There was definitely a rush today as runners from all over headed to the Fort Global City to participate in the Rush to Infinity 5, 10 and 15k events. There were over 2,400 runners who had registered, and some still pleading that they be able to do late on-site registration after it had closed at around 5:30am. Everyone was hyped and they wanted to beat their times from the previous Mizuno Infinity Run held last March 30.

It was easy to distinguish the old from the new runners as they donned their sky blue race singlet. I think it’s one of the better race singlets that they’ve given away at races. The new runners were wearing the white Mizuno finishers’ shirt which was equally eye-catching.

The race start times were staggered by 15 mins as the 15k runners started at 5:30, 10k at 5:45 and 5k at 6:00am. There was an adequate supply of Rush Fitness Water and Hidding Spring Mineral Water at the 4 water stations that were placed at every 2.5km mark.

My Run

I woke up at around 4:00am to get ready for the race. I can say that I had enough sleep since I slept at around 10:30pm.  For breakfast, I had a piece of banana with peanut butter. I read somewhere that it’s a good pre-run snack with the right combination of carbohydrates (banana) and protien+fat (peanut butter). I also had a cup of coffee. I also in Men’s Health that drinking coffee before a workout increases performance or something like that. Now it also explains why they have coffee machines at Fitness First

I left the house at around 4:50, picked up Ias who was running 15k. We got to Fort at around 5:15am and the queue at the parking was long. It took them longer than usual to give the parking tickets and allow the cars to get in.

I did my warm up, doing two runs around the parking area of Bonifacio High Street (BHS) then headed for the race start. I still had about 5 minutes more so I did my usual stretches. Then off to the starting line. I had a good start. I let the other runners pass me since I didn’t want to burn out quickly and I knew that they would slow down eventually and allow me to overtake them sooner or later.

I had a better run since I was more familiar with the course and it didn’t seem to be as long as I had remembered it. Maybe it was because there was enough water. I skipped the first two water stations then since I wasn’t thirsty and I didn’t want to waste any time. It was only upon reaching the 3rd water station that I stopped.

I felt somewhat slow the first 6kms. Maybe I need to do longer warm-up runs to get the blood flowing to my joints. I also felt heavier than usual. I was not sure why. Maybe I could attribute it to my lack of training the past two weeks due to tons of school work.

As usual, I loved the declines and the inclines. Going down, I’d just let go and allow my legs to free-fall and take advantage of gravity. Going up, I perform better due to the stairs training that Coach Rio makes me do. And it is also in the inclines that I get to overtake the other runners

After leaving Bayani Road and getting onto Lawton Avenue, I got my second wind. I was running faster than my previous pace. I was overtaking runners left and right and skipping water stations. It was only at the 2nd to the last water station that I got a sip. All in all, I think I had 3 stops. When I reached the last water station, I saw that they were only serving water and not Rush so I thought that the last stop was not worth it and it was just a measely 2.5kms to go. I increased my pace, remembering my training at ULTRA and put on my nitro. My strides were longer, my shoulders relaxed and my arms swinging to give me that extra boost.

As I was nearing the finish line, I was this really long queue of runners. “What’s this? Where do I go?” As I was doing a semi-sprint, I was confused. Why was there a line? So I decided to finish the race, then took a look at the clock. It read 00:57:35 for the 10k. So I’m guessing that I wasted around 30 seconds scrambling on where to go.

I saw a fellow 10k runner who also ran at Punta Fuego. I remembered him since he was the one with the Garmin 405 Yep, it was Albert. Bards and I remember ooh-ing and ahhh-ing his new watch. Hehe… I asked Albert what his time was. He said that he registered 54 something. I doubt that I wasted 3 mins looking around. So my unofficial time is 00:56:58… based on my own calculations… Pwede din 00:57:00 flat, but the 00:56:58 sounds better.

Thoughts about the race

1. Well, for starters, there were a lot of people. I mean over 2,400 runners. It may not be as many as the Subic International Marathon but it was a relatively big crowd.

2. There were adequate water stations and the drinks were relatively cold, which is good

3. There we NO DISTANCE MARKERS. I was hoping they’d put up the distance markers. I therefore relied on the water stations and I was also lucky that I was familiar with the race.

4. Registration was relatively easy. The online reservation helped a bit (for the race director),  but not really. an advantage to the runners. We’ll have to assess that when Coach Rio and I meet up this week. Payment at Mizuno may also have been out of the way for some people. I guess we’ll look into bank payments or payments through cellphone.

5. The singlet design was nice I liked it. It was sleek. The old Mizuno Finisher’s shirt was also equally nice.

6. The gap between race start times shouldn’t be as long. It ended up making the average peak finish time for 5, 10 and 15k runners coincide, thus causing the long queue at the finish line.

7. It was nice to have raffle prizes, though I didn’t win. Hehe

8. I love the socks Coach Rio gave me. The Nike Dri-Fit Elite Structure Running socks are the best! They kept my feet dry the entire time and it has compression at the arch for improved running.

Highlights of the race

M/Gen. Jovenal Narcise (ret.) aka Bald Runner donated P5,000 to Project CHK, my adopted cause for Run For Change. I also got the following amounts from other people.
Atty. Nicholas Ty - P1,000 (pledge)
Atty. Patrick Ty - P500 (pledge)
Atty. Jaime Caringal - P2,000 (pledge)
Mark Parco - P2,500 (pledge)

I got to have a picture taken with Sen. Pia Cayetano who also comes from the UP College of Law.

I beat my old time of 1:10:09 by more o r less 14 minutes. Not bad

PS. Pictures to follow