I joined this race for the following reasons:

1. To run inside Camp Aguinaldo – national headquarters of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
2. To “race” a 32km route. This will help me finally end my own speculation that I totally suck at longer distances over 21km. My target for this race is a sub 3:30 (a very conservative target time based from a 1:56 finish time – 21km Philstar run), if I finish the race beyond this target time then I know I can’t be trusted at 42km.
3. To run with fellow hard-core runners. As 32km run is something not all newbie runners will try to participate, I was expecting a small crowd. But when I got in there, there were more or less 300 runners that show up, a very respectable crowd for a very long run.
4. To burn excess calories gained from previous days eating binge. I lost 19lbs according to the official result of BLC (Biggest Loser Competition-takbo.ph edition 3rd prize winner), but after the competition I gained more than 6 lbs already. I hope joining this race will give me a head start to runing longer distances as part of my regular habit for next year.
5. To commemorate the 113th Death Anniversary of our National Hero, Dr Jose Rizal. He was 35 years old when he was executed. I really wish BR made this a 35km run instead *laughs*
6. To experience a BR organized race and join a boodle fight! BaldRunner is like a running authority here in this country. When he speaks, everybody listens. I just thought I should experience a run organized by him to see if he can “walk the talk”.

After picking up Gab and Pojie along the way, we reached Camp Aguinaldo around 5am. I didn’t have much time to warm-up as I enjoyed the various pic taking with Takbo.ph team and saying hello’s to fellow runners. As expected, I may not know the names of some runners there but I noticed majority of the runners there were familiar people you would expect from regular road runs in Manila. I immediately noticed a long table with cups filled with San Miguel beer with Doc Marvs starting to make a scene by accidentally dropping one San Miguel bottle. That would be his hydration plan for the entire 32km I guess.

It was a bit dark inside the starting line with BR thanking various groups/individuals who helped made the race possible. A few minutes before the start of the race, BR started by singing the National Anthem. It was my first time to hear national anthem being played before a race so I thought it was cool. What made the singing of national anthem much cooler was that BR was the one leading the singing of the National Anthem. I noticed every one singing the national anthem, and so I sang the anthem, hit the high notes as well and ended it with a bang! The count-down started with BR purposely interrupting the count-down to add excitement to fellow runners

1. I joined this race to test if losing weight will help me run faster. FYI, I lost a total of 19lbs in 42 days, eventually winning 3rd place in the Biggest Loser Competition-takbo.ph edition. My official weight during the final weight-in is 133.4lbs. I remember being 184lbs, just February this year. Losing more than 50lbs in less than a year is something I’ve never imagined.

2. I actually tried something “new” for this race. For the first time, I didn’t carry hammer gels to fuel me along the 21km route. Just me and my legs against the road.

3. Race started late. 15 minutes late if my memory served me right. The weather cooperated with us-light rain greeted us, almost like a de-ja-vu when I ran Eco-Dash many months ago. FYI, it was the Eco-Dash 21km run where I started my quest for a sub 2.

4. I joined fellow Kanto Boys UltraMan Patt, GingerBreadMan Luis, Mark and Jix. I’ve always believe that if you want to run faster, join faster runners! These are the guys who already hit the sub-2 mark. Join them, try to stick with them and you’ll surely improved!

5. I consider myself not a very strong hill runner. So during the first km of the race, I asked Patt how we would tackle Kalayaan Flyover. He said something like “atakihin nten” (translation: lets attack it!). True enough, we remain constant with our pace until we passed Kalayaan Flyover. And as expected, I slowed down after passing that road to get my heart rate back to normal. Patt and Luis continued with their pace. I promise myself to get even with them next year. Hehehehe!

6. I noticed that my downhill run is a lot faster than before. Probably the result of losing much weight? However I noticed that my quads are more wasak this time. And I still haven’t done any recovery run two days after the race.

7. There were enough water stations along the 21km route. Some water stations served cups with water while some have bottled water. However, being a “charity” run, I could not help but compare this to the previous charity run (Race and Shine Race) I joined. They served cold Vitwater along the 15km route and with more Vitwater after the race that you could easily just picked up from containers after the race. There’s also free breakfast. If my memory served me right, I was told there would be sports beans after 10km mark. I didn’t see any sports beans there. Oh well

My venture into the dark world of UltraMarathon started last Sunday. To date, the longest run I’ve done so far is only 42km. In fact, i have three of them namely Milo Marathon, Subic International Marathon and Philippine International Marathon.

So when a fellow takbo.ph member invited a couple of “crazies” to join an UltraRun from Luneta ending at Tagaytay Rotonda, I signed up, only four days before the target date. For those who are not aware yet, I plan to join BDM 102km ultramarathon race and this is just a part of my training.

