Manila marathon
Hustle
24.2.2024



Running in Philippines

I had visited Manila before and concluded that if going to Philippines, go somewhere else. Why hustle with the traffic congestion, dirty streets and fake smiles when there are so many nice islands to travel with friendly cheerful people. At least in Ermita surrounding Robinson place (mall) the contrast was quite visible and not very encouraging to stay too long. But I knew what to expect. The biggest inconvenience was merely the lack of Wi-Fi in cafes. What mattered is that there was marathon to run.

I had only faint memories about Rizal Park, Makati and some slummy areas while exploring the places by running. The marathon, however, would just follow Rexal boulevard with some detour along a road towards Makati. Nothing spectacular and some smell of traffic exhaust at times, so not the most enjoyable route. My motivation was to run another marathon in a new country to progress my Country club project, which requires running marathon in 30 different countries. Philippines would make #27 in my list.

Staying in Shenzhen gave me opportunity to explore nearby countries. I had already completed a marathon in Shenzhen so my next goals would be either Vietnam, Philippines (within 2 hours flights), or a bit further such as Japan, Korea, Malaysia, or Cambodia whichever have suitable marathon for me to run. Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan would also count, and of these, I have only done Hong Kong.

Travel

In the list of world’s busiest airports, Shenzhen is at #26 and Manila #39 but I only found some night flights from Shenzhen. Hong Kong (#13) had more suitable choices including Cathay Pacific (Hong Kong) and Cebu Pacific (Philippines). I selected Cebu. Hong Kong airport is not that much further than Shenzhen airport; 1 km (or one metro station) from our home to Shenzhen North railway station, and from there, fast train (18 min) to Hong Kong Kowloon, and another 30 mins more by Airport express to Hong Kong airport.

While digging out those statistics, I could not resist making a checklist of how many of the top-50 busiest airports I have travelled and counted to 30. Among the top-20, I have only missed 5: Atlanta, Dubai, Los Angeles, Dallas, and Denver. Those 11 in China, I have travelled already 7: Beijing (#2), Shanghai Dupong (#8), Guangzhou (#11), Hong Kong (#13), Shenzhen (#26), Xian (#40), and Shanghai Hongqiao (#46). In USA, I have travelled only Chicago, JFK, San Francisco, Orlando, and Newark.

 
Picture: World’s busiest airports on map (left). Those I have visited marked. Optimistic view of the Navigator to reach Hong Kong airport in 1:31 minutes (right).



North station itself is also huge (in top-20 in China) with thousands of passengers pass through daily. It serves both for work/home commuting but also the start points of many long-distance fast speed trains. The station is somewhat complex for newcomer with lots of traffic especially in rush hours. Morning 7:00 is still relatively quiet, and I knew my way. My schedule went as follows.

There is a long walk from Hong Kong Kowloon bullet train station to Kowloon MRT, and quite walking at the Hong Kong airport as well. The two Hong Kong train stations seem neighbors on map, but you need to walk 1 km (all indoor) first over the street and then through a maneuver through large mall and finally reach to the Express train station (not to confuse with the Kowloon MRT). The Mall itself is usually quiet, and the way is obvious if carefully follow (the correct) signs. Last time I ended up there by accident when supposed to go to other metro station. This time I knew better.


Pictures: Getting to the airport. First getting out of the train station, crossing the street, walking through the mall, and taking the Express train to airport, check-in, security, airport train, and eventually reaching the gate 2h 30min after leaving home.


The flight to Manila was easy and the airplane was less than half full, everyone sitting at the back of the plane. Manila airport I remember being one of the least wanted places I want to visit but even it had improved (or me getting more-experienced traveler if still possible). The taxi trip to hotel reminded me why I was not so keen to come to Manila: traffic congestion, busy dirty streets, metered taxi driver not taking the faster elevated highway but some slower street just to gain get more money in the meter - the good old milking.


Picture: Taxi from the airport.


Finding the hotel was easy and once settled down, I slowly started to get used to the places around. After the anxious Shenzhen where everyone were always busy going somewhere, Manila looked like slow, relaxed, old city.


