Blogger's Note:
For the the Bull Runner Sun Life Dream Marathon 2020, there were 13 First Balfour employees who registered. Of the total, 10 were able to actually start and finish the 42km running event at the Clark Parade Grounds in Pampanga. All 10 were requested by the Bicolano Penguin to answer 3 questions related to their first experience of a full marathon. Training for his full marathon was a bit problematic for Jose Luna (Bib# 0604) but the Mechanical Engineer from DLSU proved to be persevering and prayerful as he survived the TBR Dream Marathon. He finished with a time of 7:23:58 and more importantly, experienced the race of life. Here is Jose's reply to the 3 questions:
1. Why join the TBR Dream Marathon?
I joined the TBR Dream Marathon because I wanted to experience new things in life. I've never ran a marathon before and thought, "How hard can it be?" I did hesitate at first because I knew it would mean going out of my comfort zone and following up on commitments to train with the team and on my own, but in the end, it seemed fun especially because I was running with people I knew well.
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| Doing a Fat Ass Run (for 3 hrs) in the first weekend of 2020 was part of the long runs of Jose and fellow dreamers. |
2. What was the experience like training and running your first full marathon?
I definitely underestimated the trainings. I ran 10km during my first training without having any practice beforehand. My legs were so fatigued that I had to take leave the next day. The week after was another scheduled 10km run where I did no maintenance runs once again and got my left knee injured during the 10km run. I was limping during the whole week with an unusual pain in my left knee. I then had a checkup and the doctor supposed it was potentially a meniscus tear because of the 'behavior' of the pain so to speak. He gave me a training regimen to recover the knee which I not so faithfully followed, but my knee still did get better. Eventually, I was running normally and became committed to the personal practice runs making sure I pushed myself each time so I could get better and catch up on lost time. The scheduled practice runs then became easier and easier -- I ran 21 km without much exhaustion which surprised me -- but then on a practice run in UP Diliman where we were supposed to run 32km, my knee started hurting again. At the 13th km, I had to stop because there was a chance the injury might worsen. Because of that, my trainings stunted and I lost what I had gained during the past few weeks. When normally I could do 4:1 run/walk interval at 7.0 min/km on my practice runs, I dropped to 2:1 run/walk interval at 8.5 min/km. I had another checkup with a different doctor who was HMI accredited this time (the first one wasn't), and he had a different diagnosis. He believed the problem was high uric acid which I did test positive for, but the level was not alarming enough for a full explanation of the problem with my knee. Until now, I don't know what really caused the injury.
On the day of the marathon, I was ill-prepared because of my injury regardless, I had a good start. My knee didn't hurt much for the first few kilometers, but at the 14th km, I started feeling my injury once again which caused me to limp a bit and compensate with my right leg. I thought I was going to have to stop after a few more kilometers because the injury might worsen, but instead, I decided to pray and ask God to heal me and if it was His will for me to finish, then I will persevere and finish. If it was not His will, then I thought that was alright as well; God is good no matter the result. So I kept running and praying and running and praying, believing that God would let me finish the race. My bad knee slowly but surely felt better so I pressed on. However, on the 3rd loop (30 km), my legs were so spent due to my lack of preparation, having a relatively poor left knee, and an overcompensating right leg. I could only run for about 10 seconds at a time and rest for minutes before attempting to run again -- the way I walked looked even pathetic in a way because my legs were too spent. It was a huge struggle to continue on when I could barely walk, but I continued believing that God wanted me to finish. During the last few kilometers, my right (good) leg got to a point where it was even more in pain than my left (bad) leg so I decided to just risk it and stopped limping (I still was limping the whole time) so my right leg won't have to compensate anymore. I told God, "Lord, kayo na bahala..." When I ran, I felt no pain on my left knee. Sure, I was tired and exhausted and somewhat in pain due to muscle soreness but the pain from the injury was not there. I was able to run normally and in a more energy efficient way because I was no longer limping. Eventually, I was able to reach the end thanking God for answering my prayer of letting me finish.
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| Jose patiently soldiering on with the 4 loops in the vicinity of the Clark Parade Grounds |
3. Would you recommend the TBR Dream Marathon to your loved ones and friends?
I would because there is a passage in the Bible regarding the race of life. I have many Christian friends who know this passage having read about it, but they can only understand the race analogy to an extent. Like basketball, knowing all the physics of shooting a ball doesn't make you already better than Kobe. You need experience to understand it better. The analogy in the Biblical passage about the race gives an insight about the struggle of people in life, and as I have learned through TBR, experiencing the analogy gives better insight of the struggle.
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| Confidence to take the Race of Life. |
Photo Credits: Run Snap, the Bull Runner
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