The last installment of the Run United Trilogy 2016 concluded last October 02 with the Run United Philippine Marathon.  This also marked my last pacing duty for the year where I volunteered for the 60-minute 10K.  Here’s my recap.

I arrived at our designated meetup point less than an hour prior to gun start.  Commuting so early in the morning isn’t as predictable as daylight hours and so some unexpected events along my trip caused me to arrive much later than planned.  This gave me some unnecessary stress before the race, but on the upside I got my early warm up.  A few minutes after putting on my pacer “uniform,” my co-pacers and I were formally introduced to the runners.  I can never get used to that limelight…

My co-pacers for the 60-minute 10K event, March and Alfredo

We started off a bit slow, as expected, due to the volume of runners.  But as our average pace is only six minutes per kilometer, it didn’t take us long to reach our desired speed.  We were only a few seconds off when we crossed our first kilometer.

The following kilometers were surprisingly very even, ranging from 5:45-6:09/km.  Unfortunately though, it seemed like not that many were interested with a 60-minute 10K this time so there weren’t that many that joined our group, and some of those who started with us weren’t able to keep up.  Lack of training?  Lack of motivation?  Even pacing unsustainable?  Were most runners in the longer distances?

As we approach the finish line, we were joined by other pacers from different legs who were expected to finish at around the same time as we were.  By that time, most of the runners around us were not from our pace groups.  It’s a little sad that I don’t feel like we helped that many this time.  I missed that time when we guided many runners to their first sub-60-minute 10K.  As unfortunate as it was, we were duty-bound to cross the finish line in 60-minutes whether anyone was interested to keep up or not.  We really did try though to get as many runners as we can to join us.

We completed our 10K about an hour and 36 seconds with respect to gun time.  Those that joined us to the finish should complete their race below 60 minutes with respect to their chip times.  You may view the official race results here.

To everyone who exceeded themselves last weekend, Congratulations!  See you on next year’s Run United Trilogy!

Special thanks to Mizuno PH for the photos!