Picture: Manila pictures.

Race organization

I did not expect a well-oiled machine where everything is in order, but I still got few surprises: The marathon was scheduled to start Saturday night 1:00 am, and I arrived Thursday afternoon. The organizers had kept sending reminder emails that all participants should pick-up their bib numbers by Wednesday and no race-day deliver was possible. Good way to create nervousness in the mind of the foreign participant. I sent them an email before the trip and found out that the race-kit delivery to foreign participants is arranged after all Friday 11-14 in Manila Bayview hotel, just two blocks away from my hotel. Great. One less problem to worry about.

The deliver was a show. It was like put a group of first year students to organize an international conference. I arrived at 11:20 as I knew nothing would be ready at 11:00. I immediately saw a bunch of runners outside the hotel waiting for something. I knew what they were waiting for. I went immediately inside to wait there, soon the others came in too.

A bit later the organizers opened a small room at the second floor and gave confusing information about who should go inside the room now and who later. After a while I went in and saw all the bibs on a table in several bunches where one could search his own. Mine was not there. They kept asking me about my race category (42k) and shirt size (M) over and over again without paying attention what I was saying.

Once they finally understood, they quickly solved the problem by tooking one M-size package and just tear-off the original name (Mr. Smith) and gave it to me. Poor Mr. Smith. I just needed to write my name and race number using on some paper sheet somewhere and hope things would have been solved. I did not expect any marathon expo anyway, but what I found was a small room, poorly prepared organizers and a bunch of confused marathoners. It was like an auction. Anyway, I got the number 123: one-two-three-go!


Pictures: Bib pickup was a show, but I got the number 123 (originally marked to Mr. Smith). The simplified race package contained a sleevless t-shirt with great design + the race number. The band aid and yoghurt I bought from shop.


There had been another email a few days before arrival informing about a change of the venue. I had not paid much attention to it and assumed that it was merely just a minor movement of the other side of the Rizal park, or something. I asked whether the new start place is nearby which the organizer firmly confirmed. Another marathoner from Romania sarcastically asked me to define near-by. Good point. It turned out to be 3 km south to Rexal avenue, a completely different location. My hotel was also located nearby but my meaning for near-by was more like around the corner. Well, there would be taxis available in Saturday night. The rest of the day I took it easy in the hotel room, Starbucks nearby, or having dinner at some nice café at the Robinson’s place. No more hustle before the marathon.


Picture: The meals I ate: 1. Supper at the arrival evening, 2. Lunch at the mall (did not expect the cake), 3. Supper at hotel, 4. After race meal in home Shenzhen (New Zealand stake).


The start

I left the hotel 23:50, more than 1 hour before the start to make sure I would not miss the start. I quickly found a scooter guy who agreed on 100 pesos (<2 euros) to the 3 km ride. The side road was easy to drive, and we reached the place quickly. Plenty of time to hang around before the start time – or should I say, assumed start time.

The number of runners was quite small (252 finished), and not much rush. The race just did not start in time. Some announcements said a new expected start time 01:20 or whatever. We waited. We chatted. We sat down and waited some more. No idea the reasons. Maybe the organizers were struggling with the road closure or overwhelmed by the course change, who knows. Or maybe this is just their way of organizing things. Recalling the hustle in the bib number pick-up, this should have not been a big surprise anymore. Since it was way past sleeping time, I was too tired to feel any frustration. I was most concerned what if they could not start the race at all due to whatever disaster around the corner.

Eventually the race started about 1 hour late. The announcer told us that gun fire would come up really soon. Then he corrected himself that there was no gun. So, we just counted backward 10-9-8-…3-2-1 and off we went. Now it was only up to me. Or so I thought.


Picture: It was a night race start time past the midnight.

The course

The course looked quite clear, some zig-zag-ing near the start place, then 5 km straight road to south along Rexal avenue, and back. Then 6 km east to Makati and back. Half-marathoners ran this tour once, full marathoners twice.

