New Balance Power Run 2009

My body knows that it took a pounding: my shoulders feel heavy, legs are slightly sore, and I feel tired. Yet, my body also feels... new. It's as if it went through a ritual cleansing. Like shedding skin.

This morning, I woke up at 3 AM and quickly prepared for the New Balance Power Run, where I signed up to run the 10K race. My gear was ready since the prior evening, and all I had to do was pour some hot water over the instant oatmeal and peel a banana for breakfast. I did both without any issues despite operating in the transitional stage between wakefulness and sleep. A cool morning breeze greeted me on my way to the 7-Eleven across my building where I picked up a bottle of Gatorade. As I was paying, the lady behind the counter asked where my race was this time. A cab was parked in front of the store and I was on my way to The Fort at 3:45 AM. Somehow the routine was relaxing.

Surprisingly, there still was not much activity when I arrived at the race site (I was the second person to check my backpack into the baggage area), and I reveled in the calm before the storm. I stretched, warmed up, and ran to the portalets thrice before being called to the starting line. Jitters? Maybe. Ironically, perhaps I was nervous because I knew I was prepared for this race, and I was throwing goals around in my head, not really certain of what I should aim for. After my disappointing discovery about my race two weeks ago, I reverted to my KOTR 10K time of 1:05:41 as the PR to beat. Again, I was aiming to shave off the 5:41 and make it an even 60 minutes.

Pinoy Weekend Warrior Wishlist: Travel

A few years ago when I was living in Myanmar (Burma), a good friend of mine introduced me to the writings of Bruce Chatwin. Instantly I was drawn in by his words and I lived vicariously through his essays. Below are a few lines from that book that managed to sear themselves indelibly in my head:

"...nomads are notoriously irreligious. They show little interest in ceremonial or protestations of faith. For the migration is of itself a ritual performance, a 'religious' catharsis, revolutionary in the strictest sense in that each pitching and breaking of camp represents a new beginning..."

"Cathartic" is the first adjective I've always reached for when describing what travel is to me. From time to time I get bitten by a bug that leaves me yearning for the wide, open road, itching to get lost in a distant, unfamiliar place.

And you can help me find that blissfull escape with a gift! (Gotta love the segue.)


Pinoy Weekend Warrior Wishlist: Travel

Pinoy Weekend Warrior Wishlist: Running

Running has always been my original mistress, and it goes without saying that a mistress always needs to be satisfied with gifts. Or so I've heard.

Pinoy Weekend Warrior Wishlist: Running

Gear Review: Garmin Forerunner 50

Finally, I can take the guesswork out of my training runs. I managed to get my hands on a Garmin Forerunner 50, which I purchased from Patrick of Jaywalker888. The geek in me has always been craving for more real-time information while running, and it has come to a point where my Timex has been relegated to second place during runs because it can only provide me with lap times. This watch eliminates that data dearth. After pairing the devices and replacing a dead battery on the foot pod (this is normal as the battery sometimes gets drained in storage--good thing the battery on my guitar tuner is the same and I had an extra!), everything was ready to go. Easy.

Walking for a million hectares with a star

Together with close to three hundred other people I participated in yesterday's Million Hectare Walk. Organized by Haribon, this is the third year that walkers contributed to raising funds and awareness for the foundation's reforestation efforts. And when I say walkers I don't mean to leave out the runners, some of whom are regulars at the UP oval on Sundays, who decided to devote their training kilometers for a worthy cause.

I'm pretty sure I'll be seeing our photo on a newspaper, or on TV, or at the very least, on a blog because we brought along our canine weekend warrior Tala, who is a magnet for crowds. She was the only dog who joined the walk and apparently, set a precedent for next year as we've been told that after seeing her, the organizers thought they should also encourage people to bring their pets for the 2010 walk. Hey, if dogs could talk I'm certain they'd tell us to plant more trees--more spots for them to mark.

