My race report on the Quezon City International Marathon (QCIM) 2 held on Dec. 5, 2010 at the Quezon City Memorial Circle/Commonwealth Avenue. The report has a similar format as my Perfect Race blog post.
My goal was just to finish this because my right calf has been painful since the past week and I didn't want to get it seriously injured. My strategy was to do a run/walk/run with a 4:1 ratio and run the run portions at around 8:30 min/km. I felt the pain in my right calf all throughout the race. I stayed with my planned pace and run/walk ratio until the half-way point and turnaround. After the turn-around, I still felt ok and still had a lot of gas left. My wife, who was with me up to that point, told me to go ahead, and I decided to increase my run pace to around 7:15. At around 8 km, I didn't take walk breaks anymore and ran all the way to the finish. As it was mostly downhill for the last 2 kms, this allowed me to increase my pace some more and have a strong finish. According to my Garmin, I finished with a time of 1:19:06 for a distance of 9.46 km with an average pace of 8:21 min/km. The organizers of the race said that the PATAFA certified the different race distances, so it should be accurate (I hope).
- Water Stations: Many and well stocked. No need to bring your own hydration although I still brought mine since I still had no experience with this race organizer before. I won't bring next time. There was enough Powerade and water. And water and Powerade were readily available at the finish line.
- Cheering: None
- Route: I loved the route. It is a very simple out-and-back course. Commonwealth Avenue was very wide, and it was more than enough to accommodate all the runners. Concerns were raised before the race regarding pollution, but during the race, I wasn't bothered by this.
- Traffic management: There were no cars on the route. I expected a lot of angry motorists blaring their horns, but I didn't notice it.
- Kilometer Markers: There were markers but it was still not at every kilometer.
- Weather: Cool.
- Marshals: There were enough and they knew what they were doing.
- Singlets: The singlets were nice and was of similar material as the ones from Globe Run for Home. But I decided to wear a running shirt.
- Timing chip: None.
- Race Results: Was already out the next day.
- Photos: None.
- A run for charity: I don't think it was.
- Finisher's shirt: None.
- Finisher's medal: None for 10K.
- Injuries: My right calf hurt even before the race, and this race probably made it worse.
- Personal Best: No.
PERFECT Race Experience Index: PERF
Things I really liked:
- I really liked the route for the 10K. PATAFA certified. Simple. A very wide road. Not noisy nor polluted because of vehicles. The downhills on the way back helped me a lot.
- Hydration was more than enough.
- It was amazing seeing the Kenyans glide. These athletes should inspire the locals to level-up.
- Results were out the next day.
Things that they can improve on (I'm from Quezon City, and I really would like this race to evolve into a great annual event):
- For an "international" race event, timing chips should be standard for all race distances.
- There were no finish line clocks for the 10K distance and shorter.
- They could have done a better job at disseminating the road closures and rerouting.
- More portalets at the start/finish and on the route.
- There were many kilometer markers, but why can't they put one at every kilometer? Also, the different markers confused me at the beginning.
- For this race to really become world-class and become the city's tradition and showcase, the Quezon City government should give its full support and spearhead this race.
QCIM 2 Race Results can be downloaded here.
Race results came out earlier than most other races but distance indicated for many 10K runners (including you and me) was 5K. :-(
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