Bad Legs, Bad Knee, Bad Prep = Bad Run @ RunNew

I used to rest a good two days prior to a marathon. This way, my legs are fully rested and relaxed, and come race day, they're both fresh. This was what I did with my previous races and I broke my PRs one after another with such a routine.

Too bad I didn't do it again for RunNew.

After my right knee pain two weeks ago, I stopped running for 3 days. Instead, I biked and swam at the pool in Ultra. I went back to running last Tuesday in preparation for my 15K race today. Starting your preparation only a few days from the race day is bad.... really, really BAD!

I was so confident I'd still beat my 15K PR of 1:26:28 even with minimal prep, and for this I paid dearly.

What's worse is that I didn't even rest before the race. For the past 5 days, I have not been sleeping well...going to bed at 11:00 p.m. and waking up at 5:30 a.m. to either bike or lift weights. This routine took its toll on me.

My swim training last Saturday should have ended by 10:00 a.m., but I pushed it too far when I left the pool at around lunchtime already. My legs got beaten up with all the kick drills and my personal swim time at the pool. The extended pool hours brought pains again to my right knee, but I just shrugged it off.....bad move!

As a result, I came into the marathon this morning feeling a bit woozy. Waking up at 3:00 a.m. to shower, eat, dress up and prepare my things was a struggle.

I got at the venue around 5:40 a.m., thanks to the long line at the parking lot.

I was informed the route would take us to the hilly parts of Fort Bonifacio...and I found this to be true. At only the 2nd kilometer, I already felt my legs slowly giving way to my weight and the pavement. Even if I wore a support on my right knee, there were still some stabbing pains which made me slow down on my pace.

At the 5K mark, I clocked 29 minutes already, 2 minutes off my target.

The next 5K were as harsh to both my legs and right knee, and I clocked in at 58 minutes for the 1st 10K.

So much for my PR, I just wanted to have a sub-30 minutes at this point.

But it wouldn't be the case...

At the last 3K, I felt as if my right knee was shattering in different places already and I had to slow down to around 6:20-6:30 pace. It was a tough call to make especially at a great race like this, but I had to call it that way to survive and reach the finish line in one piece.

The last kilometer was almost all downhill to the finish with only the last 200 meters on flats. I tried to sprint and test my knee...it held up. Upon seeing the finish line, I increased my pace to a 5:00. The timer shows 1hr 29mins 48secs when I was about 90 meters from the line. I tried to beat the 1:30:00 by sprinting madly...only to fail by around 2 seconds...it was a heartbreaker!

RunNew was excellently organized. I was cursing Coach Rio Dela Cruz at the very start of the race when we were greeted by killer uphills...but in the end, he did a great job mapping the route. It was both refreshing and challenging and really re-affirms Coach Rio's races as the best in the running world. Kudos Coach!

Deo P.

Update: www.runrio.com has now published the official results of RunNew, and based on the results, my official time is 1:29:56, ( ranked 148 in Male, Non-MD ). I have made sub-90 minutes by 4 seconds...hehehe