Level Up: Going Up 10 km

It has been three months since we last did our first fun run. I might have halfheartedly said that a 10 km run is on the horizon thinking that the chance might not come for a while. We have not thought that almost three months in and the opportunity actually came sooner than we expected. It was during breakfast after a Saturday dragon boat training that we got an invitation from a teammate to join in on an upcoming fun run. With no other plans ahead of us, we accepted the challenge. More than that, we agreed to sign up for the 10 km event. We already did 5 km in the last run, might as well level up.

Olympus Challenge

The Olympus Challenge is a series of running events throughout 2023 with categories ranging from 3 km to 16 km. Each leg is named after one of the Greek gods hailing from Mt. Olympus, with the Athena and Hades challenges already completed last January and March, respectively. The event we ended up going into is the Poseidon Challenge. Allie, the teammate who invited us to this run, arranged our registration for us, going out of the way to also pick up the singlet and other effects to be used during the run.

We would lie if we say we joined the run for the sake of running and not because of the pretty medal and finisher shirt designs. Our participation in the Olympus challenge was somehow an afterthought since we were initially inclined to participate in another run which would have taken place in UP Diliman but we did not make it to the registration cutoff. The Poseidon run would be held in a rather familiar place, at the CCP Complex were we also completed our previous run, albeit with a shorter course.

The 10 km route

Some Preparations, or Lack Thereof

Given that our target distance was far longer than we usually jog, we decided to start regularly jogging on weekdays as some sort of training for the run. At least that was the plan. As usual, we would visit UP Diliman to jog around the Academic Oval. We initially planned to make incremental progress with the distance as our "training days" would go by, but the inclement weather prevented us from doing so. While our first training session went by A-OK, the next one did not.

UP Diliman during a fair weather

The unpredictable August rain caused us to seek refuge at the UP College of Law during our second running session that we ended up sitting out the jog until the rain subsided. It was already late by then and we had to wrap it up as we still had jobs that morning.

Stranded at UP College of Law

The days quickly passed by and the day of the run arrived with us having minimal preparations.

The Day of the Run

On the morning of August 20, we headed out early to Liwasang Ulalim in Manila. A portion of Roxas Boulevard has already been closed off to traffic so we had a quick "warm up" walk to the venue where Allie had already been waiting for us. 

We donned our race bibs and deposited our bags as the crowd had their warm up. Soon we were also joined by a fellow paddler, Quinn, and the four of us started our own warm up routine being guided by Allie who has a running experience as a sprinter.

The gun start occurred at around 5 am and soon we were out striding along Roxas Boulevard. 

Running 10 km with minimal preparation might sound crazy but thankfully, Allie provided some method to this madness, giving out tips on proper running postures and breathing techniques which would help ease our way into the grueling run. I'd say, the run was also made easier with good company who you can talk with to pass time.

At set intervals, we would switch between running and walking but within just a quarter of the run, we were already soaking wet from perspiration—it was a clear Sunday morning. At one point, we also passed by another teammate, Joel, who was running the 16 km course.

Despite the distance, we felt that we had a better time compared to our last run, and we thought we still had the energy to push through. Though we ended up running at different paces, we all completed the course not far from each other.

Nearly there

At around 6:30 in the morning we had finished the course, clocking in at around one and half hours.

We did it!

We were handed out our complementary finisher medals at the finish line. With the sun already shining bright above, we headed for the nearest water stand to quench our thirst. Soon the venue was packing with finishers, some cooling down, others lining up for some freebies.

We also lined up to get our finisher shirts but to our dismay, the available sizes did not match the ones we had for the singlet (thankfully, Allie arranged for the replacements a few days later). We did not wait for the event to wrap and later that morning, we would have our post-run breakfast at nearby Binondo.

In Retrospect...

We could have done better with proper preparations but fortunately, we were at the time somehow fit enough thanks in part to our regular boat trainings and semi-regular home workouts. Now that we've done 5k and 10k runs, we can only aim higher, but the succeeding courses are nothing to sneeze at. But we learned a lot during this run, again thanks to our good company who provided us with helpful lessons on proper running.

I would end with a cliché on moving up to the next level, but we better prepare first 😅.