RACE REPORT: RU2 Exceeds Expectations

Each year, experienced runners and newbies alike are anticipating the Run United Trilogy. Last June 1, Unilab Active Health held the second leg and surprised everyone with lots of exciting changes to the race. As we runners exceeded ourselves, the organizers exceeded our expectations as well.

Listening to the clamor brought about by the registration issues from leg 1, the organizers simplified leg 2's registration, removing the race kit claiming event, and returning the option for online registration and race kit delivery, much to runners' delight. I was one of the early bird registrants, doing it online, and recommending that option to all my fellow runner friends as well. I got my race kit delivered to my doorstep, hassle-free.

Another surprise announcement (and a welcome one at that) was the release of the race maps for leg 2. First time the race start will be at Kilometer Zero at Luneta! Gone is the point A to point B race from the past years (starting at BGC and ending at SM Mall of Asia). Now, the race starts at KM0 and ends at KM0, with a route traversing Roxas Boulevard to Coastal Road all the way to Cavitex! Now that's one straight route with just one turn at the Cavitex entrance and one U-turn at Cavitex. It was such a fresh and exciting route!

The Run United 2 2014 32k Race Map

In order to relax and prevent the stress of looking for a parking space at Luneta on race day, I booked a hotel room at the nearby H2O Hotel at Ocean Park, walking distance away from KM0. I loved the view from my hotel room!

Great view from my H2O Hotel room

Race day came, and our meet-up area is near the Tamaraw statue at KM0. Gun start is at 3am so we were there an hour before.

From L-R: Cholo, Wyatt, me, JP, Ryan, Rolly

Some of my Team Banana teammates were late, so we failed to have a group photo donning our Nike tops. When the announcement was made that we could go to the assembly area, we went ahead as we didn't want to be placed too far back from the starting line.

The usual pre-race program commenced, which started with the national anthem, an opening prayer, a warm-up led by Chris Everingham, and the visuals for the race route and countdown. We had the entire four lanes of Roxas Boulevard the first few kilometers, which is a great strategy for runners to spread out and lessen runner congestion.

At the start of Coastal Road, I met Becky Runner, Ikasam and Kyle who were pacing each other. I mentioned my strategy of doing a constant 6 minute per kilometer pace, with a sub-3:20 target. They joined me for a few kilometers but then I lost them at one of the hydration stations as I was practicing doing quick stops only - pick a water cup, sip, walk a few seconds, then run again. As I ran and looked back, I couldn't see them following me, so I was back alone on my steady pace.

I was able to sustain my target pace, and on my way back, I had to walk it out on the two flyovers to reserve my energy. My strategy on being patient all throughout the course worked, as I had enough energy left to run even on the final kilometers (but I had a cramps attack at KM31 haha!). I finished with a chip time of 3 hours, 18 minutes and 49 seconds. Target achieved! (By the way, my time from 2013 RU2 32k is a miserable 4:16 so almost an hour improvement was a welcome one.)

Thanks to Lem of Pinoyfitness for this shot! Almost at the finish line!

Some race notes:
- Run United races never fail at hydration. As usual overflowing ice-cold water and Gatorade at evenly-spaced hydration stations.
- Lots of marshals and medics and visible ambulances along the route.
- I love the 32k race route and hope something similar will be in store for us this coming RUPM
- Medal quality consistency is way better than 2013's trilogy medals
- The finisher shirt rocks!
- I couldn't help but laugh when some runners blame the organizers for smoke belching vehicles or the foul stench at Coastal Road. I hope people understand that there are things beyond the organizer's control.

Of course, no RU2 race will be complete without the photo ops at the finish line area, as we waited for friends who are about to finish the race.

From L-R: Cholo, JP, Wyatt, me, JC

From L-R: Goldi, Becky, Bernie, Lurvin, me, Wyatt, Reyman, Archie, sleeping Sy and JP. Ikasam sitting down. 

From L-R: Paul, Jireh, Hazielle, me, Sy and Rolly

With officemate and triathlete Jhino and his girlfriend Giselle

From L-R: Syril, me, Ryan, Loyce, Rolly

Another plus? As soon as the race results were officially released two days after the race, it was in two batches - one according to gun time, and another according to chip time! Yay! It's one of the items I was looking for in RU1 and they have it now in RU2. Great job!

Top 7.7% - 217th out of 2794 32k finishers. Nice.

