A Relax Run for Me - RU1 2012

I always love to join and support Run United races. The organizing company will always be close to my heart, we grow up having Unilab as part of our lives (my Mom's brother work for the company and even formulated some of the best selling medicines that they company have today). But aside for that fact,  for me they are one of the best organized race that we have. I join most of their organized runs in the past and I am always excited to know what could be part of the race kits in each race. The race proper is always organized, hydration posts have enough water, electrolyte drinks and even bananas for everybody. Race marshals are just visible every few kilometers, that also includes portalets and standby ambulance and medic.  It's just fun to go around the several booths of the activity area after crossing the finish line. And I like the fact that a portion of my registration fee will support a charitable institution too.

This year, instead of  be part of a support crew of a friend running for an ultra marathon, I decided to beg off for the role and join the race instead. This will be my cool down from an ultra run  I did a week ago and a tapering run for my next ultra race a week after. I feel this run will be very important for my recovery run and training as well.

There are more runners especially for 21k category on this year's race. I thank God I arrive at the starting area just few minutes before the race starts. There are many runners already, I wanted to be part of the first batch of runners to be released so I negotiated myself to the crowded  area. I wanted to go for a final visit to the portalet but there is a long queue, so I decided to just forget about it. Though I am familiar with both BGC and Roxas Blvd route,  running from BGC all the way to MOA will be my very first time to do it. As the first set of thousands of runners including myself has been released at exactly 4:30am, I just negotiated myself  slowly on a street full of runners. In mind I will just take this slowly, after all this is just my tapering run for my upcoming ultra run this weekend.

I brought my own hydration belt making me save time dropping by the  first few hydration stations. Until after more than 10K I negotiated with other runners on the hydration stations to grab some bananas and electrolyte drinks. I just take the race slowly on my relax pace. My goal in mind, I should take this  with my own sweet pace but I should be able to cross the finish line as well not too hot yet. Which I did, I finished in 2:35, not bad after all. To increase my mileage for the day, I decided to just walk from the finish area up to my home.

A tapering run indeed. Kudos to the organizer, a good race as always.