Hot Pink Coconut

We Ran For Home—10 Kilometers Away!

This morning, I joined my boyfriend, my friend Kimi, and my office mates at Run for Home, Globe and Ayala Land’s first ever organized fun run for a cause. It was a run of many firsts for us too: it was my first time to ever join a fun run (and 10k at that!), my boyfriend’s first time to run 10 kilometers, my first time to use my new Adidas running shoes and Kimi’s first time to use her new NB running shoes (haha)!

The day before the run, my boyfriend and I tried (tried, because we somehow failed at it), to prepare ourselves mentally and physically. The whole day Saturday, we pigged-out on carbo- and potassium-rich foods (hmm, I might have overdone this, heh). Come afternoon, we jogged at the PICC with our dog Chiquito (who ran longer and waaay faster than I did). Saturday night, we went drinking with friends to celebrate two birthdays. Actually, I didn’t have anything alcoholic, save for a strawberry Jell-O vodka shot which I couldn’t resist taking. Heh.

We slept late, around 1 am (I know, bad practice), and woke up at 5 am almost late for the event—gun start was at 5:45 am! Good thing it was Sunday morning, and we were just 10 minutes away from Boni High Street. We dressed hastily, rushed breakfast (i.e., bananas and water), then headed straight to the Fort. We got there approximately fifteen minutes to gun start for the 10K event, but we had to queue up for the baggage deposit counter to leave our bags. It was just frustrating that by the time we were able to check in our bags, the 5k and 3K events had already started! [Side note: I hope next time, the baggage deposit counter would be more efficient. I know it was our fault we were late, but the queue moved insanely slow, and it didn't help that there were a lot of people who were in line].

We ran with the 3K runners until we reached the part where the routes separated. It was a tiring start for us, we had to run so we could catch up with the rest of the 10K runners, otherwise we’d have to settle for the 5K event and we didn’t want that. About an embarrassing half-hour later, we reached the wonderful Buendia Flyover. The chance of running at Buendia Flyover was one of the main reasons we opted to run for the 10K event. To cut the long story short, by the time we got to the route’s turn in front of Mapua, I was already so tired. My leg and thigh muscles were aching, but I wanted so badly to get to the finish line, so I went ahead and left my friend Kimi. Thankfully, I reached the finish line in one piece.

I don’t know my exact time yet, but I have guesstimated to be around 1 hour plus more or less 40 minutes. Not a time to brag about for a 10K run, but hey, it was my first time to ever join an organized run so I’m not complaining. What’s important was that I got to enjoy the experience, though I really hope I’ll do better in my next run. Now, how do I prepare for my next run?

* More photos in my Multiply.