Late last year, my cousin signed me up for a 10K at Stride for Hope, the family fun run organized by Makati Hope Christian School, where his son goes. Now I’ve been so busy lately with work at the gym that I haven’t had the time to do any serious running, let alone run my first 10K. So the race date crept up on me, and did I feel rusty!

With a little more than a thousand runners in attendance (mostly from MHCS), this was an intimate race so I didn’t feel much pressure coming off the blocks. Most of the serious runners were at Subic for the Subic International Marathon, or doing long runs preparing for Condura Skyway Marathon, or basta, somewhere else. I did find kindred spirits among the 10K runners who were in this race for a good workout. (Hello Team 24/7!)

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Happy New Year, runners! If you weren’t at the Color Manila Run last Sunday, you missed out on a great way to start your running year. (I wrote a wrap-up about Color Manila Run for Solar Sports Desk.)

I remember when Jay Em of Proactive started picking my brain about a race concept he was developing. This was in June 2012, and after hearing his idea I could barely restrain myself from talking about it. Secret muna. I’m so glad the race turned out as wonderful as it did.

Jay Em, the brains behind Color Manila Run

Gotta say kudos to @jayrunshills. Color Manila Run was his idea, his baby, and she’s all grown up :D

— Noelle De Guzman (@kikayrunner) January 6, 2013

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When was the last time anyone’s ever done a race on a weekday? Last Friday’s holiday (Bonifacio Day) created a unique opportunity to stage the Real Life Foundation’s annual Race for LIFE on a day that didn’t compete with the blockbuster races last weekend.

This is Race for LIFE’s fifth year. Its aim is to raise funds for the Real Life Foundation’s scholars.

The LIFE Scholarships program provides high school and university scholarships to poor but deserving students with good academic standing who, if not for the scholarships, would have no chance of obtaining a university degree. — Real Life Foundation

Getting a good education is something I believe strongly in, so this is a cause I gladly support.  read more »

Dear Piolo (or should I call you PJ?),

When I started joining races in July 2009 and ran a 51-minute 10K my first time out, I felt quite satisfied with my finish. Little did I know that three months later you would run your maiden 10K in 47 minutes and 54 seconds, creating the “sub-Piolo” target that runners including myself would try to beat, because 10K in 50 minutes just wasn’t good enough anymore.

I never followed your showbiz career, but your athletic exploits became benchmarks I would try to beat. read more »

Last Friday I was all set for the United Colors of 88 Run on Saturday. Then I got a text message from Kuya Kim Atienza (yes, THE Kuya Kim) asking if I were interested in running 25K at the New Balance Power Run on Sunday.

Silly me, I said yes. *facepalm* It brought back memories of doing the 21K run leg in Camsur Ironman 70.3 last year on impulse without any run training. After that 21K run last year, I got pretty sick for a while; with all my injury time this last half of the year, sick or injured was the last thing I wanted to be. If I didn’t take enough care, it was going to be painful and my body would hate me for it.

But silly me, I went through with the 25K anyway. I’ve already run twice before with Kuya Kim and Team Gotta, the tri team he belongs to. I have to say, these guys love pushing the pace. I’m a sucker when it comes to running with a group of friends. I always think it’ll be a steady and easy run pace (about 6 minutes per kilometer). Then, before I know it, they’re sprinting away from me.

at the NB Power Run 2012 (photo by Jojo Pauly/Team USB)

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