running my life like a moonraker

Moonraker

As early as 4am, all of us is awake... too excited again because it is another race day... we were in a hurry because i am worried that i may be too far from the starting line of the 32nd MILO marathon Finals! as i expected, when we arrived and i entered the chute... i was 250 meters away... waaahhh! it will take more than 2 mins. before i could break away from the crowd! by then the pace setters are already far away and it would be difficult for me to catch up... i heard the crowd chanting as Asia's sprint queen Lydia De Vega made an inspirational talk...  I remember the lines she said " BE YOURSELF WHEN YOU RUN, have your mind and body tell you what to do! if you feel that you are tired then walk.. maya-maya takbo ulit!" (whew!i am inspired!) As the final call for the runners to enter the race chute was announced, it made more anxious in getting nearer to the starting line ... My prayers were answered because there is a pack of runners who paved their way as the starting gun for 10K was fired... they need to catch up so i took advantage of it, i was 50 meters then when the starting gun for 3K was fired and about 15 meters away when the 5K race started... most of participants joined this event... to my estimate, we were more than 10,000 5K runners... there are a lot of shoving and pushing at the start... but i managed to position myself well and see to it that my game plan will be followed.... pacing of 6 min/km... i am annoyed because most of participants who were high school students are really making it out of the race... maliligalig as they say... again, a common mistake of first time marathon runner is to exert too much effort in outrunning others thinking that it is better to position themselves ahead on the early distance of the race... when we crossed the US Embassy we were down to 600 competitive runners... i never stopped running for 3.5K however i felt something on the right lower portion of my tummy... MUSCLE CRAMPS! i had to walk but i cannot afford to see more and more runners getting ahead of me!