A week after that devastating Milo Marathon finish, I trained a week after – for 3 weeks (courtesy of Coach Alfred Delos Reyes) with all the requisite strenght trainings (c/o Van Denn Cruz), speeds & LSDs. I had my gels & saltsticks ready and travelled 300 kms to get to the starting line and what do you know? All it took was a mere final 1.5 kms to nip my Milo dream off its bud.
T’was a controlled pace in the first 3 kilometers (at 5 mins/km) with Rollie DC pacing me along with Payasso boys Ariel Tuto Aquino, Chad Akol, Arnold Banaay along the rolling terrain of Lucena. Then the boys disappeared in the distance as I kept hammering with what I hoped was a sub-5 mins/km pace (KM 10 was reached at 51 minutes).
Then came the second half with its steady but continuous ascent as the sun revealed Lucena’s scenic places. In the final turn-around (about the final 6.5 kms), I was flying with the music and the cool weather pushing me downhill. I was hitting my target times using a 1:50 pacelet.
The moment I saw the SM tower (the final kilometer) was when the cramping went full blown and I had to slow down – drastically. I couldn’t find an alternative style of jogging without aggravating the little devil – even tried moving sideways but to no avail. The clock was ticking but I forced myself to keep moving and finally reached the finish at 1:56:05 (a minute beyond my qualifying time).
And so ends my quest for my Milo Marathon qualifying time. But who knows, exactly next month, it will go up to 2:00. Nah, I’m going back to the trails for the mountains are a-calling…
Call me Mr. Cramper and I won’t take offense.
Epilogue. My final time of 1:56:05, I would learn later was only 6 seconds over the qualifying time of 1:55:59. Sorry I wasn’t aware that 59 seconds or less the official qualifying time of 1:55 was still acceptable. Now had I pushed myself easily during those final meters, I would have easily qualified but it’s those lessons in running which would keep me going. Anyway tomorrow (Oct 1), my new qualifying time will be 2 hours for my new age category.
Photos by Dan Alvarez Sagayap and Runaholic.