Takbo.PH Night Fest 2011

Welcome to the dark side.

Tey and I ran our first night run last Saturday (April 9) at the first night run of 2011 at Filinvest Alabang. Being a Southern Metro person (Sucat native), it was an easy yes to register for this takbo.ph event.

It's been a while since I ran nights. When I was still in UP, I used to do night rounds on the oval after my last class. I even tried (once) to do night run at Manila Memorial Park but I found that a little creepy so now I stick with morning runs for MMP.

Those night runs felt so very 2010 that I had forgotten the feeling of running at night, the extra effort of trying to see the road and near-missing the craters. [Silly me did not have a head lamp or other source of extra lighting.]

Do or do not - there is no try.

I now know that it's also critical to train for different situations like this. I realize that I'm an "after-office" runner. Being a night-shifter for most of the last 5 years, "after-office" means morning. [When I was in UP, I taught normal day classes so I ran at night.] The night run I suppose would feel like a morning run for regular people (I'm irregular?).

Ok, I guess I'm just making excuses. I finished at 1hr 15mins and my girlfriend did 1hr 12mins. Go figure. :))

Yoda once told me, "Fear is the path to the dark side." But I disagree. I think only courage would bring a runner to tread the dark side. Or was he talking to Anakin?

Night Pics

It was a good run with a nice route, fun hilly parts, great running community, and awesome pictures as well. :))

After Run

Start/Finish Arc




Skechers SRR Shirt!






...and Superposition! :)))






...Superposition with Jinoe. :))

Running Free at Hyundai Fun Run

Roxas Blvd, April 2, 2011, Saturday.  We woke up at 3AM. Or should I say, Tey woke up at 3AM while I just stayted up and waited for my shift to end. [Thanks to my teammate Alfredo for trading shifts with me.]

We started preparing for our first free race - the Hyundai Run for a Cause. Two days before, we got our free singlets with bib and RFID. I found it a little weird that my bib number did not match my RFID number. But heck it's free. Why should I complain?

We reached the venue just in time, just when they were starting to introduce the emcees (Regine Tolentino and Boom Gonzales). Maybe it was just too early for them but it appeared (at least to me) that they were a bit confused on how the event should go. Like Regine did not know that she was supposed to lead the stretching or that they should properly introduce their guests (who were Richard Gomez and his wife Lucy, to mention the more prominent ones). But it turned out ok later on. Maybe they just needed to warm up a little.

The Wave and the Sea

Hyundai took the "Wave" system seriously. In the past races that I joined and that had waves (like 10.10.10 and Condura 2011), the waves were just more or less about a minute apart. Being in Wave B, I experienced firsthand waiting for more than 5 minutes before we started. Well safety comes first. Hyundai must have thought you can never be too careful.

The run itself was pretty straightforward (almost literally). The route was along Roxas Blvd and starts and ends near the Grand Stand (much like the Manila Milo Marathon). There were a lot of volunteers along the route, some cheering, some taking photos, many passing bottles of water.

At 20,000 runners, it was practically a sea of people so it was surprising to see my former (or future?) co-faculty John Martin (Recio) there. I thought I'd give him a "High Five!" but I was busy huffing and puffing through all the 7 holes of my bayabas.

At the finish line, I was pleasantly surprised to see that many of my college orgmates (UP Gears and Pinions in the house!) were Marshals for this event. Here's some of them with this bodyguard shot.

L-R: Jayreus Jimenez, King Almazan, Renz Formoso, Riznel Cresino

Strong Finish (sort of)

I thought I did pretty well but maybe my watch was fast? It felt like my usual pace and I thought I would probably finish just a minute or two over an hour. But it's more than a couple of minutes. My unofficial time is 1hr 10mins which is not bad but I know I could have done better. I could blame it on a lot externals but it would still go down to how well I prepared and how I execute that for a new PR.

And how heavy I am! I feel 10 lbs heavier this year (which I think I am!). I thought fastfood would make me fast?! Oh, the lies of the cheeseburger. :P

Super Pictures


Let me share the other fun pics I have from the event.

...with Tey (before and after)

...and you know what's coming..

...the Superposition!


L-R: Miguel Estepa, Homer Ramos, Bino Santos, Moan Anical


"The JunFacs" L-R: Miguel Estepa, Homer Ramos, Bino Santos, John Martin Recio
[Thanks for sharing these pics!]

