A Funeral of A Race Called Botak Paa-Tibayan

With Ziggy(Foreground), Ian, Rico (guy on red singlet behind me ) of takbo.ph

Thanks to Javy O. for the photos. I owe you man!

I thought last Wednesday was another uneventful day of the week for me. It was my "rest" day from triathlon training and I woke up later than usual. I didn't know that it would turn out to be one of the most memorable 24 hours of my life.

Rewind to 10 years ago

My father-in-law was a restless man. Restless in the sense that even after coming home from work, he would still find time to do some carpentry or repair work at home. This was his routine almost everyday, despite being hypertensive.

One evening, as my wife and I just arrived home from work, we got a call from my mother-in-law telling us that something has happened to my father-in-law and we needed to get to their house fast. Worried, my wife and I rushed to get there.

We saw the poor man lying unconscious at the lap of my mother-in-law. He was tinkering with some stuff when he felt dizzy. He tried taking in his medicine, but he wasn't able to swallow it anymore. He lost consciousness.

We brought him to the hospital and was declared under coma due to stroke. He popped a vein in his brain and had cerebral hemorrhage. Operating on his brain would be useless already. Though he would survive, he'd be paralyzed.

Half of his body was paralyzed when we took him home. My wife and I had half of our garage converted into a room for him. We took him in, together with my mom-in-law.

After months of therapy, his condition didn't improve. He was bed-ridden and paralyzed and that would be his condition for the rest of his life.

Fast Forward to Last Wednesday, May 6

As I was about to leave home for office, I noticed the shallow breathing of my dad-in-law. He was running a fever and I thought he might have pneumonia. I asked my wife to call a doctor to have him checked, then left home.

At around 10:30 a.m., I got a call from my wife telling me her father had passed away. I was so shocked that all I could say was "shit!". Though I know he was in bad shape, I didn't expect him to die that day.

I hurriedly got home.

At 5:00 p.m., his body was already at Arlington Memorial Homes in Pasig.

A Funeral and an upcoming race

As with all wakes, the family of the person who died would be so busy with the funeral arrangements...we were no exception. We needed to take care of the friends and relatives who paid their last respects to my father-in-law. We'd go home early mornings for 3 days and wake up a few hours before lunch to go back to the wake.

At that point, running a marathon was the farthest thing on my mind.

My father-in-law was cremated last Saturday, May 09, at Loyola Memorial in Marikina.

I wasn't sure I was going to run the Botak Paa-tibayan 21K the following day. I lacked sleep and only ran once during the week, for a measly 5K at a very slow pace.

At 8:00 p.m. of the same day, I decided I'd run.

Botak Paa-tibayan 21K, Race Proper

Starting the 21K race at 6 a.m. should have sounded alarm bells in my ears. Although it has been raining, it is still summer. The sun shines earlier than any of the months of the year and with the 6 a.m. start, it was expected that we will be running through the scorching heat of the morning sun. I thought it shouldn't be a problem, as I was used to the heat due to my biking...I was wrong.

When the runners started racing, probably most, if not all, expected good hydration during the race. The first water station was disappointing. It was inadequately manned resulting to runners waiting for the cups to be filled up. I skipped the first water station as I still had two full bottles of fluids with me.

The 2nd water station was similar to the first, and I skipped it as well. At that point I was running at a pace of 6:45 and was thinking of doing a negative split, a strategy I was employing for the first time.

The 3rd water station was better and I was able to hydrate. It was from that point that I increased my pace to a 5:30.

Upon reaching the 10K mark, I was at 00:58 and thought I could get a sub-2 hours for the 21K if I maintained a pace of 5:45. No problem, I said to myself, I do that all the time during my training runs.

The water stations became scarce and waterless after that. I only had half a bottle of hydration left with me. Uh oh....

Upon reaching Kalayaan Avenue, I was almost water-depleted. No water stations were in sight. My problems began.

After almost getting sideswiped by a passenger jeepney near Burgos, I tried to maintain composure after the incident but got a bit nervous. Nervousness coupled with running drains you of the much needed energy...I was draining fast.

I saw another water station at Estrella, only to find out it ran out of water already. A runner with a missing limb also thought there was water, and had to beg another runner for water just to keep hydrated. It was a scenario which would be repeated again and again throughout the whole race.

My hopes of getting a sub-2 started diminishing. I could only muster a pace of 6:15 and really couldn't go any faster. I was getting dehydrated and realized this after spitting a bubbly saliva. I needed water, fast!

When I saw the 36K marker of the 42K runners along Buendia, I was so elated thinking that we only had 5K left to go. My time was 1:28 only, but my Garmin reflected a distance of onlyt 14+K. Something was wrong.

I saw a water station again along Buendia which gave out Gatorades. I had 3 cups and felt pretty hydrated after. Looking at my Garmin, I was already running for 1:45, distance ran at 17K...goodbye sub-2! Even if I ran at 5:00 pace, I would still end up at 2:05. I decided to run at 6:30 and beat my PR of 2:12.

I walked the stretch from Paseo until the foot of the Kalayaan flyover and started running again going up. Seeing an MWSS truck sprinkling water to the runners, I sprinted to reach that spot and get wet. Around two meters to the water sprinkler, they reduced the spray power of the sprinkler...and I didn't get sprayed on. Tough luck!

The water station after it had no more cups, and I had to scoop water with my bare hands just to get my face, neck and mouth wet.

My time was already 2 hours and I was on the flyover. I thought that the finish line was a little over 2K from that point and I needed to run at 6:00 pace to be able to match my PR. I couldn't! The fastest I could go was 6:30. My legs were dead, and every stride became a painfest. I started walking again.

Upon descending from the flyover, I had another surprise. The route was to go through 32nd street, run through the road between Market! Market! and Serendra then right to the finish line. It was farther than 21K! All my hopes were dashed in beating my PR. I was already at 2:10 when I was running in front of S&R, I wouldn't be able to run another kilometer in 2 minutes!

I relaxed my stride and alternately walked and ran the remaining distance. I had nothing to beat anymore except the race itself. I just wanted to finish and go home. The conditions throughout the race was nothing impressive, in fact, it was one of the worst.

I finished the race unofficially at 2:22, 10 minutes beyond my PR and 12 minutes beyond my target.

Botak organized one disappointing race. I had high expectations about this race and I guess I expected wrong. Though their brand name is Botak, they didn't know a thing about organizing marathons, worse, not even a thing about running in one.

I like to believe that I did the right thing when I still ran this race despite lacking sleep, but I guess it would have been better if I slept this one out.

Thumbs down on this race.