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:

9.  Don’t try to outrun dogs, you just can’t. I remember a dog tried to run after me, I stopped and shouted at the beast. That intimidated him and he leave me alone.
8. If you should carry a hydration bag, test it before using it. It was my first time to use my Camelback that can carry 2 liters of water (I actually filled up the whole contents) and I realized it was too heavy for me it made my upper back painful. From Dasma, I decided to leave it and made myself content with a handcarry plastic bottle.
7. I wonder if there’s some sort of a running gear you could use to cover your nose/mouth while you run. The air in the entire stretch of Manila is polluted and by the time I reached Imus area, I found my lungs very heavy.
6. Those uphills, you better walk than run them to save energy. I remember after we exit Dasma, I ran a total of 2 km of uphills when we reached Silang area. This probably made me very tired that I ended up doing more walking when we reached Tagaytay.
5. Invest on a nice shoes made for longer run. In my case, I bought myself a Mizuno Ascend trail shoes and I felt very comfortable with them I didn’t bring another pair during the run.
4. For guys, apply petroleum jelly on your nipples. I forgot to apply one, I got sore nipples when I reached Silang area. Good thing Tina have one so I was able to save my nipples from bleeding.
3. If possible, try to converse with people you passed along the road. This will break the monotony and hopefully, you’ll receive some motivation from them as well. I remember try to say Hello to a banana vendor and she gave me some words of motivation. Try it, its good for your soul as well.
2. It’s boring to run alone. I got bored when Gab left me at km46.
1. Ultramarathon is more of a mental game. Convince yourself that you can finish what you’ve started and surround yourself with fellow runners to give you motivation.

Some picture taken by Doc Topher (BTW you’re right, your egg sandwich you made was the best!).

Stop over at WalterMart

Me walking along Tagaytay Road

The Finishers Top(from left):Rod,Doc Topher,Me Bottom(from left):Gab and Mark