...with the UP GPs Marshals!


...with another co-faculty Bino Santos. Congrats on your first run! Hindi ka na virgin! :P


Tey


Yours Truly

Registered for Takbo.PH Night Fest

Tey and I are officially registered for the Takbo.ph Night Fest!

My girlfriend registered on opening day at Trinoma (after her new PR 21K at Run United). She was not allowed to sign up for me so I registered the next day (March 7, Monday) at Skechers Greenbelt 5.



Looking forward to this new experience and to my SRR T-Shirt. :))

See you there guys!

Run United 2011 - My Runaway Girlfriend

My girlfriend's stronger than me.

It took a while before I realized it. I guess it's not just my running that was slow that day.

Already done with my 10K, I was sitting at the curb, taking some pics, and waiting for Tey to complete her 21K. We had decided that I was to run 10K only because I have a shoot the night before.

I would say my 10K was ok. It's not that bad. If I compare it to my last 10K (Adidas KOTR), I did a little better. 1hr10 now compared to 1hr12. But compared to last year's Leg 1 (Century Tuna) or last year's Unilab 1, well, hmm, um.... Ok, next topic.


Runrio Leg 1 2010 (Century Tuna) : 1hr 8 mins
Unilab 1 2010 : 1 hr 2 mins
Adidas KOTR 2010 : 1 hr 12 mins
Runrio Leg 1 2011 (Unilab 1 2011) : 1 hr 10 mins


After running, I stretched and I claimed my finisher's kit and my bag from the baggage counter and proceeded to wait for Tey at the corner of 7th and 28th.

Tey finished her last 21K (Condura 2011) at around 3h8m but she was injured then. Her 21K before that (Unilab 2, 2010) was at 2h54. While I waiting, I took a few shots, like this one of Tessa.

I heard the announcer on the mic say "2hrs 30 mins! You can do it guys!" I thought I'd sit down for a while because Tey would still take 20 to 30 minutes.

But like a flash of lightning out of the clear blue sky, Tey suddenly, unexpectedly came running in front of me like she's chasing Piolo.

How did she do it? My fastest 21K is 2h52 and my 23k split in my last 32K will only put me at 2h45 tops.

I snapped out of my mathematical trance when I remembered that I was sitting there to take pictures of Tey.

Here I am trying to overtake Tey (Thanks to Peng Magbiro for this nice shot).



It was a great run for Tey. From 3 hours 8 minutes, she shaved off more than 30 minutes for an official time of 2 hours 34 minutes. No, it's not right to call that a shave. That's a 6-inch haircut plus blow dry.



Good job to my girlfriend! Last year, she did not even want to run. 3K was unimaginable. And now here she is - even stronger than I am. If she has a blog, I'll save it to my favorites, read it, and take down notes.

Here are some more pics from the event.

Tey and Tessa



My fast and strong runner girlfriend Tey

Earl and Tey



...Superposition!

Early Runs 10K at 10.10.10 Run for Pasig River

10/10/10 Ayala to MOA. We survived the 10K of the Run for Pasig River! I expected a lot of people but I did not foresee the impact of having that much people in one place. :P

Tey and I decided to run together because we knew it will be very difficult to look for each other in a sea of 120,000 heads. We went to Ayala via MRT, which offered free rides for runners. That was really awesome!



I would say the starting area was very organized. Water stations, baggage areas, and portalets, were readily accessible. We were divided into clusters because of the great number of participating runners. Tey and I were at Cluster 2, which was close enough to the stage for us to recognize Piolo Pascual (to Tey's maximum kiligness). [Manny Pacquiao and Santino were also among the celebrities who were at the 10k stage].

Our goal was 1hr 15mins for this 10k. We reached the 5k marker at 00:37:30 which was exactly halfway through our target time. Between 5k and 6k (that was already at Roxas Blvd), we were met by the 5k runners, making the road a little more congested.

At 1hr 15mins, we were only somewhere between 8k and 9k so we missed our target by a around 1.5k. At least, we thought, we could still finish with a decent time.

Little did we know that our run for Pasig River was about to be cut short. The MOA globe and the street towards the Finish Line were the bottlenecks where all the runners. We walked the last 8.5k. Slow, tiring, walk.

