This past weekend, i finished the 8th annual St. Joseph's 5K Fun Run/Walk for Wellness with a time of 29:44.
My goal was to reclaim my old "glory" and finish a 5K in less than 30 minutes. I have my doubts about the course's distance, since my GPS watch informed me that I only ran 3 miles, but i'll just take them at their word. Part of the problem is that there wasn't a clearly-demarcated starting line (that i could appreciate, at least), so i only turned on my watch when i arbitrarily deemed that i had "started" running. Perhaps i merely waddled through the first 0.1 miles of the race looking for the starting line? Meh. These are the problems one runs into when the race doesn't use chip time.
At any rate, my watch says i did 3 miles in about 28:27. So even if i had continued to run another 0.1 at a 10-minute-per-mile pace, i would've come in at 29:27. Mission accomplished!
Moving forward - i was able to do a "recovery" run the day after the race with minimal soreness. Meaning, i think my overall level of fitness is continuing to improve. I "should" be ready to run a 10k (and perhaps a "full" half in the next few months).
Onward!
At least i have pictures where i don't quite look like i'm walking anymore.
Keeping fit while on vacation in the Philippines is a challenging proposition. The caloric ratio of the bakasyonista (vacationer) skews almost completely toward the "intake" part. The reunions. The buffet lunches and dinners. The meriendas (snacks) in between. The relatives saying kain ka pa (eat some more)! The drinking sessions. Sometimes all in the same day. One's guts expand to near-epic proportions while the metabolism struggles futilely to burn the overabundant fuel. Time, the most precious commodity of all during a two-week vacation, is carefully rationed between friends and family, and the intention to exercise gets violently shoved aside in favor of another gimik (outing). Weight maintenance becomes nigh-impossible and weight loss becomes LITERALLY impossible.
Since I have a 5k lined up for the end of January, I forcibly carved out some time to run. Jet-lagged and woozy for the first few days, I sadly couldn't bring myself to run at all. When Gianina and I went to Singapore (a story for another post), I was at least able to do a quick treadmill 3-miler at the hotel: my first "run" of the year. I was only really, really able to run a little over a week in.
Afraid of getting chased by askals (street dogs), I opted not to run within the borders of our village. But I heard that there were plenty of "exercisers" at the local SM Southmall, so I decided to drive out there and do laps.
Amazingly, there was a fantastic amount of activity going on in the SM parking lot. For the uninformed: SM is the name of a chain of shopping malls scattered (or rather, placed strategically) throughout the Philippines. These huge edifices usually have massive parking lots to accommodate the multitude of shoppers that arrive every day. Prior to opening, said lots are almost completely empty, making them prime areas for activities requiring lots of space.
There were runners/walkers, who looked like they had been there since the crack of dawn.
There were kids playing volleyball.
There was a group of what appeared to be police or private security company recruits marching around in formation. I didn't take a picture of them in fear of being labeled some sort of security risk and subsequently detained. One can't be too careful about these things.
Most interestingly, in two separate areas of the parking lot, there were some sort of dance classes/sessions going on. I would say Zumba, but I'd just be guessing.
Everybody seemed to really be into it. Unfortunately, I had no context whatsoever for what was going on. Were they organized classes that the participants had signed up and paid for? Or did they just "organically" start from a small group of people clowning around, accruing a bigger attendance as time went by? Personally, I wonder if this is the Filipino version of "Tai-chi in the park" like they do in China. I did an internet search about dancing in SM parking lots but didn't come up with anything. Perhaps we could market it as some sort of tourist attraction. If it turns into a global phenomenon, you heard it here first!
With much difficulty (I'm not accustomed to running in 85-degree heat with 100% humidity), I slogged through a slow 4-miler. My performance wasn't too shabby, all things considered. For the remainder of our vacation, I ran three more times, although never again at an SM. I don't know if my efforts actually paid off in terms of weight maintenance (all told, I gained 8 pounds in two weeks... perhaps it would have been more if I had been completely sedentary?), but at least I tried. We'll find out at the 5k if there's been any improvement in my fitness level whatsoever.
So while the rest of the running world was focused on the NYC marathon this past weekend, another race was going on across the country called the St. Joes Half and 5K. There's nothing particularly special about the race, but it was local and the timing fit in with my schedule, so I decided to run it. Anyway, I finished with a pathetic time of 35:01.
Really small. Interested parties can look at a bigger version here
I had initially thought about doing the full half-marathon (kind of oxymoronic, I know), but opted to to just the 5K instead. I tweaked my left calf doing a treadmill workout about a month ago and had to forego long runs for 2 weeks.
I was really trying to do a sub-30 5K, but in the end my time was nothing to write home about. Hardly anything to blog about either, but I leave it here mainly for documentation purposes and keep myself accountable. Not necessarily making excuses, but I will list 2 reasons for my poor finish:
1. The course was not a real 5K. It was 5K-"ish," at 3.4 miles (for some reason, they calculated the pace based on on a distance of 3.1), and
2. The total time was "gun time," not chip time. As somebody who hates crowds, I usually hang out around the back of the pack when the gun goes off. That was a few minutes wasted just waddling up to the starting line.
Encouragingly, based on what my GPS watch says, I would have come in a little under 30 minutes for a legitimate 5K. But the official race results are not based on my GPS watch. So... better luck next time.
There WERE some good things that came out of this race, though. For one, I invited our office staff to participate. Although they were hesitant to "run" the race, they were willing to walk it. So we had a fun "office activity" that promotes health and wellness.
I hope there's no copyright infringement of any sort here
Another good thing is that Gianina, Adrian, and I did the race together. The last one we did this was circa 2008, when I ran a 5K and Gianina pushed Adrian along in a stroller. Note that when I say we did it "together," I don't mean that we were holding hands or were tethered in any way, but we all entered the same race and went through the same course. Unfortunately Adrian did not have a very good experience, complaining of foot pain at multiple points all throughout. Maybe he needs fancy running shoes too. If he doesn't get soured on the whole running experience, maybe we can start running future races as a family.
We are the champions
On a side note, I have to practice being more "photogenic" while running. For some reason, all the pictures of me running look like I'm walking. Cases in point (and these are the good photos, too):
Adrian, on the other hand, just seems to naturally look good.
Proof of evolution, I suppose
I know it says "Half Marathon," but for some reason they gave these medals to everyone.
Apropos that it was raining the whole time, as it was a disappointing finish that capped an unfortunate series of interconnected circumstances.
I had been wanting to do the 25k, but because of my skiing mishap two months ago (which completely demolished my training schedule), had to shoot for doing the 10k instead.
In trying to get back into my groove after being cleared by my Orthopedic surgeon, i developed horrible left Achilles pain (i'm going to call it "Achilles tendinitis" for lack of a better term, even though i think it kind of implies that i'm more of an athlete than i really am) which limited my ability to rack up the miles. It still hurts after every run, and consequently i haven't even hit 10 miles per week.
At least i finished under 30 minutes at a semi-decent pace of 9:15, which i consider to be more of a consolation prize (for context, my PR is 27:09). It looks like i still have a fitness base to work from, but what kills me is the idea that i could have done the whole 25k at an even faster pace had i not been sidetracked. Or at least set a new PR, maybe even under 25 minutes (wouldn't that be something!).
Bah. Although i am given to introspection, i only allow myself a few minutes for self-pity. At least i've run one of the Fifth Third races, which i've always wanted to do but have never found the time to. And this Achilles pain definitely needs to be dealt with decisively so i can finish that elusive sub-4 marathon this year. Onward!
