Subic International Marathon - My first 42.195K race

There's always a first time so to speak. Since last year I was alreay contemplating of doing a full marathon. For the last 2 years I was into duathlons & triathlons but never a full marathon. I learned last October 2007 when I joined at the White Rock Triathlon that there would be a Subic International Marathon dubbed 'Live your dream' sometime January 2008. No details yet at that moment. Since I just did a half ironman (2K swim 90K bike 21K run) so why not a full marathon then. My friends say it's just one leg on a full ironman (4k swim 180k bike 42k run). So I made up my mine to join and so are my training buddies. When the website for the registration was up I signed up immediately and started training. I joined the 25K New Balance Run at Clarkfields Pampanga last November 25, 2007 and it felt good. I said to myself I'm halfway to a full marathon. I tried to run 3 to 4 times a week for about an hour per session. News came that there would also be an international marathon at Clark (aptly dubbed 'Race to the Future') to be held Jan. 13, 2008 just a week before the Subic marathon. I suggested to my buddies that we also joined the Clark marathon but only for the 10K distance as tune-up to the Subic full marathon a week after. I broke my personal time for my 10K (Old PR = 56'. New PR 50:53'). I thought I was ready for Subic.

I left with my family for Subic last Saturday Jan. 19, 2008 and we stayed at the La Playa Papagayo where the manager is an elite triathlete, Frank Lacson. My buddies (Bong, Carlo & Chock) left very early so they could bike and check out the route. We arrived just before 4pm and checked in. My son Jan and I had some swimming and kite flying at the beach up to sun down. I did one swim loop at the bouy about 150m and back. Frank Lacson and his 9 yr. old son swam (drafting behind) to nearby island about 850m and back. He said they do this once or twice a week as part of triathlon training.

A running mate at Veterans in Quezon City told me to bring along some honey during the race for the glucose boost. I also gave my buddies their small plastic bags to try it out for themselves. My goal for my first full marathon was to run under 5 hours. But as my buddies had seen during their bike earlier most of the route has killer hills. Long steady uphills after the first 10K and very long uphill back after the turn around. I said I'm still sticking to my goal of sub 5 hours. We woke up at 3am to a pre-arranged breakfast of coffee, bread and pasta. Then we headed to the race start venue at 4:15am. There was already a crowd of runners gathering and checking in at the starting line. My family would be following later in the morning at the finish line at Remy Field quadrangle. The 42K would be starting off at 5am while the 21K would be at 6am. Bong would be doing his 1st 21K. Carlo and me would our our 1st 42K while Chock would be his 2nd full marathon. After a brief warm-up run around the tennis courts we proceeded to the starting line just seconds before the starting gun went off. It was still dark save for the street lights which were getting fewer towards the first 10K. I spotted a lady runner in a fitness first tri team uniform and paced with her. She was Arni (Laarni Anenias). Read about her in the fitness first egroup as a strong runner. I introduced myself as a new fitness first tri team recruit and if I could paced with her. I was able to stay with her pace till the 18th km where I slowed a bit on the downhill part towards Ocean Adventure turn around. Never caught up with her on the uphills going back. But I think I shedded a great time pacing with her. Her goal was also to finish sub 5hours but at the rate she was going she could easily do a sub 4 (Later learned from her after the race that she did about 4hr 30'. She ran-walked the last 5K).

The sun was up and scorching for the last 10K. I psyched up myself that I would be almost there. Every kilometer seemed so far and water stations were running out of water. Most runners in front of me were already walking. A couple of runners from the army were already taking it easy taking photos of each other with the port of Subic for their background. When I made it to the last 5K I glanced at my watch and I thought I still have more time to hit sub 5. A runner named Noni from the army ran along side me and was trying to keep pace with me. I told him if he was okay and he said he had cramps already but could still run. Iasked him he had power gels for his cramps. He gave me a strange look wondering what it was. Most of these army cadet guys were running on pure adrenalin. So I told him that we would just run-walk the rest of the way to the finish line to stabilize our heart rates down. So we ran for about 300m then would walked for about 15-20 seconds . We did this and we were over-taking runners who were walking already. Some would ran with us but would eventually fade away. When we saw the Subic yatch club I told Noni that we were near already. But we were a bit surprised that we still have to negotiate a whole block and enter at the side gate of the quadrangle. That would be almost 2K more. When we hit the last bend I could already hear the screams of my son & daughter. I saw my wife pumping her fist signalling me to hurry up. Oh if she only knew what I went thru. They ran across the field to the finish arch to meet me. Jan ran with me a couple of meters to the finish line. I did 4hours 45min. and reached my goal.

Whooah! I lived my dream!

Note: some pics at http://s23.photobucket.com/albums/b397/juls9265/Subic%20Marathon%20012008/