One more leg to cap-off this year's trilogy. I'm excited for RUPM! Thanks Unilab, Runrio and Unilab Active Health!

Sub-2 Pacer Duty (A Success!) at Run United Leg 1

Aaargh! Another late blog post. Thank God for a non-working holiday, I finally was able to open my blog site again and burn some backlogs. I've been looking forward to sharing my RU1 race experience for quite some time now.

March 13 - Race Kit Claiming:
Much controversy surrounded this year's leg 1 of Run United, with the introduction of prepaid cards as part of the registration process. Well as for me, I did an online registration the very first day registration opened, so I didn't have to go through queuing for the prepaid card purchase. Prepaid cards, especially of the 21km category, was sold out in record time, with a lot of speculations that scalpers hoarded them and selling them at much higher prices. There were some runners who took it against Coach Rio and the organizers of RU1 unfortunately. I think it's quite unfair though, to blame organizers when the intent was good for the prepaid card system - for runners to input their complete registration details at the comfort of their own homes, and for proper tracking of the singlet and finisher shirt demand and supply. Again, runners only have themselves to blame - if no one would support these scalpers, they wouldn't thrive anyway.

Race kit claiming was slated from March 13 to 15 at Mall of Asia. After attending a shoe launch at Glorietta, I was accompanied to MoA by Run Adobo King CJ and Speedy Titan Rolly. What greeted us was a very, very long line. With thousands of registrants, I kinda expected this. Fortunate for us though, fellow runner Syril was already in queue and he offered getting our confirmation slips so he could claim our kits together with his. Such luck!

Selfie with the snake-like lines at the background

Runner Newbie Wannabe Photo - presenting the 21k race map! Lol!

Finally getting our kits after the long wait

Race kit! I'm runner #8667!

March 16 - Race Day:
With my crazy Team Banana teammates' idea to wear a uniform on race day, I borrowed a Team Ninoy cycling shirt from Boss Raphie a couple of days before the race. I was not sure if the top will be a comfortable fit, but I borrowed it anyway. RU1 will be sort of a newbie-type race - me wearing a lot of new running gear - my new Garmin FR220, new Asics Kayano 20 shoes, new 2XU 3/4 compressions tights, and a newly-borrowed top! Haha!

I was at the venue early, so as not to get stressed with parking, and one by one, my teammates arrived. Such fun seeing us donning the yellow shirt (as yellow as a banana could be), and of course we wouldn't miss to grab some photos before heading to the race assembly area.

From L-R: Mark Runner, Beck Runner, Ikasam, Chef Lloyd, Mervin, Prof Syril, me

We were way at the back of the pack in the 21k assembly area, and found out runners will be released in two waves (obviously we were in Wave 2).

Photo courtesy of Tong Pascua. Team Yellow!

Initial discussion that we had, we will run together with a target sub-2, but will be grouped in pairs - Wyatt and Ikasam, Syril and Lloyd, me and Becky. Imagine 6 runners running as a group until finish line.

However all that changed as the race started. With the sheer number of runners, we were zigzagging our way to overtake runners left and right. It was energy-consuming and you could easily lose the person you are running with. I stuck with the plan of pacing Becky though, even when Syril and Wyatt sped off to do their normal race pace. I can sense Becky is on peak condition and will grab the sub-2 target.

Run United 1 2014 21k race route

I tried my best to be a strict pacer, watching Becky's running form, reminding him not to shout back to runners greeting him along the way, pushing him to lessen his walk breaks at hydration stations and asking him just to take sips instead of consuming entire cups of water and Gatorade. He also keeps on looking at his own GPS watch, something I don't approve, as I want to remove the pressure from him by being the one to monitor our run time. At the race mid-point, we were very much on track with our target, with some buffer to relax.

Thanks Sir Art Mendoza for this shot at one of the Gatorade hydration stations

As the final 3 kilometers approached, it became tougher as we were running with runners from all categories. There were a lot of walkers and selfie runners who just can't follow basic running etiquette. It was like the start of the race all over again as we zigzagged our way to the final stretch. At the last hydration station, I asked Becky if he wants to stop and he answered no. We sped off and reached the final U-turn point on the way to the finish line.

It was a photo finish - we clocked in with a chip time of 1 hour, 59 minutes and 52 seconds. My sub-2 pacer duty is a success! Great job to Becky for keeping up with the pace!

