My race report on the Condura Skyway Marathon 2011 held on Feb. 6, 2011. I did the half-marathon distance. The report has a similar format as my Perfect Race blog post.
- Water Stations: Many and well stocked. Some had sponges. It's a good thing I still brought my hydration belt because at the second half of the race, a 1.5km interval between stations is still too far for me. I needed to drink more frequently. I didn't notice water stations at the finish line.
- Cheering: Yes. From the Takbo.ph station at Buendia and near the end of the race.
- Route: The route was nice and simple. But the rolling hills of the Skyway and the Kalayaan flyover were hard.
- Traffic management: Very good. There were no cars on the route.
- 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: They gave a nice T-Shirt. I didn't use this in the run.
- Timing chip: Yes.
- Race Results: Were already out that night.
- Photos: Yes. They used Marathon-Photos. But for the free downloads, PhotoVendo is much better.
- A run for charity: For the dolphins of Bohol.
- Finisher's shirt: None. But I used the T-Shirt they gave as my finisher's shirt.
- Finisher's medal: Yes.
- Injuries: None. Thank God!
- Personal Best: Yes! It's my first, so it's automatically a personal best.
PERFECT Race Experience Index: PERFECT
Things I really liked:
- The route was great.
- Results were out that night.
- Hassle free claiming of loot bags.
- The finisher's medal.
- I finished my first 21K!
Things that they can improve on:
- Use PhotoVendo next time.
- Water stations at the finish line.
- The Skyway can be too quiet. And for the back-of-the-pack runners like me, it was quite lonely. Cheering squads spread along the Skyway would be great.
- Flatten out the Skyway :)
Condura Skyway Marathon Race Results can be downloaded here.
My Story
Excited with my first half-marathon, I only had around 1 hour of sleep when I woke up at 2am. Training for this race since October last year and being able to do a 21K and a 24K long run, I was quite confident I'll be able to at least finish this race. My other target of finishing it around 3 hours is another thing. Although I practiced that pace, this is my first 21K so I didn't really know how I'll do.
I set my strategy to be a 4:1 run-walk ratio. I decided to simply just use my watch to guide me on when to run and when to walk instead of using the Run Mate application of my iPod Touch which I normally use. I didn't want to risk an iPod strapped to my arm to cause fatigue later in the race. As a backup strategy, I created my own music mix that will do the prompting for a 2:1 run-walk ratio, and loaded it in a small clip-type mp3 player (a Shuffle knock-off). I also planned to do a 30:30 or simply walk up the Skyway and Kalayaan flyover on-ramps and any other steep inclines that I encounter. I also wrote on my forearm the 5K, 10K, 15K, 18K and 20K splits I needed to finish in 3 hours.
My wife, who was doing her first 16K, and I arrived at Ayala Ave. before 4am. We got off at Ayala and my father brought the car to Bonifacio Global City (BGC) to wait for us at the finish line. Thank you Papa!
At around 4:30am, I said my prayers, then off we went. I expected fireworks to signal the start of the race but there were none. It's always surreal a few hundred meters into the race. It's dark, and quiet except for the sound of hundreds of footsteps.
As an obedient Galloway student, I already took a walk break after the first 4 minutes. And did the cycle until the Skyway on-ramp. Going up, I did a 30:30. Then at the top, I saw a foreboding of things to come.
Endless rolling terrain. Ascents and descents with hardly any flat parts. Negative thoughts started to flood my mind - 15K of this! Why the hell did I choose this as my first 21K. Galloway better work. This is going to be a very long walk. What if I need to go, where are the portalets. Etc. etc.
Fortunately I snapped out of it and I tried to think positive - Good thing I did my weekly hill repeats. The leg and core strengthening exercises that I did will help. It's just 4 minutes at a time then I can have a walk break.
It worked! I started enjoying the run. The Skyway is an excellent course. From the start, up to the on-ramp, it was crowded. But once on the Skyway, it suddenly thinned out. Where did everyone go? Did some of them fall off the Skyway? They probably just left me behind. But It's great that you can have the whole road to yourself and other runners. And, I saw where the portalets are.
