A 3K Race for Dear Life

That's how I ran at last Sunday's BDO Race for Life - I was literally running towards the finish line, gasping for my dear life. What I did here, should not be how you should run...

Prior to the race, I did not have even a short or quick-training, my last run was March 23, 15-days ago before this event.

Before the race, me and together with my friends who also joined the 3K race, did not even bother to have a quick warm-up or stretching exercises.

Since I was only running the 3K and I was targeting to finish within 13-minutes, I decided to run my best race pace effort...

Lap/kilometer 1 - 3'52", I was doing fine, was breathing hard but I can catch up.
Lap/kilometer 2 - 4'55", Slowed down a bit due to side-stitch, walked at km 1.5 to hydrate and breathe. Quads started to feel sore.
Lap/kilometer 3 - 5'39", Walked from 2.1-km up to 2.6-km since the side-stitch was worsening. I was breathing hard, head was heavy, becoming dizzy, and having chest pains. Countered it with hard blows of breathing while my right arm is raised upward to relax my sides.
Finish Line - The chest pain was gone, my pulse rate and breathing was recovering, but the side-stitch was still there. More than 3-hours have passed and still, we did not even made a cool-down exercise or stretching to release the stress on our muscles.

The muscle soreness lingered for three more days and the pain that the side-stitch left on my abdomen stayed for two days, the overall fatigue I experienced was like a 10K race effort.

Despite all of these, I am happy with the outcome and with how I managed to finish this long-road to 3K =) Best of all, I enjoyed the race because my housemates, my brother, and my friends were also there. This was my 5th 3K race of all time, and though I haven't broke any of my 3K-PRs before (not even my finish time during the 2010 BDO Race for Life), the moment was still great. The bonding and camaraderie before and after the race was priceless.

Photo by: WithoutLimits.ph

Special Thanks to Blas (Titanium Runner), WithoutLimits and BDO for my race entry.

Race Profile:
Distance: 3 km.
Official Time: 00:14:27
Official Ranking: 15th out of 1,314 overall 3k runners

Race Info:
When: Apr. 7, 2013.
Where: MOA, Seaside Blvd.
Event: BDO Race for Life 2013