This past weekend, I ran my first 10km race in months, which was my longest distance during the past three months, at the Plantronics Backbeat Run. This race is a run-for-a-cause for the benefit of Kythe Foundation, which I am a volunteer of. This is a non-profit organization that aims to improve the quality of life of hospitalized children, a lot of whom have cancer or other terminal illness.

The race was held at the SM Mall of Asia grounds. The race started past 5am - I forgot what exactly the gun start was. Because I barely had any training, I had no goal that day except to finish the race. 

A few minutes before the gun start, I debated with myself on a strategy: whether to run-walk or to run all the way while stopping at hydration stations. A few seconds into the race, I decided on the latter. Surprisingly, I ended up running the whole race, without stopping once to hydrate. I know that this is not recommended as it entails risking dehydration but for some reason, I felt totally okay. One rule of thumb is to listen to your body. And I did. I did not feel tired nor thirsty so I ended up exceeding myself for running without a single stop for more than an hour. Even though I did not break my personal record, it was still quite a feat for me.

After the race, that was when I felt parched so I re-hydrated for as much as I could. Overall, I still felt great.  I even had the energy to go around the race village and check out the booths and post-race activities. It was a good run.
with Team SCR

Despite not having any decent training for long distance runs, I can still say that my finish time was still decent, clocking in an hour and eight minutes. No sub-1 and no new PR, but I was still happy my time.

Thank you to the organizers, Pepsquad Events and Pinoy Fitness, for the free race kit, and kudos for a successful event.
 unofficial time: 1:08:33 (based on my Garmin)