We reached the finish line 22 minutes later. I stopped my watch at 1 hr 37 minutes when we cross the finish line. [There was another finish line ahead which was very confusing].

The finisher's band has a very simple design but it looks pretty cool.


There were a lot of marshals but I personally didn't feel that the number was enough to accommodate that number of runners. Anyway, I salute the volunteers for accomplishing their tasks well even though they were definitely outnumbered.

Frantic finisher's band claimers handled coolly by the volunteers.


I'm not sure if we broke the world record but I have a feeling we did. :P

Chillaxing after a tiring walk around MOA looking for a place to buy food from.



Waiting for breakfast.



And by the way, superposition! :P

Adidas King of the Road 2010 - Me and My Big Singlet

My girlfriend Tey and I (and Geoff "Max" Factor) are officially registered for the 10k of this year's Adidas KOTR. I originally planned to do 21k. However, due probably to the popularity of this run, we ran out of 21k slots. [We only got to register on Wednesday (9/29). Tey was in the hospital most of last week].

I was considering not to run anymore but Tey has been preparing for the Adidas 10k so I decided to join her in her 3rd 10k. I guess I can just run again in the afternoon. :P

Aside from not getting the 21k slots, we also ran out of sizes. I got the Large singlet. And they were not kidding when they said Large. :))





I'm looking at having it altered or exchanging it for someone else's or just buying a new singlet.

Anyway, whatever happens, I guess I'll see you guys there where I (again) for the nth time attempt to get a sub-1 10k!

Registered for Run for Pasig River 10.10.10

Tey and I registered today for the 10k run of the 10.10.10 Run for Pasig River. We bought 1000+ (it's actually 1008 :P) worth of Bench products and we got our bib numbers for only 100 pesos each.

The organizers of this event are targeting a world record of 120,000 runners. Well, it's nice to dream big like this and just imagine how much help the Pasig River will get. But I hope that they are really ready to accommodate this much.

I guess you can say that I think they can pull this off because I registered. After all, I believe it is Run Rio who will organize the 5k and 10k. :))

We'll see you guys - you other 119,998 guys - there! I'm sure we'll bump into each other. :P

Eng'gfinity : The Engineering Centennial Run

UP College of Engineering celebrates its 100th year with a Centennial Run brought to us by the Engineering Student Council.



The run is on July 18 and it starts and ends (where else?) in front of the College of Engineering (Melchor Hall) in UP Diliman. It features 3 categories: 2.2k oval challenge, 5k, and 10k.

Registration is now open! [Reg package includes singlet, race bib, route map, and race analysis]. For more details, please go to enggisko.net. :))

Century Superbods Run

Thanks to my girlfriend (who also gave me money to register), I ran 10k for the Century Superbods Run! [Btw, my girlfriend's not my sugar mom - wala pa nga lang sweldo when I registered and bought shoes].

Many from our team in HP joined Century. In this pic from left to right: Carmina, me, Mils, Chrissie, Charles, and Noel.



The gun starts were earlier than scheduled. I was still contemplating on going to the portalets again when the countdown for 10k started.

I was aiming to go top 15% again for this run. However, as early as 2k, I felt cramps on my left leg. I tried to push for a while but I just couldn't so I stopped in the mid-island for a while and stretched (it felt like my tibia will stick out of my skin).

After a few seconds of being a geek (thinking whether it was really tibia or fibula or if it was just lactic acid buildup), I went back on track, slowly at first then back to my race pace after about 2k again (I saw the markers).

A few distractions were helpful - like the models at the water stations who made me go even slower - to forget the pain and start going faster.

I was able to finish with an official chip time of 1:08:44. Not bad, considering I stopped for a while. However, I did not meet my top 15% goal. In fact, I was almost at 50%. Here's my Runpix (about 43% of runners ahead of me).



I'm targeting to do sub-1 next time. That should be enough to get me to top 15%. :))

Here's my only searchable photovendo pic.


I planned to get pictures with celebrities but I only got one - Manny Paksiw with Freddie Roots!


Yeah! I conquered 10K!


Nice arc, Coach Rio!


Big big tuna!


The Superposition - I think I finally got it right.


Runrio Leg 2 - I'm coming for you! [21k for the win!]