Bananarunning @ frontRunner Running Clinic Leg 2

Come and join us on August 4 (Wednesday) for the 2nd Leg of the frontRunner Running Clinic.

I’ll introduce you girls (and boys) to Cooper’s Ligaments and we can discuss if RedLetter days are good or bad for running.

See you there!

Running in the Year 2010: Mary Grace, Remus, Alexander, Kassy and Eric

In his blog entry, The Austerity of Small Races, fellow blogger Vener was reminiscing about the simplicity of races past. And now I wonder, has the running boom improved road racing? Has it contributed to the sport?

Mary Grace

She is Cebu’s most dominant long distance runner and last June she brought glory to our country by placing 2nd in the women’s 21k category of the Standard Chartered Kuala Lumpur Marathon with a finish time of 1:26.02.

Although she is quite young and relatively inexperienced, she dominated road races in Cebu for the past two years. One of those who took notice of Delos Santos was Toby Claudio, the founder RUNNR. He first met Delos Santos in Cebu in November last year. Soon after she was taken on by Newton Running as the shoe brands’ first sponsored athlete in the Philippines. Her race entry and travel to the KL Marathon was sponsored by Toby Claudio, RUNNR and Newton Running.

Thank you guys for making this possible. Thank you for taking running in the Philippines and our elite runners to the next level.

More! More! More!

Remus and Alexander

The running is community is mourning loss of these runners. It is very sad that these tragic events could have been prevented by a little more planning on the part of the race organisers.

With escalating registration fees, us runners do expect that the basics of road racing is delivered. Water. Safe route. Accurate Distance. Accurate Timing. Sounds simple, right?

For now, let’s it keep safe guys. After a couple of races without water, I stopped complaining and started carrying my own hydration. If you can, carry your own hydration or have a support team who can supply you with water and electrolyte drinks. Be sure that you prepared for your race. Training is very important. If you encourage your friends to take up this sport, be responsible and ensure that they too know the basics about running – training, hydration, nutrition, injury prevention etc.

I do hope that finally our race organisers are taking notice.

No more! No more! No more!

Kassy and Eric

Road races have become a vehicle to promote and raise funds for various charities. We can run and give back in our own little ways. A couple of friends are doing their best to give back and go the distance at the same time.

Kassy will be running her 2nd marathon in December in Singapore. To make her 2nd marathon more meaningful, she decided to run for the Maple Tree Foundation.

Maple Tree Foundation’s vision is to help deprived and underserved mountain communities live healthy, productive, and peaceful lives with sustainable resource development programs that provide basic services, livelihood development, and education.

Click here to find out more about Kassy’s run.

Eric is probably one of the first runner/bloggers who saw running as a way to give back to society. His newest project is Run To Read race on 15 August 2010 at The Fort. The run will be composed of 4 major distance events; 3KM, 5KM, 10KM, 15KM and a 500-meter dash for kids and their moms or dads.

Click here to registration details.

There is not enough public libraries to serve millions of students, currently there are 688 public libraries of all types and there should be more. The lack of facilities is even compounded by the fact that a significant number of these libraries are under-funded, understaffed, poorly equipped, or in bad physical condition forcing it to stop functioning. Let us help Eric and the people behind this worthy cause  raise funds to build and restore libraries for less fortunate communities in various parts of the Philippines.

More like this! I like it!

I suppose just like everything in life, we have to take the bad with the good. The races have more pizzazz, whiz-bang kabloom! We have in-country most of the things we used to read only in Runner’s World. Hey, we even have Runner’s World and better yet, our very own running magazine, frontRunner. With each race we join, we are sometimes even able to contribute to a worthy cause and promote our favorite charities. Photovendo, my personal favorite innovation, has immortalised our triumps and pains. And thanks to Toby Claudio, Runnr and Newton Running, we have started to expose our elite runners to the international running scene. However, lapses of races past are beginning to catch up with us also. With the death of Remus and Alexander, these lapses can no longer be ignored and tolerated. I have to agree with what Raymund said in his blog entry, Waiver of Liability Not Accountability, there should still be people who are responsible and accountable.

Keep on running guys and be safe!

And on your next run, do try and say a little prayer for Remus and Alexander.

Tags: running, run, running in the philippines

She Bangs!

I will so regret this when I start training tomorrow.

