Run Gopher: st. luke's [run] for wellness

I think the universe is conspiring to make my return to running a lot easier. Just like with my come-back run, I didn't have to pay for the registration of my second run for December.

Last December 07, I joined the St. Lukes Run for Wellness with my some of my co-faculty. Mia, one of the senior faculty members distributed free Run for Wellness prepaid cards at the office. They were from her husband, Ricky who works as a medical consultant at St. Lukes Global. (Thanks Ricky! Thanks Mia!)

Wow! Another free run! Fun run number nine! Who could say no to that? After we registered online, Mia and Ricky even picked up our running kits for us. Yey! Too bad they ran out extra large singlets. I got a large instead. Later, I read in the running fora that a lot of runners didn't get the singlet size they reserved. Hmmm... must be a miscalculation on the art of Proative, the run organizer. Anyhow, it was still a free run and also a charity run for Yolanda, so no complaints here :).

I ran 10k with my friends Edward and Chris. Both of them had a faster pace than I do but because of recent musculoskeletal pains, they both decided to run-walk 2:1 along with me. Chris eventually ran ahead of us. We also had other friends in the race, Mia, occupational therapists Krizza and Dane, and running newbie, Rom, but they ran under a different category. Having someone to converse with while running is really a big help. It keeps my mind from thinking about the distance I still have to run or the small aches i feel here and there. Near the end of the race, Edward and I met David, a chatty law professor from Fatima on his comeback run after several years of hiatus. Turns out David also knew some of TBR dreamers we've also met in the run. Small world indeed.

with Edward and David

(photo credit: Sherwin Guzman of Photo-Ops)

TBR dreamers

(photo credit: We Run for Good Health)

The run featured blue powder stations which we tried to avoid as much as possible. Haha. Spoil sport, I know. But we weren't able to avoid all of the stations and eventually got hit near the finish line. That stuff was difficulty to remove but at least it smelled good unlike the "colors" they used in Afterglow.

We crossed the finish line after 1 hour and 36 minutes (according to the finish line timer; the organizers haven't posted the official results yet). It was easier for me to stick to the 2:1 pace because I was running with another person. When we went back to the assembly area, we weren't able to get loot bags anymore because the organizers already ran out. Perhaps we ran too slow. Haha. We just took a few pictures and left to eat breakfast.

My running pace has improved and I didn't feel very tired and wasn't aching all over after the run unlike the after the first few fun runs I joined. The training is really paying off. Yey! :)