Even though I was doing ok, there really were more hills than I trained for, so I decided around 5K to switch to plan B. I took out my earphones and plugged it to my mp3 player. I started doing a 2:1 run-walk as insurance. But since my 5K split is only a little under my target, I knew already that a 3:00 finish is not for today. But that was ok - think positive.
With a switch to a 2:1 ratio, the race became more enjoyable. Still hard, but enjoyable.
Using the music mix that I created also helped steady my running because I inserted a metronome sound at 166bpm that guided my cadence. So the music starts with the 10 second intro of "Miss Independent" by Ne-Yo, this prompts me to run, then for two minutes there's just the metronome sound that guides my cadence or stride rate. After two minutes, the 10 second intro of "Beautiful Soul" by Jesse McCartney prompts me to walk. Then 1 minute of silence. I just set this to loop in my mp3 player.
In this race, I noticed that there were more runners doing the run-walk-run strategy too. Some were even in a group with the pacer doing hand signals when going into a walk break. The others, I would pass while they were walking, and would pass me when I walked. I knew they were doing a structured run-walk-run because they didn't look very tired when they were walking, unlike the others who looked exhausted or injured.
A problem with a run-walk strategy is that there are two aspects in a race that disrupts the cycle. First are the water stations. You need to slow down or even walk to drink. Slowing down or walking to drink during a run portion will definitely add seconds to your finish time. There was only one time when the start of my walk break was right at the water station. Mental note - devise a simple process to compensate for this - and Maths during a race is not simple. Second are the photographers. You can't be walking when there are photographers, right?
I expected that the way back to the Skyway Buendia off-ramp would be as rolling as the way right after the on-ramp. I was pleasantly surprised and very thankful that it was mostly downhill.
The foot of the off-ramp upto the intersection of Buendia-Osmena Highway was the worst part of the course. It was very noisy and polluted. But I still needed to smile because of the photographers.
At Buendia, which was at around 16K, I already felt really tired. My legs still felt fine, but I felt tired. And hungry. Luckily, the Takbo.ph aid station was near and they served bananas. Thanks Takbo.ph for the banana and the cheers! A few meters after Takbo.ph was Condura's aid station which also served bananas. I got another one.
I noticed a lot more injured runners in this race. They were limping along; sitting on the curb massaging a knee, hip, calf or quad; or being attended to at a medical aid station. I don't know if since it's my first 21K, it's really like this for 21K or 42K races, or, a lot of runners didn't prepare properly for their distance. Either way, I hope nothing serious happened to any of them.
After crossing Ayala Ave., I picked up my pace a little until the foot of the Kalayaan flyover. I decided to walk the on-ramp of the flyover. I already felt really tired and might bonk if I run up - not when I'm so close. At the top, I realized I already passed the last hurdle and will definitely finish fine if I just stick to my pace and 2:1 run-walk ratio. Just two kilometers left!
Then I'm down the other side of the long flyover. One kilometer left and my heart is beating faster because of the excitement. I can hear the music blaring from the finish line. Follow that music!
Finally I'm on the last turn on 9th Ave., a few hundred meters from the finish line. I can see the finish line and people are cheering on the side. Then, my left calf suddenly cramped! Arrghh! It was so painful! Not now! I'm not stopping now and I didn't. I grit my teeth and endured the pain. I ran to the finish line dragging my left leg. Good thing I was wearing shades as my eyes were starting to well up with tears, maybe because of the pain or because of the thought of finishing. Probably because of both.
I raised both arms as I crossed the finish line at 3:07. Almost two hours after the 1st placer and more than 1,500 runners ahead of me. But I still felt like a winner!
Right after crossing the finish line, the race director, Coach Rio congratulated me. I thanked him and we exchanged high fives. Thanks Coach Rio and congratulations too for a great race.
Then a few meters later I was met by my smiling wife proudly wearing her 16K medal. We congratulated each other, hugged and kissed. We then proceeded to get my medal. She insisted on ceremoniously putting it on me.
One of the reasons a lot of people, including me, go for the 21K is because of the reward of a medal. I love my medal, it reminds me of what I have accomplished and what I had to do to accomplish it.
After all the training and after crossing the finish line, I have come to realize that my real reward is not the medal. It is getting to know myself a little bit more.
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