Let’s run away from life together
Let me run away from life with you
Let’s run away from life together

Tags: running, run, bangs, monkees

slightly wicked

As we approached the first incline along Lawton, Vicky slowed down to a walk. I slowed down a bit, waited for her and said, “Let’s wait for the 2.5km turnaround before we start our walk/run. “

Whenever I feel that she is tempted to walk, I would keep on telling her that we need to keep on bouncing along. Slacker legs have to get used to the running motion again.

I kept a steady prattle as we continue to run along our treelined route.

After a quick water break at the turn around point, I hustled her to start running again and said, ” We are only doing 5. We can’t afford too much rest.”

Since I promised walk breaks on the return trip, I kept on renegotiating by saying, “Let’s run up to that hump and then walk.” Or “Let’s run here. This is downhill. We can just walk the uphills.”

The prattle continued. My running narrative ranged from running techniques, to the houses on our route and even a quick analysis of our last km. I said, “This section is not really really too bad if you break it up into uphills and downhills. ” Chit chat to get us through our last km.

We were both surprised that even with our walk breaks, we were still maintaining a good pace.

Pretty soon we reached the last 100ms and I sped up, yelling “I’ll see you at the gate.”

When I reached the gate, I was beat.

I was gasping for air.

My legs were screaming bloody murder!

But I was triumphant!

Because Vicky was able to run a good 5K?

NOT!

I was ecstatic because I ran a good 5K! Call it running displacement. Running transference. Whatever works. Yesterday, Vicky got a healthy dose of my internal dialogue while running. My mind and body was not very enthusiastic to run yesterday. My legs felt like lead. It was starting to get hot when we started running. Crappy all over.  But I was up, dressed, laced up and at BHS. Run, I must.

When I was pushing Vicky in our run, I was actually pushing myself harder. I couldn’t push her and not go the speed/distance also. I have to admit, Vicky and I are in both in bad shape. Our mileage are down to pfft! However, we were able to have a good run yesterday.When she was huffing and puffing, I was, too. Just a little quieter. When her legs were screaming, my legs were screaming with hers.

Slightly wicked. Sorry Vicky! I do hope you felt you had a good run, too. See, we can do it pa naman on pace eh.

Total Weekly Mileage: 15km

Tags: run, running

xLife @ Qtv

Back Row : Mark, Trick and Lester. Front Row: Vicky, Bea, Kassy, Tin and I. Photo courtesy of Ketikat.

Last Wednesday, a few friends and I had a blast shooting for a segment of X-life.

The show will be featuring running parks in Metro Manila and I was one of the runners invited to show off my running playground.

The choice was easy for me. I immediately chose BHS. With its relatively flat course, 400m-ish sides and access to familiar race routes,  it remains to be my favorite playground. Perfect for easy,  long and speed workouts. And of course, let’s not forget the shops and restos around the area.

We had to wait a bit for the crew but it was great to catch up again with friends. It was also great to meet up for the first time with Kassy. She and I have been communicating through our respective blogs for sooo long but never managed to join the same race and catch up with each other.

After a quick profile shot, they made us run around the small loop. We were amazed at how vanity can make us run at 6:00min/km pace.

Check out our running form at xlife on on July 21, Wednesday after the late night news.

X-Life is all about showing you how to lead a healthy, fit, and happy lifestyle through exciting and extreme sports and activities, expert advice about health, diet, and food, and exploring new destinations. It is hosted by Survivor
winner and actor JC Tiuseco, and hosts and models Gino dela Pena and Steph Henares.

baby steps

After two weeks without logging a single km, I was feeling down and heavy. Very heavy. Last Monday, Tin and I went out for a 5K easy. I needed to test how many kms my left ankle can handle.

We started out easy. I was very careful. I was waiting for any twinge or tightness. It felt great to hit 1km without pain. The next km will be downhill and I was extra careful. I didn’t want to run too fast. When we hit our 2.5km turnaround, I was a bit breathless because Tin and I have increased our pace to 6:30ish.

We rested a bit at our designated pit stop and got some drinks.

Going back up was not easy but it felt good. I was sweating. It really felt good to sweat out 2 weeks of inactivity.  Running a 5 never felt to soooo good! 5K is always a good place to start. Baby steps baby

Weekly Mileage : 5km.

