Unchartered Water

Summer solstice has ended and the season is at the thick of autumnal equinox, where the length of night evens out with the length of day.  It was 6PM in the evening and it was already dark as night can be.  A few weeks back, bright light still suffused this part of the world at this hour.  Lights from arrays of streetlamps made pools of dim glow along the pavement.  It had drizzled a while ago and pockets of dark clouds hovered just below the skyline.    The road was slightly damp and a soft wind was blowing.  It was cool and it was a good evening to run.

I was preparing for an easy run both to keep my body tuned and to uplift my spirits.  Whew, people’s suffering has not ended two weeks after the wake of typhoon “Ondoy”.  Their miseries and tragedies were more than enough to put anyone down and mull over one’s mortality.

I was in taper mode after 12 weeks of training for my first 42K.  I had waded into unfamiliar waters.  The week before Ondoy’s madness, I reached, for the first time, over 70km mileage and 75km on the week after.  Last week, I went over 80kms culminating with a reconnaissance run (organized by Jazzrunner) on the actual route.  That was more than twice my usual weekly mileage.  And I could not explain my body response to the increase in intensity.  Sometimes I felt so good and conditioned but other times I felt tired and spent.  The sensation ebbed from one to the other without pattern like an erratic heart seizure.  Did I overtrain?

I started my run on the usual route on the road around Palms Country Club.  After two rounds, sweat broke out profusely despite the wind.  While running, I played in my mind over and over my goals for the race.  Can I do 4.5 hours or target 5 hours?  Will I go negative splits or even-paced?  Or perhaps join one of the pace groups?

I changed course and trot to the road going to Filinvest Mall.  Glaring lights from a driving range to my left illuminated the area while the packed Manong’s restaurant beside it provided the merry, rowdy noise from its patrons.  I passed the stately Vivant and Aspen Towers to my right with parked cars along the road and elegantly uniformed guards manning the gates.  My thoughts wandered on the running gears to wear.  Definitely, I’ll be using the Asics Nimbus 11 for my footwear.  Its thick comfortable cushioning will help with the shocks of the hard cemented surface of the course.  I haven’t decided on the jersey between Nike Fit and the Adidas ClimaCool.

Just before reaching Filinvest Mall, I made a U-turn and went back turning right to the street before Manong’s.  This street is seldom used by vehicles.  I passed beside the length of the golf driving range spying on the golfers practicing their swings.  “Tick!” as the club hit the sweet spot sending the balls hundreds of yards forward.  Ball pickers on the other end of the range, protected by iron cage on their back scooped the balls from the green.  Sometimes a flying ball will struck the cage and makes a loud sound, “Clang!”  I would start on a pasta diet days before the race.  I usually cook my pasta, so I thought about recipes.  Red sauce, oil-based, pesto, no, not the white ones.  How about a little classy in one or two occasions to break the monotone: Vologne, Putanesca and so on.

I passed Parque España condominium to my left and was approaching Commerce Avenue across South Super Market.  I made a U-turn and retraced my route back to Palms Country Club.  A lap gone and nothing have been firmed.  A couple of laps more and I would be more involved hoping to put some order to my still disarrayed mind while sweet sweat rolled down my forehead under the cool soft wind.

I’m like a sailor voyaging into the far and the unknown.  Are my provisions enough?  Will the storm god let me pass?  Will I be devoured by the monster Scylla or be sucked by the whirlpools of Charybdis?  Or perhaps fall at World’s End?  This is my maiden full marathon.  This is uncharted water.