My Triple Bloopers at the Superbods Run

I found a way (make that three ways!!!) to turn a beautiful event into a bad one - almost.

When two of my running friends and I arrived at the Superbods Run, I was just amazed by the runners turnout. A little less than 12,000 runners from all walks of life participated. The little kids including babies on strollers (well I suppose they were just there to be watched by their yayas) up to the oldies.

Even dogs participated.

It promised to be a good event. Did it live up to the hype?

The Race: Was it Organized?

I could only attest for the 5K race and some. The color coding on singlets and bibs made the race category distinctions clear. You could tell the distance a person is running. And that helped the marshals and organizers control the crowd better.

A huge TV screen was also well positioned just in front of the starting line. Some twenty minutes before the race starts for the 5K, two thickly muscled men and a sexy lady led the way to some stretching and warming up. A few minutes before the race, a video tour of the race route was presented to the runners. That was the first route video presentation on race day I've seen since 2008.

Then the video countdown before the race starts. That was fantastic. Huge numbers flashed on TV screen counting down the remaining seconds up to the start. Just fantastic. Runners in front of me were so excited they were jumping up and down. :D While it was fun to see and witness up close, I think the wasted energy and the adrenaline rush at the starting line might prove disastrous for me. I need to conserve all my energy on running the 5K race if I want a new PR. So I did not jump and down and shout in excitement. I just stretched my quads and hamstrings up until the final second before we started.

My Race: How I turned a Beautiful Race Ugly

I was looking for a 5K race, I ran for 6K.

I started near the front of the pack, about the 15th-20th row. I can't get nearer than that. After the start signal, I had to maneuver over hundreds of runners to get a freeway and run against time.

I did have the freeway I needed after a 3:55 minute 1K. Unfortunately, my left shoelace got untied. Thankfully, it wasn;t the shoe where I placed the timing chip. This was the first of my three blunders of this relatively short 5K race.

After the 2.45K halfway point, I was running for 10:12 minutes (***8th among 1890 5k male runners). Then another blunder, I got mixed up with the runners going into the Rotonda Loop, when I was suppose to get out of it and ran back towards the Finish Line.

***Correction: I was not 8th after the 2.45K split, I was tenth.
Rank Bib# Name RkTot Cat RkCat FinishTime ChipTime Split_2k45
1 4624 Gerald Sabal 1 MB 1 00:19:57 00:19:55 00:07:53
2 4623 Jujet De Asis 2 MB 2 00:19:57 00:19:54 00:07:54
3 7515 Ben Alejandrino 3 MB 3 00:20:00 00:19:58 00:07:55
6 7166 Leowefred Zambrona 6 MB 5 00:25:30 00:25:27 00:08:51
5 6555 Ronald Salgano 5 MB 4 00:20:28 00:20:25 00:08:52
7 7053 Jun Rondilla 7 MB 6 00:25:34 00:25:31 00:09:00
4 6754 Jon Trimble 4 ME 1 00:20:15 00:20:12 00:09:10
54 3949 Rodrigo Narod Eco 71 MB 38 00:28:29 00:28:22 00:09:36
11 6943 Ryan Danguilit 11 MB 9 00:26:01 00:25:57 00:09:54
23 4449 Jayson Deuna 29 MB 19 00:27:04 00:26:55 00:10:12

I ran 3Km in 12:50 minutes (4:17 pace). Thanks to the untied shoelace and a wrong turn at the Rotaonda, I wasted a few seconds off my 4:00 min/km target pace.

My last and most unfortunate blunder of the race was to run an extra kilometer or more. I did not notice the turning sign for the 5K runners. Nor did some of the faster 5K runners I was running with. We got lost. We ran 6++ kilometers.

I did sprint to the finish and recorded a finish time of 27:04 minutes, ranked 23rd place. It wasn't my best race. But it was lots of fun. The uphill climb took the speed out of me. I did lots of blunders and I paid for it.

There were lots of runners and somehow, it boosted my energy and sense of competition. I was actually strong enough to outrun packs of runners in front of me from start to finish. I was also foolish enough to run more than the required 5K, maybe the race marshals should take part of the blame as well. Next time, I should memorize the race map and look out for race signs.

Overall: A Fun Fun Event

The face towel, the loot bag with a canned Tuna, the Gatorade drink and the Century tuna food at the finish line all made up for what was supposed to be an off day for me. I was tired and tested after a 6K run. The face towel, the food and the drinks were very refreshing. I got full after those Tuna Salad, a banana, Century Tuna turnover and Pandesal with Centura Tuna. I also got a tasty Nature Valley's Granola Bar. 

The run was very competitive with thousands of runners going at it. The freebies were plenty, delicious and healthy. There were also post-race events like the Go-See supermodel event and the Electronic Bike competition to keep the crowd excited. Elite runner Eduardo Buenavista took the first prize at the 21K category earning him a whopping P42,000, a new pair of Nike shoes and a Timex watch.

Click Below for the Race Results:

1. Men's Division 3K | 5K | 10K | 21K
2. Women's Division 3K | 5K | 10K | 21K

My 5K PR could wait. The sub-20 5K target was just not there for me in this race. I believe that in the end of it all, I was not just racing for a PR, I was racing to have fun. And last Sunday's Century Run, I got lots of it.