Eugene's Road to the 2012 BDM 102

In a couple of days, my good friend Eugene Yasay will run his first Ultramarathon. It's not 43, 44, or 50. No sir. Not even 80 km.

He will be out there this weekend to conquer the BDM 102 KM!

Just recently, Eugene posted that he has completed 10 hours of running. Man, 10 hours? How did he get to this state of physical, mental, and emotional toughness?

A journey of 102KM starts with the first step.

I clearly remember when we were just starting to join races. I had already completed my first 5K at the Condura Marathon (2010) when both of us (along with Noel Deemen Runner who had done 21K) joined the 10K of Runrio Leg 1.

It was funny, that day, (maybe not for him) because Eugene was late due to a car incident. He left his timing chip as well. Later he also told me that he thought he made a wrong turn somewhere because his watch is showing some very low number, like he only did 5K or something. What a way to start his running career, I thought. :)

He obviously got over that little hump because we were on a road race again a few weeks after that, where he finished 10K at 36th overall with official time of 48 minutes, which for me was ostrich fast.


Why am I so payat here?!!!!!!!

In retrospect, perhaps Eugene did not make a wrong turn at Leg 1 after all. He can do my 5K time in his 10K! :P

After our 2nd 10K, we decided we could take it up a notch by doing 15K at Green Miles run (with Papa P). We trained for this at UP one time and I remember him and Noel challenging each other to do 7 rounds (15.4K).

During the race, Eugene physically did a sub-Piolo when he ran past him.


L-R: Earl, Noel, Eugene, Geoff Factor


I can't imagine we made it to 15K mileage at the same time. We even did 21K together at Nature Valley Run.




But I guess that's where our distance PR ended to be the same. Eugene then decided to do a 42K at the 34th Milo Marathon and (here comes the cliche) the rest was history.

He has gone on to do 3:30-ish 42Ks and now he will be facing his biggest challenge yet.

Master Pogi

I have known Eugene for quite some time now - how he works, how he faces challenges, and even how he calls himself pogi all the time.

When he runs BDM this weekend, he just needs to remind himself that he has literally and figuratively come a long way.

When I was just starting my running career (?), I used to dream of doing a sub-Piolo. Silly me. I should have known early -- sub-Eugene is the new sub-Piolo. :))

But who is more pogi of the two? I'll let you decide... :P