PSE Bull Run

Much had already been written about criticisms regarding the race itself so I’ll skip that and talk about my personal race experience instead.

I knew there were a large number of runners in this event so I planned to arrive early to get a good parking slot and do a warm-up jog. I got to the Fort with lots of time to spare so I took my time going to the toilet and rubbing petroleum jelly on all the essentials. As I headed to the starting corral, I met and chatted with a couple of friends. Before we knew it, it was 5 minutes to the start of the race and we had to settle with starting at the back of the 10k pack since the corral was so full at this point and we couldn’t make our way to the middle.

At 6:05AM the PSE rang its starting bell and we were off. I was aiming for a good finish time so I had to zigzag among the slower runners quite a bit until I hit a comfortable pace. I ran the first kilometer in 5:30 despite having to dodge all the other runners so that was a good sign. A little further on, I caught up to Sen. Pia who I realized was running at about my target pace so I decided to tag along and make her my pacer. I hit 4:58 in my third kilometer and I was worried since it was much faster than my target pace of 5:20 to 5:30 and I might end up bonking later on. My legs started feeling like it would cramp soon since I wasn’t used to running this fast. I slowed down a bit the next kilomters to within my target pace.

I noticed the route deviated slightly from Bayani road by veering right towards the Libingan ng mga Bayani gate before making a u-turn back to Bayani road and down to C-5. This told me that the organizers measured the route and added the slight deviation, less than 400m total, to make the race exactly 10k.

I survived the uphill back to Lawton while keeping Sen. Pia within my sights, although I had to contend with some jeepneys and motorbikes who tried to overtake the runners. For majority of the race, my heart was practically leaping out of my chest at 95-97% of my max but I ignored that and just focused on maintaining my pace.

By the 9th kilometer, I was relieved I was able to maintain my pace the whole time and I was confident of exceeding my target time, although it was tough to mentally calculate my expected finish time when my heart had been redlining the past 50 minutes. I noticed that Sen. Pia had picked up her pace and I tried to follow suit but pretty soon, she was out of sight already.

I crossed the finish line at 53:41 according to my Garmin and 54:09 with the official timer, since I didn’t start my watch until I actually started running. The distance was exactly 10km, the first time I experienced such. I exceeded my target by 3 minutes, a good way to start the year!

Does Lack of Sleep Make Us Run Faster?

I recall reading in a couple of blogs and egroup emails how runners set PRs in races even though they slept only a few hours the night before, maybe 2 or 3 hours at most. I didn’t really think much about this until last Saturday when I set a PR of sorts when I wasn’t expecting to at a time that I also lacked sleep.

I did my long run much earlier than usual because I had a meeting later that morning. I started running before 5AM after barely 5 hours of sleep. That was a lot less than I usually get before a long run, but it was the only time I could squeeze in during my busy weekend. I was able to complete 26k in 2:51, which was my fastest non-race long run, just 2 minutes slower than my NB25K split time. I also didn’t feel so tired and I was still able to sprint a bit in my last 2 kilometers. I felt like I could’ve run a few more kilometers except that I already had to go home and get ready for my appointment.

My theories to explain what happened are as follows:

- Lack of sleep increases adrenaline, giving us that extra push to set a PR. I googled this and I saw at least once that sleep deprivation can actually increase adrenanline. Some scientific evidence at least

- I was simply pushing myself harder since I was conscious of the time I needed to get home for my appointment. Maybe.

- I had actually grown stronger than I think. Not likely since last week, I also ran long at a pace 40 seconds slower than I did Saturday, and I was so doggone tired after.

Maybe I should make it a point to sleep late before the PSE Bull Run this Sunday. I just need to make sure I got a couple of extra alarm clocks set that day.

2009 Running Goal

I reviewed my 2008 training log and the graph of my monthly mileage and pace came out like this:

For 2009, I want to duplicate how this chart looks like, except that my base for 2009 will be higher than 2008, and my average pace will also be faster. I may not always set a PR for monthly mileage or pace, but the trend in 2008 was pretty clear and I intend to replicate that for this coming year.

Running Form

Presenting the future Haile, according to his dad’s dreams, that is:

DATC Jr. is a tiptoe runner – is it actually better than heel striking?

He tends to keep his arms spread out, probably to help balance himself. In the future, I’ll teach him to keep his arms to his side to achieve economy of motion.

Hopefully, I can drag him to a race this year, since he loves to run around the house!

This post was inspired by Loony Runner