Aaand the craziness goes on. As if running my first 50km run wasn't enough, I registered for my second one just a couple of months after. June 21st was the date. I figured this would be my revenge run. Wrong! Wrong, wrong, wrong.

I had an off-season during the months of May and June for two reasons. First, May and the first two weeks of June were prolly the hottest this year. Second, I have this really weird work schedule which made it very difficult for me to train. I would go to work at 2am and go home at 11am. Which meant that I couldn't run before my shift because it would probably be very dangerous then and I couldn't run after because it would be scorching hot. Also, this new schedule tends to tire me out a lot, maybe because my body was having a hard time adjusting. 

The day before race day, a few mishaps happen as luck and timing would have it. I had a little panic attack because all the athletic stores I frequent in the Makati area ran out of Saltsticks Caps, and you know how much I rely on them. As a last resort, I called the Toby's branch at this mall in Pasay and found out that they have three bottles. I asked them to reserve one for me and told them that I would be there in thirty minutes. Good thing the traffic cooperated. So problem solved. Then that night, I hard time sleeping because I was a bundle of nerves. Come race day, I was feeling very jittery. A few seconds before gun start, I heaved a sigh and hoped for the best. A few seconds more and off we went. 
before the start of the race

I had a plan that day and I tried my best to stick to it. I did my usual run-walk strategy and it worked for me. The route during the first half was mostly flat and I was able to maintain a comfortable but quick pace. I stopped at every hydration station for a drink but I didn't eat any of the fruits that they offered. I saw the Team Ayala Triads support vehicle twice but decided to pass because I was still feeling okay. On the third time that I saw them, I finally decided to go for a quick stopped. I was handed an egg and just in time too, because I was feeling a bit hungry by then. That was around the 20th km or something. I still managed to maintain my pace and I reached the 30th km at a little past four hours. I remembered seeing this bridge across a wide river, and I dawdled for quite some time to admire the view. Sir Jay from my Team Ayala Triads caught up with me, and decided to pace with me. Which was a good thing because having someone to chat with along the route kinda distracted me from how tired I was.

What came next where the toughest 18-ish kilometers of my life. It was on this long stretch of road going to Kaybiang Tunnel in Maragondon, Cavite where it was mostly up-hellish-hell. I was already exhausted, my knees were aching, and my calves were burning. We had no choice but to walk along the whole thing. There were some downhill parts on which we ran but like I said, it was mostly uphill. Upon reaching the u-turn, I hydrated quickly and had a snack. Then we started on the route back. We ran every time we could and stopped whenever I would feel some pain in my left knee. We finally reached the rough road going to Bonifacio's execution site and was told that we were near. Wrong. It turns out that it was more than two kilometers long. Huhu. Paasa. It was already past eight hours when we reached the finish line. I was relieved but a little bit disappointed. So much for my revenge ultra. Hahaha!
posing with my signature bungingis face after surviving 50+ kilometers of hellish road

It was the most difficult route that I ever got to run on but I did not regret joining this event. It was a great experience. It was during these tough times when I realized that no matter how much my legs hurt, no matter how tired I was, or no matter how hard the route was, I will never stop running. Running will always be a huge part of who I am and I plan on doing it for as long as I could.

Kudos to sir Pat Maranan and the rest of the Run Mania team for making this happen. Alagang Run Mania talaga. And last but definitely not the least, thank you to my Ayala Triads family for their utmost support during this event. :)
proud to be Triads :)
 rank: 126th out of 261 runners, official time: 8:20:28