First of, I would like to congratulate all qualifiers, finishers, runners who ran the 38th National MILO Marathon to celebrate MILO’s 50th Anniversary and help give shoes advocacy this time for the victims of typhoon Yolanda in Tacloban City. Yehey!
While most of my running buddies, friends and fellow running bloggers posted their pictures in Facebook or Twitter holding their precious finisher medals I felt no envious or so whatever on their running milestones though I admit that I wanted to get it this time but there are things that hinders this to happen for me this time and that’s I’m excited to share to you my dear followers.
Like all runners, marathoner and newbie marathoner including me waited so long for the day of the MILO National Marathon Manila Leg 2014 to happen and everyone who finished before the cut off time are very well-trained except me well not at all because I’ve run 5K’s or short runs just to have a feel on the pounding on the pavement but I had to say that’s not enough so in short I didn’t do my assignments or didn’t take a serious training to finish this full marathon and I rely heavily on my bike to work routine because I thought it will suffice the need to finish it but I am all wrong and as you continue to read this I will tell you why cycling is not a replacement for the base training if you wanted to qualify in a marathon. Again, don’t rely on just spinning because it will not let you finish any marathon.
See some random pics at the MILO Event boots:
Probably professional runners, coaches and trainers will laugh at me on this but I am telling you based on my experience last Sunday. Cycling training is for cycling, running training is for running so does in swimming. The golden rule in finishing a marathon is to have a base training months before the race day or join a 21K or 32K weeks before your marathon but for me it didn’t happen at all. I’m running but the farthest I’ve run is 5K and the longest time I’ve run continuously without a break is 30 minutes. In my mind, I can finish this marathon because I am always on my bike every day. I’ve cycled 50 kilometers every day and that’s 5 times a week. So, what happened to me?
Mindset is very important for any race that includes your will to finish and motivation and 100% I had this on race day but that wasn’t enough it will break a runners heart if you said you can finish a marathon without any preparation and again this happened to me. No training, no runs just spinning or putting fun between my legs. So, what really happened to me why I drop off the marathon race and abandon my dream to get that precious marathon medal? That’s what I am about to tell you now if you continue to read on.
A week before the marathon race I am all set that I will not run anymore because of 2 things, I didn’t prepared for this and there is a big Security Summit in our company (Trend Micro) happening in Shangri La Hotel in Edsa but day before the race day I’d decided to race and see if I can make it because once again I’ve been riding my bike and doing long rides and plus I was able to finish 24K trail run with Salomon X-Trail Pilipinas in Hamilo Coast before and finished within the cut off time so I can do it again this time.
That week though I have enough sleep, my legs are well rested, no rides, no hard work outs and I am just lying, sitting for 3 days and then ride my bike to work on Friday and stayed at the office until race day Sunday. I also didn’t forget to hydrate and eat right in short I’ve been carbo loading for one week so nutrition is not a problem. There is one slight problem but I think it will not affect me on the rest day itself is that I can’t sleep on the eve of the race day but just like every athlete knows that’s okay because excitement and adrenaline rush is sitting in and that really affects me.
Me and Josh arrived at the venue (SM MOA) an hour before the race, I joined Josh and his MILO R2 Apex Running School for their warm up exercises and then prep up for the race. At the gun start, I am confident that this is it I have no problems, all is well, I am not nervous either because I’ve been into this situations already before and I know the race route.
I paced my self during the gun start and until they sent all the runners in 42K and we are at the wave 1, I can run normally at steady pace during the first 2 kilometers and then can increase my tempo because I can feel that I can do it until the next 5 kilometers and no problem. During the run I check my heart rate it is normal, I check my cardio I am not struggling my breathing is fine, I check my nutrition and I am good. I am not dizzy and I am not sleepy so everything is going fine with until I reached the 10 kilometer of the run. This time I felt something wrong on both of my calf or achilles tendon and it is so super stiff. When it does before I usually walk to ease the pain but it turn out it didn’t do any good. So I waited for further signs, that’s the time when I started to LISTEN TO MY BODY.
I tried to run again but it will move anymore on my will, I am struggling to run fast even if I burst it it wouldn’t so I thought this is it. I had to STOP and then calculate again, heart rate, nutrition, cardio no problems at all so what’s wrong? Then I started to walk slowly at this time with two of my legs felt like was trap in a bucket of cement. I couldn’t move anymore so it is when my body told me to stop completely. This is where I went back walking to the finish line with no regrets, no jealousy but thoughts of I will go back into running ASAP and I will get that first 42K Medal because this is my 2nd attempt in doing it and this is the first time I drop off a race.
See, the event booths are now getting crowded as 5K, 10K runners crossed the finish line.
Some are waiting, taking selfies and looking for their running buddies.
Kalongkong Hiker would like to thank MILO Philippines, RunRio, Strategic Edge, Inc. DepEd and to all its major sponsors Asics, Gatorade, Timex and more.
Thanks to fellow media people, thanks to Nestle Philippines for the Gift Pack as well. Good Bless and more power! Mabuhay! Cheers!