Skyathon Boracay 2012
I’ve been experiencing severe Boracay fatigue; after traveling to the island an average of three times a year for the last two years, it felt like I was doing just way too much partying and not enough relaxing and enjoying the beach.
So at the beginning of this year, I made a resolution not to go to Boracay at all…
…And then SkyCable got in touch offering a slot at Skyathon. I’m such a sucker for the beach, and races. Beach AND race? How could I say no? Ü
So after a year’s hiatus, I again found myself standing on the shoreline of the world’s second best beach at daybreak on one April morning (the 21st, to be exact) waiting to run another 5K on no sleep. Continue reading »
Getting My Feet Wet at the Ateneo Aquathlon 2012
Posted in Blog, Multisport, Post-Race
I was supposed to do the Ateneo Aquathlon last year and had already registered for it when it was rescheduled, conflicting with another race I was attending. So this year I pounced on the opportunity to do it.
Most runners entering the world of multisport try a two-discipline event first, such as a duathlon (bike and run) or aquathlon (swim and run). My experience was otherwise because I went into the full three-discipline event, the Speedo NAGT Ayala Alabang in 2010. I rely heavily on fast bike and run splits, so I was curious how I would match up to the rest of the field if one of my strengths were taken from me.
So on 4 March 2012, I found out.
Why do I look like I’m scheming here?
Pilipinas Darating Ako Run: Ang Lakas ng Dating
I wasn’t able to run at all for two weeks, given an upheaval in my family life. Good thing I still have my other physical activities to keep the weight gain at bay. Still, I felt fat and heavy last week so when the race organizers of the Pilipinas Darating Ako Run informed me they had reserved a bib for me, I gladly accepted. (In return, I led the warm-up exercises for the race program.)
Since this was supposed to be a fat-burning run, I left my Gu energy gels at home and decided to drink only water for hydration even though Pocari was available. I also decided not to track my pace too strictly on my Garmin. The goal was to finish the 10K and enjoy myself.
Just like I expected, the run was tough on my legs and lungs. It felt like I was back to square one. Or is there a square zero? We only had to go up one flyover (Buendia) but I totally felt Roxas Boulevard’s false flats taking their toll on my quads. If you saw me smiling on the route, that was not a smile. That was a grimace. :P
photo from Team USB
BDM 160: Ultra Support
The human body wasn’t designed to run 160 kilometers; eventually something gives way, whether it’s a wrenched joint, or a pulled muscle, or a bad stomach, or blistered skin. But that’s where the human spirit comes in.
Last weekend, 74 (crazy) runners showed up at the Kilometer Zero marker in Mariveles, Bataan to start a journey that would take them through Bataan, Pampanga, and finally Tarlac to retrace the route that Filipino and American soldiers took during Bataan Death March in World War II. This was the BDM 160.
It all starts here.
This being the second such race of its kind held by Maj. Gen. Jovie Narcise (ret.) (more popularly known as Bald Runner), plenty of stories had been swapped since last year of the trials and tribulations that participants went through. For the 2012 edition, I joined a crew to support my Endure teammate Melvin Pangan, who was undertaking the distance for the first time. Continue reading »
Timex Run 2012: My Comedy of Errors
I learned a few lessons yesterday at the Timex Run 2012, mostly in how not to prepare for a race. This was supposed to be a tune-up race, and boy, did it re-calibrate me!
frazzled and tired (photo by May Quezon)
- Prepare everything beforehand. I usually get all my running gear ready the night before, and that’s exactly what I tried to do. I even hopped over to RUNNR BGC to restock on Gu gels, which I ran out of over the holidays. I thought I was all set, but I misplaced my favorite pair of Mizuno running shorts. I spent three hours chasing it down within my closets, to no avail. I eventually settled for a different pair of shorts, but even as I lay in bed my brain kept obsessing over those shorts. In short (pun intended), I fell asleep at around 11:30pm.
- Get a good night’s sleep. Aside from falling asleep late, I hadn’t been sleeping well for the past few weeks, so I’d accumulated a huge sleep debt. Do you know that feeling of being tired, but excessive thinking keeps your eyes open? I was having that kind of sleep problem.
- Wake up early, have breakfast, get ready. I set my alarm for 3:30 so I could reasonably be up and about by 4am. This is where everything went to pieces. I did wake up, but I started fiddling with my BlackBerry and lay back down to allow a Facebook comment to load. The next thing I knew, it was 5:10am and I had to be at BGC for the 10K’s 5:30am gunstart.
- Be on time for the gunstart. That was the fastest I’d ever gotten to BGC. Considering my house is often 30 minutes away due to traffic, blessings like stoplights going green in sequence and very few cars on the road shaved my travel time down to 15 minutes. Still not enough to beat the gunstart. After finding parking in an unlikely place, I climbed over a few fences just to get to the starting line right before the 5K gunstart.
- Reset the Garmin. I knew I couldn’t trust the finish clock to give me an accurate record of my run so I hit my Garmin’s start button when I left the start chute. But when I checked my Garmin I realized I hadn’t reset it to zero. It was counting my mileage upwards from the last race I’d done. Eek!
So there I was on the route, running on a Gu gel and 200ml of Lightwater. I had to hope Timex Run logistics were up to par with their previous record in 2009. Continue reading »
Todo na Todo Responde Run
We usually think smaller races aren’t as well-organized as the larger ones backed by huge marketing budgets, but I’m really glad I participated in last Saturday’s Todo Responde Run. Aside from benefiting two worthy causes (Sendong victims and Baby Raphael), it also showed what the running community can do in a very short amount of time by working together. Todo na todo talaga!
Todo Responde Run
Sunpiology: The Day I Ran with Piolo
December 10, the day of the Sunpiology Run, was an extremely long day for me. Way before sunset, I was already at BGC waiting for the first of the Sunpiology events to begin. You see, it wasn’t just a simple footrace: to benefit the Hebreo 12:1 Foundation, there were three events. The first was the opening of an exhibit of paintings and photos by Piolo Pascual at the Sun Life Center; items would be auctioned online to generate funds for the foundation. Then the vertical run would start, taking participants up through the Sun Life Center’s stairwells. The 10K race I would be participating in was at the tail end of these festivities. And I had dance practice for work right after that.
Piolo at the Sun Life Center with Hebreo Foundation scholars
Right after the exhibit opened, I had to get back home to retrieve my bib; after trying to pack my car that morning with everything I needed for the day, I had forgotten the one important thing! So, after slogging through holiday traffic, I finally got to the race venue at 4pm, 30 minutes before the race start. Continue reading »
Run BGC: A Level Higher
Sometimes I get really frustrated with myself for not running as fast as I did earlier this year. It’s been six months since my elbow dislocation forced me to stop all physical activity for six weeks, but despite returning to training I haven’t broken the 50-minute mark for a 10K since then.
At Run BGC, I made another attempt to approach my former personal best. Or, at least, I was supposed to. Continue reading »
Run United: Three’s the Charm
Finally, the 2011 Run United trilogy (also known as the RunRio Trilogy, hehe) is complete, capping off a great year of running events in Manila for the Unilab Active Health team. This was definitely their biggest event yet, with six distance categories held in one day. Like I’ve taken to saying, bonggang-bongga!
But I guess what makes this special for me is that this was my legitimate 21K comeback, after a modicum of proper training. And also, this happened:
Dreams can come true, they can happen to you…
500-Smile Run: Blessing “in the Skies”
Have you ever been in a situation where everything is going against you, but in hindsight it was actually good for you? Well, that’s exactly what happened to me at the 500-Smile Run last Sunday.
photo by Jema Dee
