MP, AQ, DB, and BE all agreed it was a crazy plan but, addicted runners as we are, we all turned up for the 4-hour trip the next day with our running shoes and gear in tow.
Friday night was the usual drinking spree of Sanmig Light and Grand Matador Brandy. I sneaked off to my bed at around 1:15am. The drinking spree ended at 3am with AQ, BE and MP still there. I felt since we all slept late, it would be bad for us to wake up early for this run.
Nevertheless...the phone's alarm clock rang at 6am.
I woke up trying to fight the laziness to go back to bed, and put my running gear on. I woke up the rest of the gang and, surprisingly, they all donned their gear as well. MP brought his Nike hydration belt since there'll be no water station to assist us on this trip. And so, at 6:30am, the first(?) Laiya 10k began.
We had to pass through about a 400m dirt road off the resort just to get to the main road. We setup our stopwatches and my NSTB and off we went on a 7min/km pace.
This was everyone's first here so we had to watch out for dogs (fortunately there were none who took interested on our sweaty legs). Bystanders were in awe as well since they saw these 5 (stupid) guys destroying a completely relaxed vacation away from Manila.
"Running team kayo?"
"Kaya mo pa abutan yun!"
Those were some of the chants we got from them which was quite new to me since I don't encounter cheering when I run races at The Fort.
At the 5km turnaround point, we all went to our preferred paces: MP and DB zooming off, BE increasing a little, while AQ passed me to run his pace. I remained on my pace although I started slowing down to about 8min/km (haaay, maling strategy na naman). I later found out from MP that the 7min/km pace that I started with was too fast for a warm-up pace.
The route back was a killer in terms of slow inclines and turns. But it was all worth it.
Towards the 7km mark, I saw BE covering the back of his neck with his palm since the sun started to shine already. Good thing I wore my trusty cap and switched it a la Robin Padilla to cover the back of my neck. Ayos.
BE started to get thirsty so he had to make a stop at a roadside carinderia in which the tindera obliged to give him water from their cooler. It was about 9km at this point. He zoomed off when I told him the remaining distance.
I clocked in last at 1:12 when I reached the finish. All of us tired but smiling towards our way back to the resort. It was a great run. It was now time to go have our breakfsat buffet and hit the beach to relax.
Saraaaaaap!
Btw, the NSTB for this race can be found here.
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