Takbo: Deadman’s 300 V4.0

Sunday
October 15, 2017

T’was the night before Deadman’s and not a sound could be heard, because I was sound asleep with Khat in Rock Resort. Read on and you shall see, a long rundown of the experience for me.

It’s the fourth year of my favorite trail race and the 2nd time I’ll be running it. With not a lot of training done beforehand, Khat and I decided to take on the 30km category for a quick and easy time. I’ve already warned Khat of what’s to come so she already knew what was in store for us.

We commuted with Dong and Jim as well as Ysa‘s group to Montalban and took a trike to the venue. Here, we caught some sleep at our reserved room before waking up for the early gunstart. It was 3am in the morning when we got to the race briefing. The 50km runners already started at 1:30am so it was all just the 30km runners and there were a lot of us.

Once again, I greeted the usual faces and was happy to see so many new ones too. There were almost 200 runners for this category, more than all the runners from last year if I recall correctly. The fame of Deadmans has really spread and for the price of 500 pesos or less, this race is more than worth it.

The starting line was the resort itself and it was bustling with activities. Finally, Boy Lipad led the warm up with some stretching and a dance. After that, it was already the gunstart. I paced with Jim and Mark while Khat went ahead. It was a long and winding concrete road and it was pretty straightforward and familiar. I just followed the lights from the headlamps of the other runners. It was a cool morning and quite reminiscent of the first ascent of the Mt. Ugo Marathon.

The concrete road eventually gave way to rough trails and though it was still a long way uphill, it was much more bearable. I passed a few runners and we eventually reached the first aid station. I made a mistake and thought that AS1 would be at the km6, but in actuality, it was at km11 already. I only had one soft flask filled up so I was a bit thirsty already. Good thing there was a lot of water and some cassava cakes at AS1. Yummy! Energized, I waited a bit for Khat before proceeding onward.

The break of dawn found us along the trail to sitio lubog. And there, we also found the muddy trails. It was once again a fun experience avoiding the mud and finding the easiest way through. Others were feeling stressed but I really had fun in this part. Once you set your mind to it, then mud changes from hindrance to enjoyment.

Eventually we reached sitio Lubog and AS2. Amazing! There was sir Tads and Pao manning it, while Alex was raceyaya-ing the runners and Jaja took our photos. I was surprised to see the pancit and spaghetti already portioned out for the runners. Wow, DM300 has really leveled up! After Khat arrived, she decided to eat later so we set off towards climbing Mt. Lubog.

This was here that we saw most of the pack of runners. They were on their way down from Simbahang Bato and some were also on their way up. It was a lot of mud crawling and rock scrambling so I was really enjoying this part. I advanced through some runners and eventually reached the rocky peak. Here, MJ was waiting for us to scan our raceyaya bracelets. We had some chitchat as I didn’t know he was back in the Philippines already. We talked about our other friends (Lady and Marielle) while waiting for Khat to arrive. After taking some pics, we bid MJ goodbye and descended. This was the turnaround point already and we were on our way back to the finish.

I told Khat that even if it was already on the way back, this was the hardest part of the race. We backtracked and took time to take a dip at the small falls near sitio Lubog. Then we reached the Deadmans Trail. It was a good thing that Khat and I have already ran this trail before with Team Malditah. It was much more slippery because of the mud and the descents were a bit out of control but we eventually made it through the rolling hills. I did make some stops along the way to admire the view. It was absolutely breathtaking no matter how many times I’ve been here.

We eventually reached the viewdeck and here was my favorite aid station. Jefferson and Jeric were the familiar faces while pimiento sandwiches and gulaman were the stars of the show. I ate a lot and just rested on the grass. With 3 hours left and just 8km more to go, we had ample time to relax.

We waited for the pancit to be cooked and Lodi Darell arrived at the aid station to greet us. He was running the 50km distance for the third year already, what a hunk! He’s also very much single so ladies, feel free to contact me if you wanna get in touch with him. When the pancit arrived, we took some in between slices of bread, thanked the marshals, and started off.