Mark's VO2

King Of the Road Indonesia 2011

King Of the Road Indonesia, originally uploaded by m8parco.

It was a great day, a sunny day perfect for racing. This was the first time we were going to run at Ancol. Ancol is a seaside amusement park at the north of Jakarta. We don’t usually go north because of the traffic so this was a treat. We expected big crowd because we were told that 3,000 people were registered to run. But it looked like a small crowd. The 16.8K race had no more than 150 people at the starting line. It was nice to run in a small race with a big budget. I can imagine the big field in KOTR Manila. The race felt familiar. The stage, the starting line, the banners, the people even looked like Pinoys, But it was a bit strange listening to the announcements in Bahasa.

The race started at 6:15. It was 15 minutes late because we had to wait for the Governor of Jakarta to arrive and give a short speech. Luckily it was a short speech.

The race was relatively well organized and runners started pulling away from me as I struggled to keep my pace at 5 minutes per kilometer. I decided to stop looking at the watch and run by feel. I wanted to run as fast as possible without building up too much lactic acid. But by the time we approached the 10 km mark I knew I was well off my target pace. I could not resist taking a peek and split was 53 minutes.

My training had gone from bad to worse but I was still hoping to run 5 minutes per kilometer. You can call me an optimist.

We had made it to the turnaround and I knew We were on our way back but I was already hurting. I struggled and walked every now and then the rest of the way. I would take a break at each water stop to drink and pour cold water on my head. Runners were passing me, girls, a guy with shades, a couple shuffling past me. It suddenly dawned on me that the 5K and 10K runners had merged with us. No wonder everyone was passing me.

I finally crossed the finish line in 1;29:00. Maybe next y ear I will do better. I slowly walked back to cheer Tiffin and to my surprised she was not too far away and she completed the run in 1:42:05.

Next race is the Stanchart Half Marathon at the end of October.

See you at the starting line.