   
Figures: Original (left), the revised (middle) course map, and my Strava recording (right)


Most of Rexal Avenue (pronounced Rehal) was closed from traffic but in some parts only the leftmost lane was reserved for the runners. Entering the Makati Road meant crossing a busy road diagonally with organizers stopping all the traffic whenever runners came, and few other crossings along the Makati road. There was an organizer at every critical crossroad preventing runners from being hit by a car– or get lost (possibility not to be excluded considering the organizations so far).

The traffic was a bit concern. I enjoyed running through it, sometimes even squeezing between the cars but I could have hit by a truck once if not paid attention. There had been four starting waves (42k, 21k, 10k, 5k) which eventually got mixed but not in a balanced way. Most of the second loop I was running alone at about #10 position, so not many runners in front of me, but many running the opposite direction. The organizers focused only the other direction and gave the truck permission to go when I was approaching in a dead angle behind the driver. I was expecting this might happen, so I made clear the driver saw me.

I remember a father of a American running family (all four going to run) in the race-kit pick-up asking me: “Do you think it is safe to run here?”. After the race I better understood his concern. I have been running through traffic in my first marathon in St. Petersburg (even stopping at red light), so nothing new, but the traffic control should do better job.

The course was not marked and there were no kilometer marks either. The only exceptions were the major U-turns where the organizers also gave the runners a pink string to carry. Some kind of verification method that you ran the complete distance. I collected three out of four, and they were cursorily checked in the finish line. Electronic bib system was used only at the start/finish line.

My race

My run started well, and I felt energetic. I had forgotten to buy energy gels and did not find any shop in Manila to sell them. This part I was a bit worried, especially as the organizers’ supply was supposed to be merely water. There were sport drinks at a few stations in the Rexal avenue but only water bottles were provided in the early part of the Makati Road.

I did not know my pace, but it felt good. If my stomach worked, I would have a good race. At the first U-turn I counted being at #16 and got the same count at the second U-turn after which I soon improved to #14. The second loop along the Makati Road, I passed few others to gain position #10 and one more near the end, so according to my own count, I finished at position #9.

There were quite a few runners doing 42k and I ran almost alone from the beginning to end. The faster ones disappear fast beyond the horizon and the bigger bunches were somewhere behind. This made the course a bit confusing during the first loop when everything was new. The second loop was easier in this sense.

My early running was quite easy, but my legs started to feel tired at 21km. Sport drinks helped and my pace (or feeling at least) improved and I managed well all the way to Makati. Somewhere at the Makati Road I started to feel hungry, which is a clear sign that energy was getting low and some more needed fast, but none was available. My pace dropped to 5:30 min/km according to Strava.

Reaching the finish line was the first time I got to know my time. It was 3:15. However, my Strava recording showed only 40 km distance leaving my guessing whether the length of the course had been correct. The time included also the 1 hour waiting time.
 

The course

The good time and the fact that Strava did not record 42 km (or more) raised several questions: (1) Did I miss part of the course? (2) Was the length of the revised course correct? (3) Was it even officially measured? After returning home and a good night’s sleep, I made systematic study and reconstructed the planned and actual routes and found two deviations as shown below.


Figures: The planned route took 1.7 km detour (Zig-Zag) making the start part 2.4 km long but this detour was not included in the return part.



The first deviation happed near the end of the first loop. The planned route had a 1.7 km detour (Zig-Zag) in the beginning going to the end of the Vicente Sotto road and back, making it 2.4 km long. However, this detour was not included in the return part, which was therefore only 0.7 km long. Despite of this, we were instructed to take an un-planned detour consisting of part of the Sotto road (400m) when returning from the first loop. This small extra detour (Sotto short) happened only during the round though.

Th second deviation was at the end of Makati Road, where the U-turn was 400m too early compared to the course plan. It was supposed to be the next crossroad. This part shortened the length of the single loop by 800m, and in the entire marathon by 1.6 km. This is the main reason why the course length was under length. The effect of this shortening is reconstructed below.


Figures: My reconstruction of the actual route (without the extra detour).


The extra detour in the first loop remains a mystery. It was not in the course plan but during the first loop we were guided to take it. Contrary to the course plan (but according to my expectation) we turned to the detour part but continued only 200m before making U-turn. It added +400m to the route.

