Ran United (2)1

After all whats been said and done, here I am once again, adding fuel to the unstoppable blaze that is Run United 1 for the year 2012. Pardon me for being so late, work's got me all tied-up again.




21k Runners waiting for the gunstart.




Thats me before the race, all ready to go!

Anyway, RU1 is the 1st of the trilogy and 1st in a lot of ways: 1st ever to have BGC, Roxas Blvd. and MOA in one 21km route. Its the 1st to use SMS technology to inform runners of their official time. Its also the 1st to have medals on each leg and once completed, you could put them all together to form one gigantic medallion perfect for your memorabilia wall. And its the 1st to have free shuttle service from MOA to BGC and vice versa complete with police escorts to avoid delay. On to my story and how I hated my run and the result. Like the CSM last Feb, I was running ok in the first half but come 13th km my thigh muscles and calves started giving me cramps everytime I ran for more than 1km. So I had no choice but to run-walk upto the 17th km. After the 17th I started running with a slow pace until I reached the 18th km. I wanted to make up for lost time so I ran upto the finish line like there were zombies chasing me (uy, sounds like another run o!) I finished with a measly time of 2:32 according to the sms. A second slower than my last 21k! Yikes! After crossing the finish line I got my medal and immediately set out to get my free drinks and my loot bag together with my finishers shirt. But as I was claiming my shirt, the lady in the booth didnt bother to get the stub that I was giving her so after getting my shirt I was tempted to get another Medium sized shirt as pasalubong for my wife. Yes! I confess! I am one of those who took advantage of the situation. But I never thought that their stocks would be stolen and a lot of runners wont be getting theirs. Well anyway, karma wont just sit there and do nothing, after getting my massage,




and dipping my tired feet in ice cold water courtesy of the ULAH expo runners area, as I arrived in my house, tired and sleepy, I found out that Ive lost my Garmin heart rate monitor (there, happy now?!). I shouldve known better, sigh.
Enough of that, let me just run through some more of my comments;
- hydration were suffcient but the people manning the stations werent.
- bananas and sponges were also placed in strategic spots, you just have to dip those sponges some more to be able to serve its purpose.
- it was hard enough climbing the buendia flyover with thousands of runners, but having visibility issues is another, they shouldve placed more lights to improve runners visibility and avoid accidents.
- and also, while funny at times, but organizers should tell their bouncers or marshals to pee on designated portalets not on the walls or empty lots. BGC is too nice a place for others to just spray their pee on it. Come on now! 'Susginoo!
With that, Ill leave you with an apology and a reminder of the Golden Rule: "Do not do unto others what you want others do unto you." Yes, I've learned that the hard way after the race. (Hu-hu)
Till next time, happy trails!
Run hard, run happy!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

The Best Birthday Gift Ever

Last February 4 was my birthday. Also, my Mom was scheduled to arrive on the same date. I asked my sister (in the states) to buy me a Garmin Forerunner 210, as it'll be my birthday gift to myself. I told her that Ill pay her thru my Mom.





Once purchased, my sister sent me a pic of the watch which made me more excited to have it. On the day that my Mom arrived, she handed me the watch and told me not to pay her anymore since it was my birthday! I know right? Suh-weeet!! Right on time for the Skyway Marathon happening the next day!
Instantly I opened the box and one by one I checked whats inside it.





- 1 Forerunner 210 unit
- 1 usb charger clip
- 1 adaptor plug(for wall charging)
- 1 Garmin heart rate monitor with strap
- 1 cd software
- 1 startup manual

What I did next was familiarize myself with the watch thru the manual. And then I went thru the initial setup of the watch. I just answered all the questions and within a minute or two, it was set to go. Of course I had to fully charge it before the race the next day. Placing the unit in the clip charger was a bit challenging at first. You have to perfectly align the holes in the watch to the charger, if you see the Garmin logo and the battery life icon in the watch, it means the watch is charging properly. So the next day, race day, I attached the heart rate monitor to the strap then wore it just below my chest, instantly the watch detects it and will ask if you want to use it. Its best if you connect and locate satellites minutes before the gunstart since it took me at least a minute and a half for it to locate a satellite. Gunstart came and all I had to do was to press the start button to start the timer. There you'll see your distance, pace and time. Now if you press on the page/menu button, the fields in the display screen will change to distance, heart rate and pace. Another press of the button will take you to laps display then the time and date then back to distance, pace and time display. During the whole 21k run I couldnt help myself from looking at my watch. When I finally crossed the finish line, I just pressed on the start/stop button to stop the timer. Oh and dont forget to press the lap/reset button after every run to save and reset your previous run. Once I got home that day I quickly uploaded the saved info to their garmin connect website and voila! The complete details were staring in front of me.





Here's a sample of what youll see when you upload your run at garmin connect. Grabe, pati pagtawid mo ng street kuha niya!

