Earth Run, 31 May 2009

Never intended to join this race but when Master Mon registered me I couldn’t say no. Besides, the race distance and the route were familiar.

The night before the race I was happy because Maui, a fellow runner and classmate at the Mizuno Running Clinic, wanted to run with me. Please note that Maui is a fast runner. However, in this race we decided to run for fun. No previous race time to beat. No speed work. Just a pure practice run.

Not even a heavy rain could stop us from running in this race. One could feel the excitement as well as the readiness of the runners when we all shouted together proclaiming that we were ready to bolt. I was happy, too, to see some of my takbo.ph friends including Carlo a.k.a. Drumandrun who flew in from Cebu to just join in this race.

The first few kilometers, after the gun start, we paced with the Lost Command runners. It was really a very challenging start since we had to run the hilly part of McKinley Hills.

Hills can be scary. They will put runners to the test—feet, hamstring, breathing, etc. Anyway, the Lost Command runners eventually went ahead of us and we were left to just maintain our pace and we enjoyed it.

What I really like in this run was Maui and I finished the race together. I knew she could have left me and went ahead to do her personal best but she decided to pace with me and sacrificed a good PR. Now, that’s what I call a true blue runner!

Worthy of notice were the small paper cups, plenty of water at the water station, and visible marshals. Though the race didn’t start on time, it was still a well organized race.