Here I was following another runner so not sure what exactly happened. Were we sent there by accident or on purpose? If on purpose, were we supposed to make the entire 1.7 km detour or only the short part? Taking the entire detour would have solved the course length problem (matching the 1.6 km under length). In this case, either the organizers messed-up or the runner in front of me made a blatant shortcut on purpose and I simply followed. During the race, I did not remember these details and was therefore confused because I (falsely) remembered the route plan was symmetric (which it was not). In fact, I cannot even be sure if we were even guided there or went by accident. Nobody seems to willing to tell.

According to my reconstruction, the length of the planned course was about correct, 2*21.3 = 42.6 km (actually 400m too long). Let’s suppose it was correct 42.195 km and my map calculations added the extra. The missed part in the Makati Road then shortened the loop by 800m, making the course 1.6 km shorter in total. The extra detour (Sotto short) added another 400m to it. To sum up, my marathon run was 1.2 km too short, about 41 km in total.

My Strava recording shows 40km and does not match these calculations. In Shenzhen marathon it recorded 43 km, so there can be errors of about 1 km magnitude. But usually by being longer, not shorter. This time it was 2 km short of which 1.2 km can be explained by the organizers’ mistake. Below are some critical parts of the Strava recording and they do not show any obvious lacking. The only visible problem is the noisy segments along the Makati Road, which possibly created two faster peaks in the pace analysis. The first kilometer includes the waiting which potentially might have caused a cutoff from the distance as well. The slower kilometer 5 is explained by stopping for peeing.

     
Figures: Strava recording of my run. The total time includes one hour waiting at the start line. All parts seems correct except the noisy segments in the middle of Makati road. The Sotto short detour also shows in the recording. The abnormal faster peaks are probably caused by noise at Makati Road.



Without any processing, GPS noise would increase the course length, but all sophisticated systems apply some filtering to the raw GPS signals. How Strava does it exactly, I do not know. It might have cut off something or could have made wrong conclusion for the first kilometer consisting of also the 1 hour waiting (I had started Strava before the original start time and never stopped it). In principle, I could download this and analyze using some better software including our own tools, but I think I have already spent lots of time for analyzing organizer’s mistake. So let it be.

To sum up, I have completed the marathon with official result 3:15:18, but the result is not trustworthy. Assuming my pace from the final kilometers (5:30 min/km) would have remained the same for 1.2 km more, then I should add 1.2 km * 5:30 min/km = 6:36 min to it. So, my best estimation for the real marathon result would be roughly 3:22.

Post-race feelings

My estimated result, 3:22, is just the same as in my previous marathon in Shenzhen. The difference is that then tightness in the back slowed me down during the last kilometers. Here it was running out of energy due to insufficient supply. I had taken a massage few days before the marathon, and it helped; no tightness issues ever occurred. The warm +25 C weather probably also helped here.

It took a few days for the legs to recover. I took two days off from any sport activity, and then continued with slow recovery runs recording some atypical fast paces like 4:45 min/km for a couple of weeks. The marathon had a clear boost on my running pace afterwards.

Good trip. Good race. The course was just busy city streets but ok. My kudos goes to anyone who bothers to organize a marathon. But would I come again? No. I can tolerate everything else but not the wrong distance. If you can do only one thing right: let it be the measure of the race distance. Ok, I can say that I ran almost a marathon, but I cannot compare the result directly against my previous or future results without some speculative calculations.

My rank was 15 / 122. According to my own count it was #9. I might have missed some in my counting, but more likely there were some phantom runners that did even shorter race.

Official results can be found here. The link worked properly on my Smartphone but not on the web. I extracted the first three pages and made the combined result list below to. The marathon webpage did not have any link. When asked, the organizers merely responded that “they are already on web”. Thanks for Hans Christian to provide me with the link.

Summary:

Time: 3:15:37 (official, 41km)
Time: 3:22:07 (calculated, 42.195km)
Rank: 15 / 252
Pace: 4:44 min/km
Weather: 23 C (cloudy)

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