The run formally started around 1am at KM0 after a short prayer led by Pojie. We started albeit fast as expected. Gab and Rod led the way for us from km0 until we reach Las Pinas area as they are already familiar with the place. At one point, Gab would inform us to run on the left section of the road instead of the right section of the road because of the “rugby boys” who usually stay near that area and might run after us and cause some harm. When we reached Tambo area where Uniwide Mall is located, we turned left as runners are not allowed to run along the coastal road. Within Paranaque area, I was expecting a quiet/silent community but it looks like that city never sleeps. It was within this city when we met a couple of gays and one of them tried to run with us, with his full attention on our handsome buddy Mark. We just ignored them and continue our run, until we reached Las Pinas then Bacoor Area. During our third stop in Bacoor, Angel and Junar informed us a couple of would be snatchers tried to run after them. That made them ran faster and probably scared the hell out of those would be snatchers. We proceed with our run until we reached Imus where we did our fourth stop-over. After which we continue our run and made another stop over a km before Salitran then made another stop over at WalterMart Dasma. If my memory served me right, we rested longer here. After some stretching, fueling and eating Junar’s delicious tuna sandwich, we proceed with our run and made a stop over somewhere in Silang. The wind was to cold and we did enjoy it. As we continue with our run, I was tutoring Mark about brisk walk technique which I suggested he might try instead of just “regular” walk. Later he would comment how I easily outpaced him while I was doing brisk walking even if he was already running*lol*.

Reaching Tagaytay was a welcome surprise. The sun was up but the wind is very cold. However, as this was my first venture into UltraMarathon, I was already suck out of my remaining energy I ended up doing more walk than run from km47 up to km56. The urge to give up was already there after learning that only six of us (we were originally 15 who plan to conquer the entire 56km with Raff and Eric only planning to run 32km) where still up and running. Sheerwill prevailed over tired body and six of us finally reached KM56. Aside from this author, the other finishers were Rod,Gab,Glen,Mark and Doc Tap.

Top 10 thoughts and observations from this activity.

10. If you should run at night, always carry a flash light, headlight, reflectorized vest and something to keep you visible at night like FireFly Supernova which Sir Amado uses. As an alternative to the latter, you could also buy a blinking sponge bob light for php20 at Market Market like the one below

My Thoughts on New Balance Power Race held at The Fort – Nov 29

1. It was my intention to “race” this event to see if my previous back to back marathon would make me a faster, stronger runner or none at all. Luis invited me to a “group pace”, I asked for their target finish time, he said “sub 1:40″. Fine, maybe the “hatak” factor might help me at least improve my time. The group consisted of Patt, Luis,Jix,Mark and Marvin. Somehow I thought I was in the wrong group.

2. When 21km race started, I was expecting some sort of a countdown then a gunshot to signify the beginning of the race. Nada, all I heard was two shots of torotot (hornpipe) sound. Runners were laughing as they started their run. Who ever invented that idea was probably laughing on his own that morning.

3. Everything started smoothly, I noticed I seem to be the only runner from the group slowing down at all water stations to take water and then I would play catch up with them to sync with their pace. I always wonder how come I cannot survive more than 5km without water, these guys can probably run for 10km without water, me I cannot. damn it..

4. Wilson caught up with us near Net One Center and greeted us. This guy was amazingly fast. I fell into temptation to leave my pace group and pace with Wilson for few meters. But I cannot manage his speed, I found myself grasping for air. I slowed down and returned to my group’s pace. That guy must be telling himself “…Sam..marami ka pang bigas na kakainin”.

5. Along Lawton Avenue, I slowed down again to get water from the available water station. Extribe did a nice job of providing very long tables with bottled water and isotonic drinks. But I really hope race organizers stop using carbonated power drinks for races. Its not for everyone. I find myself pooping 5 times after the race because of the hammer gel-carbonated power drinks combo

It was a rainy night last Thursday and being the last day of Mizuno Run clinic, we were to form a four member relay team with each member to sprint around BHS loop (1.2km) while carrying Gatorade bottle and gulping its contents entirely after completing his turn. The plan was for Doc Marvin to start the race followed by Bryan, Timmy then me. The pressure was on me to run after several runners to get at least a decent finish or from the words of Timmy, to save our ego by beating the Milo kids. I tell you those Milo kids are really fast. I asked who would run last from their team and also asked his best time for 5km, he told me his best time for 5km run was 20 minutes. I realized then that there’s no way in hell I would beat his ass knowing that my best time for 5km was a mere 26 minutes. Got to do some miracle in order to save our ego, I told myself. After a warm-up run around BHS loop followed by drills, Coach Ige proceed gave us some instructions then off we started the run. Doc Marvin started his run and I noticed how fast he ran the first few meters of the race. We waited until early finishers started coming in, gulping their Gatorade completely before the next runner would start. We were still waiting for Doc Marvin