Come Hell or High Water

Remember that if you don't go to the starting line, you will never view the whole course with all its possibilities. And you will certainly never see the glories of the finish line.

-Amby Burfoot, The Runner's Guide to the Meaning of Life


The sound of a thousand horses galloping on the roof woke up the Marathon Foodie at 4:30 in the morning of August 16, 2009. You would think that the sensible thing to do would be to curl up in bed and enjoy the rain on a lazy Sunday morning. But no, it was the day for Rock and Run -- a race organized by the Spa and Wellness Association of Cebu to cap the province’s 440th Founding Anniversary.

It was all dark and gloomy and wet. A perfect day for running!

The Marathon Foodie was running in the 10K category and I wondered whether this rainy and gloomy Sunday morning would be a good day to finally finish under one hour in a 10K run. The Marathon Foodie’s best time is 1:01 set last June at the Kapamilya Run.

Cattski and Mary on their first 5K race.

It was also a big day for my friends Mary and Cattski as they would be running in their first 5K race. The week before, Mary and Cattski had burned rubber soles at the I.T. Park, and experimented with how music and beats per minute can be a tool for setting your race pace instead of the split times on a chrono watch.


When my posse and I reached the start/ finish area at the Cebu International Convention Center in Mandaue City, the rain was as fierce as it was at 4:30 AM. It was already 6:15 and the race should have started 15 minutes ago. We were afraid that the run would be cancelled due to inclement weather, but the runners who showed up were all willing to wait another hour for the rain to stop. And it did stop at 6:45.

Starting time and race course

All three categories – 3K, 5K and 10K all started at exactly 7:00 in the morning. The Rock and Run used a fast and mostly flat course traversing the North Reclamation Area, Plaridel Street in Umapad, United Nations Avenue leading to Super Metro Mandaue, part of MC Briones and back to CICC where we all started. The runners ran under heavy overcast skies and a light drizzle. The road was slippery, but there were no known mishaps during the entire race.

Road Marshals and water station

I’ve been hearing stories about how the Traffic Enforcement and Management (TEAM) of Mandaue is uncooperative when it comes to road races in their jurisdiction, but for this particular race, the road marshals from TEAM did a good job of manning traffic making sure that runners are given right of way at busy intersections, regardless of whether the traffic light was green, red or yellow. Maybe it helped that the motorists were behaved and mostly gracious during the Rock and Run. Yes, there were still tricycles (a permanent fixture in Mandaue City traffic), but there were no tricycle drivers from hell. Nope, even the notorious D’ Rough Riders bus drivers were behaved on that day. Except for one water station located along Plaridel St. right after the traffic light at U.N. Ave., all water stations had ample supplies of water and water cups.

There were just a few things that the Marathon Foodie wasn’t too happy about. The organizers could have done better with the singlet. It was atrocious. A woman runner wearing it would look indecent as it was too see-through, almost like wearing a net bag.

Also, I have yet to see a local race organizer provide a place where runners could securely leave their bags and change of clothes. This is the one thing organizers always miss out on -- not all runners have cars where they can leave their things.

All in all, the Rock and Run met all the minimum requirements of a well-managed race.



To entertain ourselves, we held our own aero dance party at the CICC parking lot. The organizers set up a kickass sound system for the mini rock concert, which was canceled. Disco music was blaring instead. Kinahanglan ug photoshop ako pits!

The organizers had originally planned to feature a mini rock concert at the finish line to entertain the runners after the race, but it was canceled due to bad weather. But trust runners to have as much fun with or without a mini concert.

That plan was all well and good, but personally, the Marathon Foodie thinks that they could have done better if the organizers (spa owners and wellness entrepreneurs) played up to their strength and expertise, by providing free hilot and massage at the finish line for let’s say, the first one hundred finishers.



Stuffed with pancakes

So how did the Marathon Foodie fare in this race?

The Marathon Foodie treated the race like a usual tempo run at the track. Slow start at the first two kilometers, moderate speed at the next four kilometers, faster at the 7th, 8th and 9th kilometer till the finish line. I only found my kick at 1.5 KM to go. Maybe I should have pushed harder.

The Marathon Foodie clocked 1:01 with an average race pace of 6 minutes 10 seconds per kilometer. Exactly the same length of time it took me to finish 10K at the Kapamilya Run last June. I would have wanted to register a time of 59 minutes or less, but it was not to be. I wanted to race Donna Cruz, but she was way too fast for Marathon Foodie. Donna is such a beauty on the road and makes running look so easy. Donna Cruz placed 6th while the Marathon Foodie placed 10th.

My BFF Mary Valero did much better at improving her time. Her previous record for a 3K is 38 minutes. At the Rock and Run she finished 5K in 42 minutes. Although the distances are different, her average pace greatly improved. Cattski, Cebu’s rock goddess, finished her first 5K in 37 minutes despite her constant sleep deprivation.

"This is the size of your stomach. You eat more than this, you're overeating." -- channeling our inner Cynthia Alexander

We capped our morning with brunch at Bo’s Coffee Club at the I.T. Park. We drank coffee, ate pancakes and omelets and contemplated on the size of our stomach.

Next race: 4th University Run on August 23.

Photo credit: All photos are courtesy of Mary Adrienne Valero-Lood