kilometer 81: Men’s Health Miracle Run

I got a new 10 km PR! Yey!
But Bal­dRun­ner and run­ning­pinoy were say­ing that it was way too short of a 10k.

Oh well! I did log a 47:57, as I passed by the dig­i­tal clock at the fin­ish line. Sup­posed it was short of some 200 meters, I would have logged a 4:53 pace instead of a 4:47. A 4:53 pace will lead to a 48:30 fin­ish. In any case, it is still a per­sonal record. Yeah!

And another note, 4:53 is two sec­onds shy of my 100% effort. Wow!

It was my first time to run a road race in UP Dil­i­man. The route is famil­iar, as I have been study­ing there for almost two years now.

But I think, the UPLB route is more chal­leng­ing. Wow! Just imag­in­ing the road up to Forestry gives me the thrill…

Back to my Mir­a­cle Run story.. My orig­i­nal plan was to stay close with Michelle, and not let her out of my sight. But I was only able to stay close with her until the fourth kilo­me­ter. Again, she took my breath away. Hahaha!

As I was slow­ing down, I saw Mark and Char­lie passed by and I decided to pace with them. Mark said that Char­lie was going for a sub-50 fin­ish. Wow! That’s my goal too! And so for the remain­ing kilo­me­ters, I stayed with them. I hear Mark say­ing encour­ag­ing words like,

Happy thoughts. Think of happy thoughts.
Relax your shoul­ders. Breathe easy.
Two kilo­me­ters left. We do this many times at the ULTRA.
Kaya na ang sub-50, may sukli pa.

And so we did fin­ish a sub-50. It was nice run­ning with them. Mark and Char­lie are join­ing the Bataan 102K ultra­ma­rathon this week­end. Good luck guys! Next year, I’ll find time to pre­pare and join you all.

It was also nice to see one of my block­mates. And because of him, I was able to have post-race pic­tures taken…

Men’s Health Mir­a­cle Run
Date: March 29, 2009
Dis­tance: 10 km
Unof­fi­cial Time: 47:57