My 6th marathon for a cause a success! :)

Amazing! I completed my 6th marahon for a cause and raised more than P72,000 for PGH!

The fact that I finished in 5 hourrs 31 minutes, five minutes faster than my time last year, is icing on the cake. It’s still more than half an hour off my personal best, but when I think about the fact that I trained for only a month, I can’t help but be pleased.

This run was a series of firsts. For the first time, I had no bike support. It was also the first time that I didn’t book a room in Manila Hotel the night before. I normally stay in Manila Hotel the night before so that I’m right at the starting line when I wake up, but when I tried booking a room, the hotel was already fully booked.

Since I knew that I wouldn’t have bike support, I decided to run with a bottle of Gatorade in my hand and a couple of energy bars and energy gels in my pockets to make sure I could easily hydrate and re-energize in between aid stations. I also had a good breakfast . Knowing that I had enough fluid and energy reserves and replacements helped me stay focused on getting the job done.

The marathon started, as it always does, at 4:30am. I was tempted to speed up early on coz so many people kept passing me as soon as the marathon started, moving me towards the back of the pack, but I knew I needed to stick to my own pace. What worried me more was the fact that it was so humid, and I was already starting to sweat a lot.

But then, another first – a Gatorade aid station! Serving cold Gatorade! As it turned out, there was a Gatorade station every 2 kilometers, alternating with the water stations. This meant an aid station every kilometer. Wow!

photo taken by my friend Petite

I ran about 26-27 kilometers maintaining a more or less constant pace before I had to walk. I then alternated running and walking the rest of the way after that. I ran out of Gatorade at around the 30 kilometer mark and was planning to get a new bottle in Petron Treats in Buendia-Makati Ave but the Gatorade station at KM31 (i.e. on top of the Kalayaan flyover) very nicely refilled my bottle with cold Gatorade. Awesome! The Gatorade station at KM 38 did the same thing (which was helpful since there were no water stations left in the last 10 kilometers).

I managed to run the last 1.5 to 2 kilometers straight and had a pretty decent sprint finish for the last 50 to 100 meters. I missed out on the medals (I got one last year even with a worse time) but it doesn’t matter. I achieved my goals for the marathon and nothing beats that.

Thank you once again to all my family and friends. I wouldn’t have been able to finish my sixth marathon and raise more than seventy two thousand pesos for charity without your amazing support, encouragement, and generosity!

We did it!! 🙂