Upon learning that LeadPack team (Jinoe,Doc Lyndon and Ian) will organize this race, I registered immediately on the day race registration was opened at New Balance store in Glorietta. That was months ago. Fast forward today July 5, I was able to witness one of the best race for this year.

Seeing a lot of newbies and pioneers wearing Takbo.ph singlet was pretty unusual.  Usually during road races, you would only see a few runners donning the official singlet. Today was different, majority were wearing the race official singlet! The not-so-newbie would wear their orange singlets, frosh people would wear their blue singlets(although some of them are  really old members that simply don’t have the black one) and the pioneers the black one. It was a sight to behold.

The program formally started with Running Diva singing the National Anthem, some words from takbo.ph main man Jinoe followed by some stretching exercises by Noelle. I remember the guys around me were having fun doing those stretching moves…and while they were watching Noelle in awe Read the rest of this entry »

Today is the beginning of getting back to my usual training sched. For the past 2 or 3 months, I’ve been very lousy either due to injury or plain katamaran.  So this morning I woke up around 5:00 am and head straight to oval track to do some training. There was no specific training in mind that time, I just went there and see what I can do. This was actually weird considering that i usually plan my sessions. But today, it was one of those moments where you want to surprise yourself with life’s unpredictability.

So I went to DLSU-D oval and ran three kilometers in the first lap. My split was:
1st km : 5min:42 sec
2nd km:  5min: 29 sec
3rd km: 4min: 22sec

I was able to complete 3 km for 15 minutes and 33 seconds. That was supposetedly a warm-up run gone berseck. This was followed by core exercises. I got bored with those core exercises so I followed it with 10x 150meters all out sprint with 1 minute walk/jog in between. I then proceed with core exercises again and some stretching I learned from Cris Sabal. I love to repeat this again but this time, I will increase my “warm-up” run by 3 km until I reach 12km by Thursday. What do I intend to gain from this? Get back my fitness level fast! I just hope I will have enough discipline to maintain it.

I checked my weight in my naked glory and noticed that I now tipped the scale at 148lbs! Then I remember this blog post I made about me being interviewed by Men’s Health Magazine, I remember I was already 138lbs back then…now I’m now 148lbs. Take note that I was 133lbs when I won 3rd place during Takbo.ph 1st Biggest Loser competition.  Somebody told me that at least I’m “improving” on something. Duh!

I will run this race on August 15. For details, please visit their website at http://run4change.com/runtoread/

This one will be organized by Mr. Eric Pasion. I’ve never ran any of his races before. This should be interesting. I hope this will be a good one, because I’m going to race this one. Yup, target sub 50 minutes. Abangan….

Warning:  This will be my first all-Tagalog blog post, my brain cells were not moving fast enough to translate Tagalog thoughts to English. In short, tinamad ako.

Sa mga panahong ito alam nyo na siguro ang mga nangyari sa 34th edition ng Milo. Marami kayong nabasa tungkol sa tagumpay, mga bagong PR na napagwagian, mga birhen na dina birhen, sa larangan ng marathon ang ibig ko sabihin. Ang nakakalungkot, may mga nandaya at may namatay. Pero sa mga nakakita sa akin nung Milo, marami din nagtatanong sa akin “hoy Sam, ano nangyari syo, bigla kang nawala na parang…NINJA!”

Ano Ang Nangyari
Well ayos na sana ang lahat eh. Ang ganda ng pace ko hanggang 8th km, chillax pace nga mga pare koy. Nsa 5:55-6:05min/km ang average pace. Ka pace ko sila Noelle at Prince pero nauuna ako ng konti. Kse ang evil plan ko eh sige sabay lang ako sa kanila, pero pag dating ng last 5 kilometer, babanat ako ng malupit na parang yun na ang huling takbo ng buhay ko. Alas, ako ang nabanatan..ng malupit! Pag dating ng 8th kilometer, malapit sa Uniwide, biglang kumirot yung sa banding kidney ko at ilang parte ng tsan ko. Alam nyo mga pare, bago pa man akong tumakbo, may sakit nko sa kidney. Masakit, ang magkasakit sa kidney. Read the rest of this entry »

English literal translation:  Let Batman decide

I have no idea how Batman came into picture.  Originally, it was “bahala na“, derived from “Bathala na” or “leave all to God”. I guess our fascination with heroes allowed most Pinoys to associate with them in times of trouble. But honestly, if I’ll have it my way, I wish “Bahala na si MacGyver” became more popular.

As I’ve said previously, I’ll be running the marathon distance on July 4. I was really surprised when I was told that the route will include 3 loops. Bad trip. I’m really bad when running races with loops. Last time I ran a race with loops (Philippine Independence Half Marathon) I got bored and just ran 2x instead of 3 loops, ok partly blaim clueless marshalls but really, one of my weaknesses during races is boredom. This Type A guy easily gets bored when doing things repeatedly. And running 13km 3x? Hello??!! To make things more complicated, I think I’ve also gained. Like 6 lbs. OK that Eat-All-Chicken-You-Can is partly to blaim for this! So if you guys see a fat ass running with bored, hindi maidrawing na face come marathon day, please wake me up. Add to that lack of mileage. I read somewhere that its better to be undertrained than overtrained. If thats true, dude this one’s super dooper undertrained. As if that will make me feel better.

My plan then is, force myself to enjoy a boring route, maintain a consistent pace (probably a 7:30-8 min/kim;I know its ridiculously slow) and cheer for familiar faces aspiring to join the finals. Make myself uselful you know?

See you guys on July 4. As for me, bahala na si Batman!!!