I also wondered if its ok to use this gps watch on wet conditions. Upon checking on its manual and after reading some reviews on the internet, I found out that its pretty much ok to do so. One guy even took a shower with it just to check.

I havent found a name to call it yet but Im choosing between Barda and Gardo. I know for some its weird to name them but for me its normal, I give names to all my toys. To site an example, I call my car the Pogster Mobile, my laptop, Lappy. Kanya-kanyang trip lang diba?

So there you go, I guess i have to say goodbye to my Nike+ app now, since I wont be using it anymore, and hello to my new love, Barda (or Gardo)!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Alvir,Manila,Philippines

My Weekend Run at Clark

A weekend in my Mom's house in Clark.
The first things I packed were my running clothes my Mizuno's and my accessories. I made sure I will run at Clark. By hook or by crook. Ive been dreaming of it to happen since I got into running.

So run I did.

Knowing that Clark doesnt have too much traffic and considering that its a Sunday, I set my wakeup time to 7am. The sun was already up when I got out of the house, set my Garmin, and as I pressed start, I eagerly ran, like a dog escaping from his leash. As I reached the main road from our house, I saw runners from the Don Bosco Fun Run.



I stick to my course although they had a better shaded route but I wanted to feel and experience the morning heat while running, I wanted to know how my body will react and adapt. After a quick stop at the convenience store, I was already nearing my 3rd km, approaching my first turn. This is when I started taking in the view. It felt like I was running somewhere in the US, with all the houses, roads and streets around me. While running, I giddily greeted the oncoming cyclists with a simple hand wave and some were nice enough to wave back. As I was at the end of this stretch, I had an average pace of 6:40. Maybe because it was just straight and flat. But the next stretch was'nt, it was a slow and long inclined road with lots of Acacia trees covering it from the sun. Inclined roads are a runners nightmare, they take a lot from your gas tank and from your legs. Which happened to me as expected. Slowed down to an average pace of 7:00/km. The scent of the grass and trees were something else. Coming from a city runner, its a rarity to smell and feel these things. Now came the hill-y part of my run route, slowed down even more. As runners from team Clark passed me by I knew I had to keep up the pace. After that it was all flat pavement covered by large trees, with 2km to go, I increased my speed to make up with the lost time. The water from the fun run kept me refreshed and recharged and helped me finish my 10km run with a so-so time of 1:05.


Running at Clark gave me a new kind of natural high. After this run, I am looking forward to running in different places here and hopefully abroad. After almost 3 years of running, my interest for it is still as strong as my first run. So, expect me to be running in your place anytime in the near future. And for sure, I will be blah-blah-blogging about it asap!


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Young, Wild and Free

Ahh Saturday night! Time to unwind with friends and/or family. As for me, its my Ate's birthday so we all went to Clark for some R&R and of course for some celebration. Kids had fun at the WaTer Park in Fontana, ladies sang their hearts out in the karaoke bar nearby.



Me and my brothers-in-law drank below zero sml's to chill and catch up. Which lead me to missing the good ol days of going out every weekend. Yes, those were the days...young, wild and free! Gone were instant gimik nights with the bakada. Those wild rave parties are now kaput! We used to make it a point to watch all the good movies, but now were lucky to find time to catch a movie once a month.

Getting older made me realize that times change as we age. Our priorities, interests, outlook and beliefs in life change. But no matter what, Ive no regrets(or maybe a little) in whatever Ive experienced during those times. Im blessed to have good company with me. That is why I keep them and hold them dear and close to my heart. Because friends are easy to find, but real ones, the ones that will always be there for you, are difficult to find.

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Location:Bautista,Makati City,Philippines

An Ode to Life

Life to me hasn't been too good lately.

You see, life and I has this on-and-off, up-and-down relationship for almost 31 years now...and fortunately, were still at it!

Life's been throwing a lot of stuff at me these past years.
I've been dodging and hiding for a long time now and I feel that its time to tell her to stop.

Stop with all the hate and fear,
stop the uncertainties and insecurities,
stop all your hypocrisy and selfishness,
stop throwing all these s#*t at me.

Stop.
Just stop.

No matter how hard you throw them at me,
no matter where you hit me with that,
no matter when,

I can take it.
I am not afraid.
I have found my strength.

So go ahead Life...give it all you've got.
I love you anyway, I hope that we'll still be together, and still be at it for a long, long time.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Alvir,Manila,Philippines

The Condura Skyway Marathon 2012

Today is the Condura Skyway Marathon 2012 Run for the Mangroves. It all comes up to this event. All those days of half-marathon training - the long runs, tempo runs, hilly runs and core workouts. Today is the day to put all of these together and take it to the road. Prior to race day, I couldnt sleep right away. I was too excited about tomorrow. I slept around 10:30 pm and woke up at 1am. Got dressed, had a few slices of bread, drank water, packed my things, and together with my wife, drove to Jeck's house in Mandaluyong. By 2am, we were on our way to filinvest via EDSA. 2:30 am, parked in the mall, stretched, and met up with JB.



