Trailing Above The Clouds (Part 2)

The long wait for the gunstart made me antsy. The sun is about to comeout. In a cold misty morning, theres a chill that runs through my spine. A chill that wasn't caused by the cold weather but rather from the fear and anxiety that needs to take a back seat once the gun start fires.

Jared started the count down for the 21K runners:

10.. 9.. 8.. 7.. 6.. 5.. 4.. 3.. 2.. 1.. Boom!

There goes the runners in front and as I started running, I had my silent prayer and asked for strength, safety, and guidance. I begin with a fast short stride. I can only see Allan (a.k.a. Running Free Manila) through my peripheral vision. I need to keep stooping down and watch where I'm stepping at. The road was uneven and have stones where anyone could easily trip over. I tried to keep up with RFM so I think I was running fast. Running fast that I wouldn't do if only I knew what lies ahead. The locals are happy to see the runners. They probably don't know why we are doing this but they were certainly amazed and supportive.

Diversity of Trails

I occasionally use my camera and point and shoot in every direction. I do this with my eyes still focused on the ground where I'm going. I cant afford to sprain my ankle which I usually do just by walking on an uneven surface. Yeah I know, clumsy me.

We are now on dirt. We passed some residential areas. Where distances between houses are relatively far compare to residential areas in the metro. We passed spectators and greet them good morning to which they responded with happy eyes.

Then it became a narrow path. A single track where tall grasses brushes on my face. Well, I'ts not really that tall but those grasses are sure tall enough for me. hehehe! Good thing that I'm wearing a knee-high socks so my legs are far from the grass blades. I got this idea from Jared's blog post where he called it "nature inspired socks". Its effective except that from the knee up to my cycling shorts still feels itchy. Next time I will use my full tights for a total cover.

Next we turned right on a rice paddy. One should really be careful and balanced on top of pilapil (rice paddy dike). Otherwise, that one will find-out how deep that rice paddy is - and I don't wanna be that one.

I really don't have a good sense of direction. So when I noticed our parked bus, I was amazed that we were heading back to the starting line. Then I started to notice my heavy breathing. Neither can I walk nor take a rest at that point because there were lots of spectators who cheer on us passing runners. I don't want to disappoint them and see me walking. Good morning fans!! :P

If my recollection is right, we already passed two small streams of shallow flowing water on which I decided not to dip my shoes yet since its still the early part of the race. This loop only measures two kilometers based on my GPS watch. And yet, Pimco Sporting Events already stood by its promise of delivering the diversity of trails of this race.

This post is a continuation of Trailing Above The Clouds.

to be continued here ........