Tags: run, running, running after an injury

seen the light or missed the glitter?

Guess what …

The 21 km team-relay race category of the Lactacyd Team Woman Run is now open to WOMEN OF ALL AGES. And now with less than 2 weeks to go, I wonder if they have seen light or missed the glitter.

Whatever their reason, it’s good to know that 45 and over ladies can now lace up for this race.

The prize is right for this race. Very very generous. Click here for race details. But if the price (of registration) is not right for you, Php1500 (Php1000 discounted if with lactacyd bottles) here are some races happening on the same day.

Races on 27June from Takbo.ph:

06/27/2010	ACE Hardware DAVIES Paint Eco-Friendly Run 2010 3/5/10 (MOA)	Running
06/27/2010	family.RUN.fun 3/5/10K (ADMU)	Running
06/27/2010	Team Woman Run 2010 by Lactacyd 3/5/10K (McKinley)	Running
06/27/2010	Ocai Run 3/5/10K (Ortigas)	Running

Tags: run, running, team woman run, team woman run 2010 by lactacyd

what i think about when i can’t run

When can I run again?

Gawd, why am I not missing running.

Wednesday afternoon. Long run. I can’t. What am I gonna do now?

Wandering around on a Friday afternoon. Officemate asked, “What are you up to?” I stare wide eyed and say, “I would normally be doing speed repeats. I feel lost.” *bawl*

Now I have more time to watch movies. Too much time, I think,  watched 3 movies in 1 week.

Downs a coke in can. How am I gonna burn this quickly?

When can I run again? Runs a bit. *Ouch*

Hello Precision, Hello Precision2, Hellow Lunars, Hello Newton. *bawl*

Surely I can run again after 1 week rest.

If I can’t paw and claw. *bawl*

If I was planning to run Milo I’d be going crazy right about now.

I’d better race soon. These gels are about to expire.

Ankle swelling … Be Gone!

I miss running …

stalled

Last week, I adjusted my rest break and was able to hit my 800s repeats pace. The following day I went for an easy run with Kathy and Art. I was ecstatic. This is it! I really thought that I would be able to do all my training runs for the week. Then disaster hit. I tripped, fell and ta-da! Sprained ankle with scraped knee on the side. I was still able to walk/run back to the gym.

Friday was the worst day ever. I woke up and my left foot felt and looked like

it was a size bigger than the right foot. I had half a tennis ball growing out of my ankle. Panic!

A visit to Dr Chu-Uy and her needles on Saturday helped to bring down the swelling.

I’m now twiddling my thumbs. Waiting for the swelling and tenderness to go away. Waiting for my scraped knee to heal. Waiting for the day when I can run again.

Maybe this weekend…

Nature Valley Run : What the Dickens?

"It was the best of times,
it was the worst of times ..."
- A Tale of Two Cities 

This is a first for T2. First time to stop in the middle of a race for a group picture.

I probably registered my worst finish time yesterday but I had so much fun I wouldn’t trade it in for a PR. Wait! For a Mari-level 1:31 Half …maybe.

Kathy, Vicky, Kristine and I all registered for the race. However, the newest archenemies of running – work and weather – got in the way of training. A few well timed text messages sealed the deal. We will be running at the Nature Valley Run and bounce along and just complete the distance. We planned to do a 9 min run : 1 min walk ratio to break off the race in manageable chunks.

It was great to be out there and running. It was great to see running friends. It was a good thing that we were blessed by cloudy weather and not punished with scorching hot morning for being such lazy runners. Best of all it’s great to be running with T2 again. Wish the rest could join us, too. Soon siguro. I only regret that the turn around point at Heritage was a few meters short of our ManangTaho so we weren’t able to make a pitstop. I was able to make up for it by buying coke and spanish bread at the bakery along Bayani Road.

Congratulations to the team behind Nature Valley Run, as one of the last runners who crossed the finish line, I can say that we had sufficient water and marshals. Even the cheerers stayed at the finish line to welcome us, with matching pom-poms. I was so surprised that we still received complete loot including the uber awesome Haagen-dazs ice cream. The organisers didn’t leave us to fend for themselves. I actually quite envy the last runner who was followed by an ambulance and motorbikes as she completed her final kms.

Thanks for the pic Ting! I always break for the cam.

Tags: nature valley run, run, running