The First 10K

Finally, the wait is over... TODAY is the RACE DAY!

I woke up at 4am after a mere 3 hours of sleep, showered and got ready for the race: my heart fluttering with excitement and dare I admit, a bit of fear of not being able to complete the 10K. There was reason to be fearful. Hell, I haven't run more than 5.4K in one go in my life!

After getting to the race venue: Ocean Drive, SM Mall of Asia (largest mall in Asia), my first visit to this famed mall, it wasn't difficult to find the crowd of racers. After checking in (check-in = a line with a blue pentel pen on the race number.)

My race number

I realized it would be better to totally relieve myself before beginning the race and so joined the unending, wriggly line infront of the portalets (portable toilets). I must tell you, it's NOT a pretty sight in there and not much of an olfactory delight either :P

While I was still lined up, I saw this huge swarm of people gushed forward. I didn't even hear the gun being fired! I just stood there supinely ignorant and I started 7 minutes after the "official" start of the race. Sure it's good to be timely but to start a race five minutes before 6am?!?

I had asked several veteran runners about how to survive at least an hour of non-stop running. "Just focus on finishing it, they said and pace yourself", and so that's what I did. There were some pleasant surprises: just when I thought we finished 3 and a half K, I realized we had jaz passed the 5K mark in 31 minutes, my personal best. The last 5K were naturally harder than the first 5K but I just continued without really ever going slower than a brisk walk pace.

And before I realized, we were near the finish line though it was completely out of sight. I plucked up the final gush of energy, sprinted and dashed forward and lo and behold, I had made it. My FIRST 10K.

My time: 1hr, 11minutes

I realized it hadn't really been as hard as I imagined. So I already came up with some lofty future goals:

The Yakult 10-miler (16K)

Then, a half-marathon (21.2K) and then finally a MARATHON (42K)...hehe

Kudos to the race organizers, it was arranged very well. The route was unambigous and the directions were very clear and well laid out. There were drinking stations every 3K or so, plenty of patrol men and patrol cars. It seemed a family outing of sorts for some: many people lined the pavements probably there to cheer on some family member or friends.

Oh, there was a goodies bag for finishers...

The goodies bag

Inside the goodies bag...

I was shocked to see a Men's Health back issue in the bag... I remember there were two lanes near the finish line. Since I was the only girl nearing the finish line at the time I finished (there were many more male participants by the way) and in my mad dash to the finish line, I had entered the male finishers lane before realizing the mistake and subsequently swerving to the adjacent female lane. I wondered if I had been handed a MALE goodies bag. What other reason could there be to have different lanes for the 2 sexes?

But NO, I found out, EVERYONE got the same goodies bag. Men's Health happens to be one of the major sponsors of the race hence the issue being included.

After the race, we had a scrumptious English breakfast at Pancake House. The Cinnamon Toasts were great... Then I hit the bed to make up for my heavy heavy sleep debt.