I did it!

I finished the 26k run of the Davao Sunday Runners' Club Finishers' Marathon yesterday, December 3.

It isn't much, perhaps. Just a distance slightly longer than the half-marathon. But for a comeback runner like me whose last take at the distance was five years ago, it is something.

For a long while, I did nothing but ride and race on my bikes. No runs. I just got into running again after I damaged my helmet in a stupid crash.

In the four months that I have returned to my usual running schedule, the longest distance I took on was 20k. This was early on in the third week of my comeback, when I was trying to test how far I can still go. I was into run-walk mode by the 13th kilometer.

In the weeks going into the race, I did four 15k's. Nothing more. Information that the run will be 26k and not 28k as I had earlier thought helped ease a bit my doubts and worries about not finishing.

I got a bit more at ease moving closer to race day, and by the time I was filling up my registration form the afternoon before the race, I was repeating and repeating to myself my general strategy - start conservative, pick up and hold the pace, keep on with whatever strength and energy I have at the final kilometers.

I did just that, and finished the run. My time - 2:44:43.