugh. Sid, sikat ka na. Haha.
You can view Sid's video for Endure's BlackBerry Love video contest here:
Check out Endure's BlackBerry Love on Facebook if you want to win a BlackBerry Curve phone.
1 comment:
ahaha, ngayun lang nakapag check ng mga blogs ng friends! It was nice running with you in this race! Very different! Thanks for the ride! Subit na!
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