"Penitensiya" Run 2010

"Penitensiya," in english, means "penitence." In the spirit of the Lenten season, I did a "penitensiya" run yesterday, Maundy Thursday.  As the rest of the Metro was filing out of the city and heading to their Holy Week destinations, I went on another long run to atone for the previous three days that I went runless.  Because I thoroughly enjoyed the Fort-Makati CBD (vis McKinley) route that I did last Sunday, I decided to run that course again.

Once again, I started my run along 3rd Avenue in front of Forbeswood Heights.  From there, I headed towards 5th Avenue and turned right on McKinley Road.  I passed Santuario de San Antonio, where a lot of parishioners were doing their Stations of the Cross.  Upon hitting EDSA, I made my way up the foot bridge to get to Ayala Avenue.  I was back in Makati CBD.

Unlike last Sunday, I covered more of the financial district this time around.  I ran inside the deserted Glorietta and Greenbelt complexes. I made like the MAPSA and patrolled almost every street.  I couldn't believe I had these usually busy thoroughfares all to myself.  I ran on Buendia and even covered the Bel-Air side of the district.  The entire place was a ghost town. Man, running in Makati on Maundy Thursday is way better than running there on an ordinary Sunday.  Check out how much of the CBD I was able to cover this time around:

I was on such a high that, from Jupiter St., I decided to head for Rockwell.  Of course, the only way to reach Rockwell was to go through P. Burgos St. - Makati's infamous red light strip.  I got a kick out of watching the foreign sex tourists who were having afternoon brewskies at the roadside bars together with their pinay *ahem* "dates."  Some of them also "watched me back" and were probably thinking, "Holy crap, he's out running while I'm here sitting on my fat ass and torching my liver" hahaha.  From Burgos, I turned right at Kalayaan Ave., entered Rockwell Drive, and made a lap around Power Plant Mall.  Just like Glorietta and Green belt, the area was deserted - just the way I like it.  Here's the Rockwell leg of my run:

It was getting dark by the time I was done with Rockwell, and I decided I had to get back to the CBD fast.  It was then that an elementary principle of trigonometry came to mind - "the shortest distance between two points is a straight line."  I needed to get back to Buendia fast, and the "straight line" between Rockwell and Buendia is... EDSA.  Oh boy, this is going to be an adventure.

From Rockwell drive, I headed for Estrella Street and got onto EDSA.  The first few meters were fine as there was a paved sidewalk where I could run on.  Gradually, however, the sidewalk quickly narrowed and practically disappeared.  I was literally running on EDSA.  As in the hard concrete of EDSA. On several instances, I had to stop for fear of my life - to my left, the colorum buses were speeding like Mad Max and I could get sideswiped and instantly crushed to death.  This stretch went on for a little under a kilometer, but it sure as hell felt like 10k hahaha.  Just like running on the Katipunan Flyover, running along this part of EDSA is so NOT for the faint of heart, and neither is it for the faint of lung.  You could not imagine the relief I felt when I caught sight of the Shell station at the entrance to Buendia.  I cut through the gas station, resisted having a pitstop at Select, and headed for Jupiter St. I made it back in one piece. Here's the EDSA leg of my run:

From Jupiter, I turned left at Paseo de Roxas, left at Makati Ave., and then left at Ayala Ave.  I went up the foorbridge (NOT a pleasant experience after you've already been running for three hours) and I was back on McKinley Ave.  By this time, the Santuario area was already very crowded and traffic was bad.  My pace slowed down to 9:30/k.  I desperately needed a water break and had a pitstop at the nearby Mercury Drug.  From McKinley, I turned left at 5th Avenue, traversed the whole stretch and made a left at 32nd Street, and finally turned left at 3rd Avenue.  After cooling down, I rested at the 7-Eleven in Net Square, where I downed a liter of Propel vitamin water and had a cavendish banana.  It was already 7:30 pm, and it was time to go home.

I finished my run in 3:38:30 (inclusive of several pit stops).  According to Garmin Connect, I had a moving time of 3:17:02, which means I spent a total of 0:21:28 on pit stops.  Darn, I shouldn't have had that Choco Mucho break at Km 15 hahaha.  My average pace was 8:12k/min, but my average moving pace was an acceptable 7:23k/min (told you it's an LSD).  The skyscrapers obviously  screwed up the satellite reception,  because Garmin reports that my best pace was 0:57k/min. Who am I, Haile? Hahaha.  The full map of my entire run:

Check out the details of my run here, or at my Last Run page.

Time to plan for my next long run on Easter Sunday!