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| At St. Francis Theater, Lourdes School of Mandaluyong for the Lenten Recollection |
By 12:30pm we had lunch at Italiannis at Shangrila Mall and was joined by my Pacer, Arlyn who had a small rolling luggage in tow that feels like she'll be running a marathon in another country. We already did our Marathon Planning and Strategy Meeting the previous day, and yes it was over some delicious Xiao Long Bao of the famous Michelin Star Din Tai Fung (we are serious about carbo loading haha!), So we did not talk anything about marathon or running during lunch. Soon our food arrived as well as two of our friends who are riding with us going to Nuvali, Arnie and Ariel.
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| my pacer, arlyn with her traveling runner luggage |
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| Lunch is served @ Italannis Shangrila Plaza Mall |
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| Nuvali here we come!! |
We left Manila around 2pm and arrived in Seda Hotel Nuvali around 4:30pm. I chose this Hotel because its near the start/finish of the race course. The week after I receive the great news that I got accepted to join TBR, I researched on which hotels are near the vicinity and having read that Seda Hotel Nuvali was one of last year's hotel partners, I immediately booked a room even on their best regular price and not on a discounted TBR price because at the time of my booking, no agreement has been penned yet between the organizer and the hotel management. But since I am by nature, a person that loves to plan and don't take anything by chance. I negotiated to get the TBR Discount once its finalized but I will already reserve the room at regular rate. And it was such a relief that they agreed on this arrangement (great customer service Seda Hotel!).
But wait! back track a little bit, So while on the way to Nuvali, I was checking my facebook and reading the posts in the TBR Batch 2016 fb group and I got a tag from Lauren in one of the posts, when I opened and read the post, I squealed in excitement because Jaymie choose my entry on for the TBR Smart online contest (In Max of 2 sentences, HOW TBR SMART DREAM MARATHON CHANGED YOUR LIFE SO FAR...)
I won a 40-day Urban Ashram Pass!!! I haven't done any yoga for like 10 years and I miss it. It was like destiny because earlier that day, Hubby bought each of us a yoga mat since I cannot find my old one and he needs one for the Triads' drills. It was like the prize was really meant for me :-)
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| my winning 2 sentences on how TBR Dream Marathon changed my life so far. |
Okay, Now back to when I saw Seda Hotel in front of me, that was the only time I had the OH MY GOD! THIS IS IT! MARATHON RACE DAY NA! feeling. This is it, I am about to run a marathon in a matter of hours!!! I went to check us in and I was advised that the hotel is fully booked and instead of the Deluxe room that I reserved, they have upgraded my room to Premier Room (WOW!! This is so unexpected - it nice to check in late when its fully booked!) I had to contain my excitement and just smiled and thank the front desk lady (if she could just see me doing summersault in my head haha!) Another plus points for a great Seda Hotel Customer Service.
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| The happy Hubby tried the day bed of our (upgraded) Premier Room |
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| So giddy to see a kitchenette and a microwave (we won't be eating a cold pizza tonight!) |
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| beautiful view from our hotel room |
This day is such a blessing after blessing after blessing... and that's not all, Rhea, one of our running friends from #TeamGuttom is staying right across our hotel room with her family... What a coincidence :-)
So its less than 10 hours before race starts and I am now having race gitters, While Arlyn and Hubby went for a swim, I decided to have my nails done. Yes, to calm my nerves I had a mani and pedi... the possibility of ruining my nail polish after the run is the least of my worries I told a friend. after an hour, we went to the supermarket to get some vitamin water and some bananas for our pre-race breakfast.
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| Knocked at the room across ours and its Rhea! |
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| Team Guttom reprezent here in Seda Hotel Nuvali |
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| Mani-Pedi to calm my nerves before raceday at Bench Fix |
Back in the Hotel, we ate our take away pizza and salad from Italiannis and we are ready for bed by 8pm. I couldn't sleep immediately so I called my son and check up on him before I went to sleep, that was around 8:30pm. I was tossing and turning and took me forever to fall asleep. I was anxious and felt that the alarm did not go off so when I checked the time, its only 10:45pm. WHAT?! thats like 2 hours sleep I tried to go back to sleep but its useless, I got up around 11:30pm to do what I trained my body to do for the past week (which was very successful) but today... it just didn't go as I hoped it would. And then I heard the alarm. its 12 am, Sunday, February 21. RACE DAY!
Seda Hotel Nuvali Welcomed the Dreamers
Check out my next post for the Raceday Story :)
XOXO,
S
