It was an impromptu decision via text.  Saturday night, Photographer Ben and I agreed that we would meet up at the Market! Market! Power Mile Run the following day.  “Game!,”  “Tara!,”  “See you there!”  With so many exclamation marks, it was evident we were excited about the next day’s race.  

Turns out, it was all talk from my end.  I woke up at 5:15 am and nonchalantly texted Ben “Sorry, woke up late.  Missed the race.”  He must’ve been at the starting line already, I thought.

Hubby and I decided to proceed with our run.  We arrived at Bonifacio High Street at 7 a.m. and started at 7:20.  It took me quite a while to get all geared up for my road test:  Polar on the left wrist, Garmin on the right, Polar S3 footpod on the right foot, and heart monitor on the chest.  

- How to get a good tricep workout during a run -

We first ran one small loop around BHS, 1.14km according to my 305 and the hubby’s 405, so I calibrated my Polar accordingly.  I used to dread calibrating, but it was fairly easy with just a few buttons to push.  The Polar’s screen, compared with the Garmin 305′s, was more difficult to read at a glance but it wasn’t a big issue for me.  The main problem was my inability to shut down the beeping sound that came every second!  Was it a pacer or my heart rate?  I had no idea, but I knew I couldn’t bare to run with the annoying sound!  My solution: the ipod to shield my ears.

We ran outside of Bonifacio High Street towards the course of the Market! Market! race.  It was a surprise to see small groups of Market! Market! runners (or more like walkers, at that time) who were still on their way to the finish.  We took the same route behind S&R passing by the Lexus showroom and climbing up through British School.   When we hit 5k, we turned around and followed the same way back in hopes of completing a full 10k.

The pace of both the Garmin and Polar were significantly different throughout the run. One reason is that my Garmin reads the average lap pace, not current pace, which was highly recommended in the Garmin forum I browsed through before. (Next run I’ll have it on current pace to compare with Polar.)  The Polar gave me what I believed to be accurate pace readings based on my effort.  Unfortunately, I failed to put the kilometer readings in the Polar’s screen (again, I couldn’t figure  it out!) so I couldn’t compare distances throughout the run.

As for my run, wow, I was feeling awesome.  I hadn’t had a run that good in…I don’t even remember anymore.  No niggling aches nor pains anywhere in my body.  I felt so good I considered doing a 12k instead of the planned 10k.

Shortly after the hubby and I passed our 6km mark, however, the heat got to us; it was excruciatingly hot.  I couldn’t imagine how Botak Marathoners survived that kind of heat.  By the time we hit Market! Market!, hubby took a detour and ran under the shade of Serendra towards the car.  I went ahead, stubbornly resisting the idea of stopping as a strong and pain-free run was such a rare occurrence for me.  My goal was to finish just 5 miles, the distance I should’ve run at the Mkt! Mkt! race. 

I ended at exactly 7.98k according to Polar, 8.01k according to Garmin.  Due to the heat, my face was sunburnt and, despite my shrimp-like appearance, I exclaimed to hubby “This was one of the best runs I’ve had in months!”

We had breakfast at Pancakes where I couldn’t stop raving about my perfect run in between bites of my mushroom omelette. In the middle of the meal, I got a text from Ben.  Turns out he had just woken up and overslept as well!  So much for the Market! Market! Race.

Congrats to Francis Macatulad for finishing 5th overall and 1st in his age group for the 5 mile race at Market! Market! Power Mile! 

Posted on 05.19.09 to 01 Bullish Insights. Tags: Garmin, Market! Market!, Polar. Subscribe to follow comments on this post. 14 comments. Add your thoughts or trackback from your own site.