Almost at the finish! Photo courtesy of I Love to do this

After the race, of course it's time to hang out and meet fellow runners and finishers at the race village.

With the Runner Mamaws - Ralph, Mervin, Ikasam, Wyatt, Syril, JP, Cholo, Pat, Archie (Photo courtesy of JP)

With Syril, Rolly, Vincent, Ryan and JP (Photo courtesy of JP)

So sad we didn't have a complete group shot. Team Banana in all our yellow glory - Becky, Ikasam, Wyatt, Syril, Lloyd, Mervin. Missing Team Banana Members in RU1: Raphie, Goldi, Mark Mark

Breakfast time with Ryan, Hazielle, Rolly, Joey, Jake and Flip at Mang Inasal

A couple of days after, race results were released. I'm a bit disappointed though that they only released ranking based on gun time. I'm not really sure how difficult it is to generate another set of results based on chip time, which is only fair for a race with waves.

Well, I just generated one on my own using my MS Excel skills. Haha! So it turned out my 506th ranking in gun time is way lower than my chip time ranking which is 379th! Out of 4717 21k finishers, that's really something.

I can't wait for leg 2 this coming June 1! It's another Afroman distance to conquer! Congratulations and thanks to Unilab Active Health and Runrio for helping us runners again to exceed ourselves!

Run United Leg 1 on March 16, 2014

The most anticipated Run United Trilogy kicks-off its first leg for 2014 on the 16th of March! FASTER. HIGHER. STRONGER. It's the 2014 battle cry.

WHAT: Run United Leg 1 2014
WHEN: March 16, 2014 (Sunday)
WHERE: SM Mall of Asia
RACE CATEGORIES: 500m dash for kids / 5km / 10km / 21km
RACE ORGANIZER: Runrio

Run United 1 2014 Assembly and Gun Times

REGISTRATION DETAILS:
Online Registration (starts January 31, 2014)
- https://regonline.activeglobal.com/register/login.aspx?eventID=1456985&MethodId=0&EventsessionId=

Prepaid Cards can be purchased at the following stores (12:00pm to 8:00pm Monday to Sunday starting February 8, 2014):
- Riovana BGC
- Riovana Katipunan
- Toby's SM North the Block
- Toby's SM Mall of Asia

Run United 1 2014 Registration Fees and Inclusions

For online registrants: singlet will be provided during the race kit collection, sizes option will be available online on a first-come, first-served basis.

For in-store registrants: singlet will be given upon registration, sizes will be on a first-come, first-served basis. Singlet and finishers shirt sizes will be available for fitting.

REMINDERS:
- Registration is on a first-come, first served basis, and may end earlier than the announced deadline. Race slots may run out before March 9, 2014.
- Runners who buy prepaid cards at our stores will receive their singlet upon purchase. Runners must collect the rest of their race kit (race bib and Active Health items) at Race Kit Claiming on the following dates.

• March 13- 14 Music Hall at the Mall of Asia, 10am – 10pm
• March 15 Active Health Village, Block 16 Mall of Asia, 10am – 6pm

- Singlet and finisher’s shirt size availability will be on first-come, first-served basis.
- Singlet and finishers shirt sample sizes will be available for fitting at the registration centers.
- A Valid ID must be presented at Race Kit Claiming. Those claiming race kits for others must bring authorization letters.
- D-Tag will be provided to every participant to get the runner’s accurate time result and must be surrendered to claim the finisher’s item after the race.
- No BIB, No D-TAG, NO RACE.

RACE KIT INCLUSIONS:

Run United 1 2014 Singlet Design

Run United 1 Singlet Size Chart

POST-RACE:

Run United 1 2014 Active Health Ventilation Bag and Sun Visor

Run United 1 2014 21k Finisher Shirt Design

Run United 1 2014 21k Finisher Medal Design

Run United 2014 Trilogy - Medals United!

WINNER PRIZES:

RACE MAPS:
- To be uploaded as soon as available

I've already registered on the 21km category on the very first day of online registration. Spell excited. Haha! See you there!

Marathon #8: RUPM 2013

Surreal that I just finished my 8th marathon at the Run United Philippine Marathon last October 6. Eight 42k runs in a span of three years is quite a feat!

