[Race Review] National Geographic Run 2016

National Geographic Run is an annual running event here in Metro Manila. This year’s race will be simultaneously held on the same day (4-17-2016) at different cities in Asia, namely Manila, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore and Taichung.

Since I just recently wanted to get back in shape, I decided to go back to the running scene. Nat Geo Run 2016 was my first 10 km in around 5 years thus I was a little anxious on my performance. I have been training for a month on a treadmill but I know it can’t replicate the actual road conditions of a race/running event.

For this race, I have asked my triahlete friend to pace me since I know that this will be quite gruelling for me. Also, nothing beats having someone to talk to during the entire race.

Since this is my first running event in BGC for quite some time, I really didn’t know what to expect with regards to the venue before the race starts, this includes the parking areas and traffic scheme.

I arrived in BGC at around 4:30 am but the parking areas nearest the starting line were all full so I needed to go around to look for an alternative parking spot. Unfortunately, it took me some time to look for one and it was a few blocks away from the starting line.

I was already dashing towards the site a few minutes before the 10 km wave was about to start when I realized that my Jaybird X2 Bluetooth Headset was not with me. I had to back track to my car and look around the path I went to check if I dropped it while I was dashing. Neither did I find the headset on the path or inside my car. I decided to try to look again inside my car after the race since my wave already started and my friend was already waiting for quite some time at the starting line.

Me and my pacer were one of the few ones who went last on our wave. We had to catch up with the rest of the pack. I already dashed towards the starting line from my car, thus I already consumed some energy. Nevertheless, I tried my best to overtake the runners ahead of me one by one untill we reached the pack. My pacer and I used the “run-walk-run” interval technique since I was really not in a racing shape and it worked. I was able to finish in a respectable time (from the last to start to the middle of the pack). Overall, I was quite happy with my first 10km run in years.

Notes about the event:
The run was well organized and was relatively safe. There were the standard announcers, starting and finish line timers, medics, marshalls and post-race freebies. Though, I would have liked to have more water stations, probably for every 1.5 km rather than every 2 km. It was not really a good idea to have a different starting line and finish line, BGC and McKinley Hill, respectively. Most runners were already exhausted and tired from their run and the organizers expected them to ride a bus or walk back to their cars in BGC.