TBR Dream Marathon: Travails of the Gleeman’s Wife

Prologue

Thump, thump of heavy strides were all the sounds that could be heard as we passed our 25th kilometer on an empty road.  Barely an hour passed, there were tens of runners sharing the early morning coolness.  But the sun was already up and the heat was intolerable and we were left to our devices.  Seven kilometers to go… it was a test run for my wife.  If she comes out cleanly, she would run her first marathon in a fortnight.

…Two months before, she injured her ankles and missed two weeks of programmed training.  Her therapist (Coach Salazar himself) told her to slow down on her training and forego the planned marathon.  But she persisted.  She was as hard as cold hammered iron when she put her will on something.  Her first test was the back-to-back run at the Laguna Lake Relay Ultramarathon which she completed in high moments.  And now this long 32K run…

She was burned, skin tanned to light brown.  Her sweat was damped and soiled.  She was very tired, parched and drained by the heat.  Seven more kilometers… I chose a path where roadside trees still cast shadows however thin.

“Let’s just run under the tree shades even if we go back and forth.”  I told her.  She just nodded.  Her eyes were almost blank staring at the distance.

“Do you remember our first dance?”  I asked trying to strike a conversation.  She did not reply.  Either she did not hear or the thought did not register.  She liked dancing then and it might ease her labors if she remembered.  And I heard an old saying, ‘Dance with a woman, and she will forgive much; dance well and she will forgive anything’, a very old saying.  Besides, I would need all the forgiveness after putting her through this.

Another hour of crisscrossing the road under the disappearing shadows when we finally hit 32 kilometers.  It was 4 hours of toiling when I checked our time.

“Let’s do another 200 meters, so that it would be exactly 10K to a marathon distance” she suddenly said.  I assented.

“Wow, I made it.  That was the longest distance I ever ran!” she beamed in good spirits.

“And that was harder than the Laguna Relay!” she further exclaimed.

I whispered to myself, “The last 10K would be the hardest yet”.

———

Race Day

It was past midnight when we parked at Nuvali.  Late night revelers were ending their day while runners-participants were just starting theirs.  There were already a good number of eager marathon-virgins dotting the area.  Excitement clearly painted in their faces.  Wifey was enthusiastically gearing and warming up while I was lazily moving incrementally.  I was not mentally prepared for this run albeit tasked as official personal pacer.  The time was rather unusual but I thought it was a master stroke to escape mid-morning heat for late finishers.  I even found time to take catnaps while waiting for the gun start.

Three hundred odd pairs of legs gathered at the starting line.  Eager-beavers marathoner-candidates filled with juices and eternal hopes awaited the sendoff.  After a simple program and inspirational talks, the runners were released under the clear star-filled sky.  A few thin clouds obscured the moon on its waxing gibbous phase.  Lights from nearby subdivisions and as far as Tagaytay ridges were like thousand fireflies decorating the emptiness of the dark.

We will be adapting a 9-minute-run-1-minute-walk cycle.  We confined ourselves to a 7-mpk pace for the first five kilometers.  It was a humid warm start.  The absence of wind added to the oppressiveness of the dark.  In no time, sweat broke out profusely.

We were at the back of the pack at the end of the 5th kilometer.

“Time to up the ante” I told her.

As planned, we increased our pace to 6-6:30 mpk.  I watched wifey keenly increased stride while her hair fell on her shoulders like waterfalls of night.   Street lamps made pool of dim lights on the empty road.  We were enveloped by utter blackness.  Only runners and supporters stirred.

After 9.5 kilometers, we turned right to a trail path.  We met the leading runner already completing the segment.  It was a hard and dangerous route.  The darkness made it more perilous.  Twice, my wife stepped on stone or depression that made her ankle twist.  It was the injured leg.  We were worried and have to slow down to almost a walk negotiating the path.  After about a kilometer, we reached the U-turn of the trail path to the mad cheers of school kids.  Somehow it lifted our spirits.  After completing the trail, we paused and checked our conditions.  My knees were wobbly and hurt while her ankle seemed strained.  It would be the hardest part of the course.

The next 800 meters was a steep climb then almost a 2 kilometer downhill towards the next U-turn.  It was a dusty road.  Soil and small pebbles stick to our sweat-damped skins.

“How are your ankles?” I asked her as she emerged from the portalet.

“They’re fine” she replied.

“Ok, 28 kilometers to go!” I remarked.

The run back to the starting area, Solenad, was mostly downhill and we made good time.  When we passed the 21K marker, she jumped and gaily exclaimed “We’re half way done!”

It was passed 4:30AM when we started the second loop.  The eastern horizon was already turning red-orange.  Light was spreading fast.  On the 24th kilometer we could already see the lay of the land.  It was a mixture of pale tall green grasses, dry brown soil and dull gray construction slabs.  Somewhere, we passed a low cliff that looked carved by a mad giant’s axe.

We were able to maintain our pace and overtaking runners who have slowed down.  Wifey was visibly tired but she was calm as a frozen lake, even her eyes were unruffled like dark pools in the deep forest.

We reached the trail path again, now under the light but no less dangerous.  This time we were able to appreciate the view from the U-turn; hills and the far lake rolling beneath us.

The ascent and descent towards the final U-turn was exhausting as the sun stretched from its slumber.  Sweat rolled down her eyes and strength faded as if leached by the increasing temperature.

“Okay, less than 10 kilometers to go.  Come to think of it, this is the farthest you have run” I tried to cheer her.  She nodded in between bites of banana taken from the aid station.

“Here drink some more Gatorade”, as I handed her my flask.

“It’s already hot!  We’ll stop in every aid station and bath generously.  Remember the lessons at the Laguna Lake Relay” I told her.

We reached a peak at the 35th kilometer and it was practically all downhill to the finish.  To my great surprise and delight, wifey ran like fleet-footed Hermes.  I did not know what energy or spirit that had possessed her but ran she did.

We overtook runners and group of runners.  We met runners on the other side and cheered them mightily.

“Go girl, you can do it!”

“Go, go, go, just a little more”

“Yoohooo, all the way, all the way!”

Anton of The Awesome Planet even cried out, “Now, that’s a strong finish!”

She bore down the hill like silent silken avalanche, icy and inexorable.  As she reached the finish line, she hopped and jumped raising her hands like a champ.

———-

Wifey finished the marathon 3rd among females at a time of 4:46:16.

Thanks and kudos to TBR, her team and volunteers for a successful and meaningful event.

Congratulations to the new marathoners for a dream come true.