As I’ve mentioned from my previous blog post, the plan was to run this race at chillax pace and even considered taking up a role of being an “unofficial” sweeper role for 42km runners. Alas, that didn’t happen and as soon as the gun start was fired, I found myself running at my usual 21km pace mode. As I didn’t bring my hydration belt for this race, I stopped on all water stations and also did some ITB stretching, checking my watch from time to time to ensure I don’t spend more than 15 seconds doing it (adik mode). As I wore the other bib at my back with my name and blog URL on it, I would hear the following from other runners as I passed them one by one: Sam, kamusta na injury mo? Uy si RunningNinja nagparamdam! Go Ninja go ninja go! Sam, nice to see you back! Pare si Ninja habulin nten! The last made me ran faster, to which they followed me for more than 3km until they gave up. I finished the first 10km in 56 minutes and I thought, if my injury will not pop-up and cramps will not bother me, my evil plan of 4:15 will be a piece of cake

The propensity of most Pinoys to get things done in last minute led me to go to Condura Village yesterday at exactly 3:00pm with the aim of getting my 42km race kit earlier, faster with less crowd. As there will be around 8,500 registered runners who will be claiming theirs in the same area (Bonifacio High Street), I expected that the place will soon be crowded. I went there and I found around less than 100 people. I went straight to my designated tent area and I noticed that 9 people already being served. I stayed there under the sun and finally got hold of my race kit 25 minutes later. I informed one of  my friends and he relayed the issue to PatCon and as expected, the organizers fixed the issue by adding more personnel and providing shades to provide comfort to runners who will be claiming their race kit at that ungodly time of the day. As of this writing, I was told that some got their race kit in 2-4 minutes. The Conception brothers are really working hard to please runners. As PatCon once said, the Internet can be your best friend, or your worst enemy *laughs*

Change is inevitable. On Sunday Feb 7, “The Race” as most serious runners call this race will soon unravel its power to change. Hundreds of people will join this race for a change. But I bet majority will join to change their dormant lifestyle. I remember 11 months ago where I joined my first road race, I was fat and I was so sick and tired of being fat. Together with my 2 colleagues, I decided to join the 5km race. I finished it in 31minutes. To see how obese I was then, just check the image below, I’m the guy on right. I was 184lbs then. My weight now is hovering between 133lbs-135lbs  depending on my mood (my ganon!?!?)