My 25th Run: Run United 2

Last September, I found out that most of the TTB members are joining Run Rio 3rd leg: Run United 2. I got envious that they were running in Manila and also running such a long distance. I had my hesitations at first since it was only 2 weeks before my Standard Chartered Half Marathon race. 

But on the first week of October, I found out that PAL had a promo to Manila during the dates of the Run Rio Race. I took it as a sign and bought a ticket to Manila and then also registered for the race. I chose to run the Half Marathon distance because I felt that 2 weeks is not enough recovery and if do incur injury I have enough time to rest. I also registered my sister for the 3km distance. 

Two weeks ago, TTB ran another 27km long run. During that run, I felt pain around my ITB and shin area. My knees hurt so much while I was running and that got me really scared. Even when I ran my recovery 5km days after the run I still felt pain. 

I flew to Manila last friday morning because my race was on Saturday. My sister and I decided to go to SM to have a carboloading lunch and then went to the salon to have nail art on our nails! Then went home early to have a good night's rest.

I had my alarm set on 3:30 am! I made sure that everything was ready from my clothes, dtag,race bib,shoes and eye shadow! We left the condo at 4:15 am and arrived at the Fort 15 mins later. I told my sister I will go first to the starting point because the 21km will start anytime. 

While waiting for the gun start, I was amazed on how well the race was organized. There was a huge LCD screen near the stage. There were Emcees that greeted the runners. There were so many of us running the Half Marathon. I found there were so many first timers and I also found out there will be a Run Rio Cebu leg next year!

After the stretching and warm up, the run started on time. Off we go! I was so happy that the road was so flat. But during the 2nd km, I started to feel pain on my knee. There were water stations every 1.5 kms which I felt every run should follow. After 2kms, the pain went away and i was surprised that I maintained the same pace compared to the Citigym Halloween run. 

But going towards the Buendia Flyover, the pain went back and it was so unbearable. It was so difficult running uphill and downhill on the flyover. The pain never went away. But even so, I still maintained a below 6/km pace. I started telling myself to run slower but my shoes just wants to keep on running. 

After the 11km, that's where my leg started to feel numb and I had no choice but slow down my pace and stop once in while to stretch it. What's worse was that around the 15km, the battery on my ipod went dead. So I had no choice to run the remaining 6kms with no music! It was so boring that I had to rely on the pace of the other runners. 

While running, I kept on looking for the photovendos but they were nowhere to be seen. I only noticed them around the last 2kms of the race. At one point I actually stopped to ask a cameraman to take my picture! When I crossed the finish line, I finished at a time of 2 hrs 6 mins 13 secs. The lady gave me my finisher medal and asked for my name.

At that point, my leg hurt so much that I wanted to ask for steroids and pain medications. It was so difficult to walk to the tent to pick up my finisher's kit and to walk all the way to the parking lot.

Even though I was running injured almost all throughout the race, I am still glad that I joined the race because it was by far the best race I've ever joined. 

Run Rio results are in 3 days after the run. I found out I ranked no.11 among female runners and 195 out of 1100 runners! :)