Energizer Night Race

Distance: 3K (Actual 3.3K)
Time: 17 minutes (Actual 18 minutes)
Date: November 5, 2011
Pace: 5:39 minutes per kilometer (Actual 5:27 minutes per kilometer)
Night Race
This is the 2nd night run in the last 3 weeks and it looks like night runs are here to stay.  The loop around 8th Street in the Fort seems to be a perfect location for night runs. This one was sponsored by Energizer Batteries and its Manila installment of a similar run done in different areas.  The main enticement here is you get to have a Energizer headlight which you have to use during the run.  The headlight will come in handy on my training runs at night.  For the distance, I chose a 3 kilometer distance for a change since I usually do 10K or more and my 3K record was when I started running and was the era where I just walked the course so the goal was to set a respectable personal record for 3K distance.  Also, this would be the first leg of back to back runs with a 10K run scheduled on Sunday.
Light Show & the Rain

It was cool to see everybody wearing headlights in a run as it seemed like a light show.  It was a nice sight and with a turnout of 5,000 runners, that spells a bright night.  It was also a refreshing run as it was raining the whole run.  Nothing beats raindrop hitting your face to freshen you up from all the exhaustion.  The 3K runners were the last to have their gun start after the 5K gun start which had the most runners.    At the 3K gun start, I immediately zoomed to have more space to run and slowed down a bit after catching the tail-end and mid-pack of the 5K runners. Of course, maneuvering your way through thousands of runners is part of the run so just went on and was able to keep a fast yet steady pace without stopping at water stations and just taking several sips in my water bottle.   It was amazing to note that even if I was going at an average of 5:30-5:40 minutes per kilometer, there were kids that was able to run as fast or even faster.  It was frustrating to see two to three runners taking a short cut just half way to the u-turn in 8th Street.
The Finish
As I took my turn on the 11th Street, I went on a sprint finish towards the finish line and in a snap, a 3K run is done and over with.  I did have a sub 6 minutes per kilometer pace and a decent finish.  The course was about 300 meters longer than the 3K distance finishing the 3.3K distance in 18 minutes and hitting 3K at the 17 minute mark.  It was a successful and a well organized run.
And among the perks of being part of the 3K runners and among the first to finish you get no queue in the photo booth and closing up the story of this race is my photo with fellow Team Total Fitness members Rojan and Mario who had a faster finish.