From the parking lot we could already hear and feel the festive mood of the event. 3am, ran 1km for our pre-race warmup.


5mins before the gunstart I had to hurry and go to my "Wave A" group for the 21 km run.
The first 3 km of the race was a sign of things to come. Inclined roads of up to 800 meters.


Running the skyway made me think of running in a flat pavement road, but no, the course was full of long uphills and downhills. I had to be aware of my pace, I didnt want to run too fast to avoid gassing out in the long run. I didnt want to run too slow naman because I want to raise the bar a bit high for me to break on my next half mary. Cant say much for the hydration because there was never an issue regarding this category. The only things missing were bananas and sponges. I was running 21 km. The organizers should have known that bananas and sppnges do miracles for runners in long distances like this. Oh yeah, they gave us a banana all right, but that was when we were claiming our medals AFTER the race! Organizers of this race should've known better. Another good thing is there were also portalets on every water stations after a few kilometers after the starting line.


Then came the U-turn slot in the 10.5 km. I ran a quick check on my status; stamina, check! Hydration, check! Legs and knees, check! Come the 14th km, I started to feel numbness on my right foot. Right after that, because of the numbness, my running form changed and eventually my left knee felt the change and got a little sore from it. On the 16th km, I did a 1 minute walk and 2 minute run while staying near the railings so I can easily stop and stretch without disturbing other runners behind me. I continued doing this tactic upto the finish but I gradually increased the time when running. But before I got to the finish, my left calf was cramping up. So I had to stop and run when its gone, which I blame for getting a 2:31:++. I mean, i was feeling fine that moment. I was recovered and thought that i can still run and improve my pace. Oh well, anyway, its my first 21 km race so what the heck. Ill do better in RU1, I said to myself.



Approaching the finish line, I could hear bands playing. To cheer and motivate you on. I even heard two runners telling each other to run after the last turn kasi daw nakakahiya naman. So there I was running for the finish line, looking for my number one cheerer, my wife, Trixia. I got past the finish line, had my complimentary drinks and cooled down while getting my medal which I think is the coolest medal in a run yet. Then I got a call from Trix asking me to get back near the finish line so she could take pictures of me.





Me giving love to my medal!


Me and my beatiful wife.


Jeck, Me and Jb!

After the race I noticed something quite amusing, most of the people I saw were walking with a limp. Its as if you share a certain bond with them because you can relate cause yours are hurting too. I know 1,200 bucks is a huge amount to pay just for one to join a run. But the Condura Skyway Marathon was worth it for me. It captured the fun factor in a fun run, the race from start to finish was really organized, an abundance of hydration and portalets,



and its not every day you get to run in the skyway with famous personalities like Mr. Fernando Ayala, Mr. Uytengsu, Mr. Concepcion, Ms. Pia Cayetano and Ms. Tessa Prieto. Id definitely put the next condura skyway run on my list again next year!

U.P. Does Not Need Another Runner

I have been a runner for almost 3 years now and there are places that I wish i could run at. There's New York, Boston, California, Singapore, Bangkok. And then there is UP (Diliman). Yes, Im a UP virgin up until now. Last Sunday, January 29, I went there with my friend Jeck. He picked me up at around 5am and got to UP at around 5:30. We parked at the side street near the UP Police Station since alot of the cars in front of us parked there. Later on, we found out that theres plenty of parking spaces around, you just have to go to the side streets since the main road is closed for motorists. At that time, there were already alot of runners, after our warm-up walk, we started running at an easy pace. Slowly, as the sun was rising, light began shining through the towering acacia trees embracing the streets around "Peyups". As the sun rose higher, people were piling up.





We were too busy taking in the sights and sounds of the place that we didnt noticed that the place was packed with runners. Like there was a fun run event already. After running 6km with a steady pace of 7mins /km, I noticed Jeck gassing out and my stomache rumbling, asking for breakfast, I started walking. Since Its the week before the Skyway Marathon, I didnt want to put too much stress on my legs so i had to restrain myself from getting more mileage. While walking we had the chance to see the famous "Zorro" guy who is very well-known around the area. After cooling down, we stopped and got ourselves some fresh, hot and yummy servings of taho. Going home we promised ourselves to go back in UP and bring our family there while we, together with our wives, run around the "ikot" route. Its something that is just waiting to happen some time this coming months. But until then, happy trails to you! Whenever, wherever you run, just remember to be safe and to reach for your goal! See you guys in Feb 5!

• thanks to Liz Anne Karen for tha fab photo!


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