Sat 12pm

I got home around lunch time and the wife was surprised why I got home early. She knew that I’ll be running my first trail run- 57km (that started 5am-ish that day)  at that and she expected me to arrive past  5pm. I told her that I didn’t finish the entire run, that  I only got as far as the first loop (the route requires to finish 2 loops for 57km total) and the reason why I didn’t finish the race was because I lack heat training, the race was too hot and sun’s killing me. It was raining cats and dogs outside the house and I wasn’t really sure if I was able to convince her of my alibi.

Rewind  10 hours earlier

I picked up Xerxis (ultra team mate from Team Ungas) around 3am and the plan was to pass through Carmona Exit to reach Sta.Rosa Laguna. The road from GMA to Carmona exit was treacherous, several uphill that you could not see the next incoming vehicle and the downhill roads  you have to be very careful with, there we no lights along the road, several sharp turns in the road with no necessary warning signals, I was wondering if the local government of Carmona were a bunch of monkeys that didn’t pay attention to road safety(much apologies to real monkeys).  To make things more complicated, it was raining that day that I thought I’d rather run another 102km than drive along those roads.

Xerxis was hoping that it wouldn’t be too hot during the course, I could only agree with him by nodding my head and not say anything as I was more concentrated driving on that hell road while muttering in my head biblical passage Psalm 23 with slight innovation…”even though I drive through the road of shadow and death,because you are with me, I fear no harm.”  We reached Nuvali club house around 4am where the rest of the 25 and 50km runners were already gathered. Read the rest of this entry »