Bitoy's First Ultra: Mayon 360 A 50 Mile Run for Climate (3 of 4)

After the 40th km mark

Past 40 kilometers, I planned to change my run/walk ratio to 5:2 and then shift to 4:3 after 20 kms more. This somewhat gave me more time to rest my legs and take a breather. Another thing was I was getting a bit bored. I love the countryside but the silence was making me sleepy. I wore my earphones and soon, I was lipdubbing while running or singing along when I was on walk breaks.

During the orientation, I overheard some runners talking about having lunch in Jollibee. Now, Jollibee, as you all know is the quintessential Pinoy fastfood. This was the one thing on my mind for the past couple of hours. I was thinking of the juicy burgers and fried chickens and those crispy fries. These taste better than the mini-bars of Cloud 9 I've been munching. I thought it was just a few kilometers after the 40 km mark. But I was wrong. I saw the sign of the happiest bee in the world approximately at the 53rd mark. All the exasperation seemed to dissipate into thin air upon entering the store and smelling the langhap sarap aroma of the food on the counter. Never mind the curious stares of the other patrons. I ordered my spaghetti and took a seat upstairs. The spaghetti was gone faster than you can say the word. I rested for a bit to refresh. The sun was getting hotter and it will get hotter and hotter as the afternoon ripens. After a very long toilet break to do stuffs that are 'TMI' to mention, I left the store and headed back to the dusty road of Tabaco City.

Just a few minutes on the road, a tryke was approaching me and the driver asked me to get in. I just rolled my eyes and pretended not to hear him. If I were just in a nasty mood I could have said either of two things to him: 'Don't insult my intelligence, manong! I trained hard for this!' or 'Manong, pwedeng hanggang Pampanga?'.

I was never competitive with others in the previous races that I joined and contented with just improving my time or if it is a first time in a specific category, finishing it in a targeted time would suffice. In the first station I encountered after my lunch break, one volunteer informed me I was on 27th place. Hmmm, not bad. Why not take it up some notches higher to 25th? Two runners overtaken and I think I could 'tackle' a few more. I think it was less than 7 kilometers when I was able to overtake 5 more runners and secured the 20th position. However, I didn't breeze through it. A fellow runner kept trailing from behind me some hundred kilometers. When I would take walk breaks and see him getting close, I would shift gear and get back to running again.

Aside from the exhaustion, another challenge I had to battle with was the extreme heat. The sun was furiously shining and its position didn't enable the trees to provide enough shades. I remember having to be poured with water on the head on every station that I approached to keep me refreshed. Never mind the curious bystanders. The cold water (for most stations) alleviated the hot feeling.


Worth mentioning was the shift of my run-walk ratio to 4:3 at the 60th km mark. I was running slower by then, not exerting too much effort and saving some energy for the kilometers ahead. The good thing about this ratio is that the pocket of time to run is not that long and before you know it, you're off enjoying another walk break. 

A few kilometers to the finish line, I was also becoming impatient. I noticed this when I was nearing the Legazpi City proper. I encountered some nosy bystanders who would ask me questions in Bicolano and rather than being abrupt, I chose to just ignore them. You have to give it to me. I have been running for more than ten hours at that time and would not appreciate being quizzed.

Up next, crossing the big finish!