Just a bit of humor - I found this funny (yet very true) video on the web - The 8 Stages of Marathon Running - to celebrate the 8 crazy marathons I finished:

The 3am gun start of the race only means one thing: adjusting my body clock to sleep very early both Friday and Saturday. I need to be up 11pm Saturday to have my "breakfast" (ooh boy what a weird time to have breakfast) and start my preparations. I need to leave the house 1am, which would mean me arriving at the Mall of Asia about 1:30am, park my car there, then ride the shuttle bus to the starting line at BGC.

I arrived as planned but what I didn't anticipate is the number of runners on queue at the shuttle boarding area and guess what? No shuttle buses! The queue kept getting longer and longer. I was hearing one of the marshals saying there was a shortage of buses and we were just waiting for the initial set of buses that left to go back and pick-up the runners on queue. I think it was about 2:15am when the buses arrived. Whew, what a buzzer beater. 

Long queue at the shuttle bus boarding area

Arrived at BGC around 2:35am, I had a few minutes to do my pre-race rituals - take my Roctane, do a few warm-up exercises and take a pee break. Met with the usual suspects - Ryan, Rom, Marte and Joshua. I turned on my Soleus GPS watch and got nervous as it took a long time before getting any signal.

Warm-up area at the BGC parking lot with Ryan, Rom and Marte

We were located far back at the 42k assembly area. I'm on pacer mode again with three of my companions being first-time marathon participants - Rom, Marte and Joshua. Strategy was to take it slow, probably a 7 to 8 minute per kilometer pace only.

Group selfie just before the race started. Haha!

And then we were off! I pressed the start button of my GPS watch and it went on INDOOR mode! That sucks! My watch failed me. But I could no longer do anything at that point so I just shrugged it off. I'm not on race mode anyway.

The initial part of the race was quite crowded, as we went around the streets of BGC. The runners began spreading out when we reached the Kalayaan flyover all the way to Roxas Boulevard.

RUPM 2013 42k race route

I don't remember the point when we lost Joshua but it was somewhere along Roxas Boulevard already. As for Marte, he had to go to a urinal break so only two were left with me - Ryan and Rom. We did ok until KM25. After this we were already having frequent walk breaks and we took our time on hydration stations as the sun was up early and the heat was becoming brutal.

Still running strong

I assume this was between KM28 and KM29

At KM29, we had our traditional "taho" break. Haha! We were probably getting a lot of glances from fellow 42k runners who were overtaking us as we were devouring our taho. Just the right kick from sugar needed at that time.

Passing by Mall of Asia and seeing the finish line but still doing the final 10 kilometers was really a killer. We already saw the fast marathoners approaching the finish line (4-hour finish time), but we still have a long way to go.

Walk, walk, walk - the story of the last 10 kilometers of this race. Haha! The sweltering heat was not helping at all. The Macapagal Avenue road, dilapidated and runner-unfriendly, was torture.

The good thing is this is a Runrio race - hydration's always a savior. Ice-cold water was abundant in all hydration stations amidst the heat. One can literally take an ice-cold bath.

As we approached the final U-turn at Sentosia and headed back to Mall of Asia, it was a bit of a relief that we are now on the final stretch. The intervals between the kilometer markers seemed to go longer and longer on the final 5 kilometers.

When tired, take a photo. Haha!

Arriving at Seaside Boulevard, we were still walking, reserving energy for the last hundred meters.

Walkers caught on cam!

Ruuuuuunnnnnnnnnn! Last few hundred meters!

As usual, all the pain went away temporarily as we crossed the finish line. 5 hours and 41 minutes, one of my slowest marathons, but it was a fun experience nonetheless.

Happy finishers!

One of the innovations Unilab Active Health thought of, which made the finish of marathoners sweeter, is passing under the elevated race village stage and being greeted by spectators and band performers on stage. But due to the grueling heat, we had to pass by the area quickly, claim our loot, and go directly to the post-run recovery area.

Finish Line moment captured by Photo-Ops!

The trilogy is now complete. Thank you Unilab, Unilab Active Health and Runrio for staging another year of great races.

At the 42k Photo Wall

Congratulations to my running buddies Ryan, Rom, Marte and Joshua! Let's do this again next year!

*** Photos courtesy of Ryan Santos, Running Photographers, We Run for Good Health, Tsinelas Runner and Photo-Ops. Official race photos can be downloaded at http://photo-ops.ph/