My fourth half-marathon happened on the 27th of April during the Nat Geo Run 2014 which took place in Bonifacio Global City. Having finished three half-marathons prior to that event, I was pretty confident that I would finish strong and well around my PR. Boy, was I truly wrong.

When it comes to mileage, I can say that I have enough of it as I do LSD (long slow distance) runs during weekends and go on maintenance runs on alternate weekdays. Also, I've been doing lots of uphill training which added to my confidence. You see, uphill runs are my ultimate weakness. I used hate to them big time. I still hate them now but I've learned to tolerate them since I started doing uphill training. This is why what happened during the Nat Geo Run surprised me.

I did my usual pre-race prepping. I had a light breakfast, chugged on some Powerade about an hour and a half before the race. I did my usual warm-ups about thirty minutes before the race. Three o'clock a.m. came and there goes the gunshot. I was feeling great that day. And then suddenly, I felt the urge to pee and I couldn't hold it in. I searched frantically for a restroom while going through the race route. When I found one, it took me minutes because there was a long queue of runners, all waiting to pee. When I was done, JC and I were almost at the tail. I knew right then and there that we're nowhere near breaking our PR. After that came a couple of hours of mishaps of all sorts. The route was really challenging and the long upward sloping roads were killers. Metaphorically, of course. I felt some cramping in my legs and some muscle pain on my back and arms. JC was having a migraine and was feeling feverish. It was totally disastrous. Hahaha.
 My Running OOTD:
Adidas KOTR singlet
Sassa running shorts
Timex Ironman watch
SLS3 calf sleeves
Asics Gel Noosa Tri 8 shoes

Even if we weren't feeling good that day, it never crossed our minds to quit. We pushed ourselves to finish the race. We made it like another one of our LSDs: we talked about random stuff, we laughed, we joked and goofed around all while running and that actually took out the pressure and the stress. We ended up enjoying ourselves and finishing the race in high spirits even though it was our SLOWEST half-marathon ever. Ugh, hahaha. But never mind that. For me, what mattered is that we did not quit and even managed to have fun.
rank: 2157 out of 2551, official time: 3:28:32

As for the event? I could say that it was a flop. There were lots of issues during the race kit delivery. Also, the singlet was of poor quality. The fabric was thick and it felt itchy against my skin. There were no portable comfort rooms provided along the race route so the runners had to go to gas stations or food establishments just to pee. And there were looong lines there. Then, I encountered one rude marshal. Hmm. The loot bag wasn't much but I didn't really care about that. The finishers shirt? Horrible! Because it said "21k/42k finisher at the back", with nothing whatsoever to distinguish between the marathoners and half marathoners. 

Overall, it was not a good event. And I would add this to my list of running events that I'll never join again. So much for my excitement over this. *sigh* Anyways, that's about it for now. Just keep posted for more of my running adventures and in this case, misadventures. :)