Being adored, part of the job

It was a very lovely way to spend a Sunday morning. 'Til next year!

Pinoy Weekend Warrior Wishlist: Biking

That ol' season of gift giving is just around the corner and the fat man in the red suit is barking at his sweatshop workers to make sure all the toys for the good boys are ready. Roughly four more weeks to go--this is the time when credit card companies start raking in all of your hard-earned money because you bought gifts for people you don't really like but feel guilty not giving any presents to. It's tough buying stuff for someone when you haven't the slightest idea about what they'd like, isn't it? That's the whole reason behind "gift guides", compiled in categories like gifts for the boss, or for the wife, or for your girlfriend's uncle's cousin's sister twice removed (give 'em a fruitcake).

My list has a few sub-categories united by one common theme: it's the stuff that I want to get for myself. There's a song about a true love who shelled out a lot of presents for twelve straight days starting with a partridge in a pear tree *scoffs* so I'll be listing three gifts for each of four different interests which I have previously selected. Again, this is stuff that I want. If you happen to be reading this and find inspiration here about what to get for your partner or best friend or whatever, make sure you credit the source and maybe buy me something from the list.

Let's start with the Pinoy Weekend Warrior Wishlist: Biking

Too Good To Be True

I enjoyed a couple days’ worth of elation over my 46:13 10K finish at Run Against Climate Change before my proverbial bubble was burst. After sending out this tweet, someone asked me if I was sure that I ran 10 kilometers. Apparently my time seems too fast if, comparing to the 10K results of the Timex Run, I would have come in 13th out of over a thousand. The question came from someone who knows I’ve started joining races just a few months back, and I definitely wasn’t the most objective person to assess my performance, initially treating that query as an insult. Nevertheless, I became skeptical of my finish time and did some research.

Impromptu Ride and Run at UP

While slacking at home reading a mountain bike magazine yesterday evening, I received a text message from my cousin Alvin asking where I was, saying he's in UP and he's on a bike. Quickly I dropped what I was reading and in between putting on my bike shorts and a shirt, replied that I'll be there. I was quite surprised as I've never really seen my cousin on a bike after our BMX years as young kids.

Upon arriving he said he was already bored going around the oval, so I told him to follow me in search of some trails around UP. I've heard there are some secret trails in the campus but I've never seen them, so we just made up our own, going on the grass tracks near the film center and along the path near the university oval. Made it a bit less tedious.

The Million Hectare Walk 2009

Pinoy Weekend Warrior will be joining The Million Hectare Walk on November 22, 2009. If you'd like to join our group, Barefootprint, send us a message or email us through leland@barefootprint-outdoors.com or pinoyweekendwarrior@gmail.com.

For answers to FAQs and to download forms for The Million Hectare Walk, please click here.

In the words of U2, walk on.

New Balance Power Run

New Balance Power Run is pushing through on November 29, 2009 after being postponed due to Typhoon Ondoy. Needless to say, I've been looking forward to this race since this was supposed to be my first 10K run. I'm reposting an entry from Takbo.ph below:

Dear NB supporters,

Thank you for supporting New Balance and the NB Power Run- Raising Hope for Cancer. It is now November and our run is right around the corner. As I mentioned a few weeks ago when we unfortunately had to postpone our race to November 29, we have some perks to offer our Power Run participants for the whole month of November.

Post Race: Run Against Climate Change

This morning, as majority of the runners in Manila converged at the Fort for the Timex run, I walked the length of Central Road to get to University of the Philippines in Diliman for the Run Against Climate Change, where I signed up for the 10K. It was a relatively small race, with only 5K and 10K events, but the venue was too close and familiar for me to pass up. Besides, after running the GIG Run a few months ago, all of the runs I’ve joined were held at the Fort. This time, I could sleep in for another hour, and not have to spend money on a cab.

Bike O2

Folding bikes are now allowed on the Light Rail Transit (LRT) thanks to the tireless efforts of all the organizations involved in the Bike-On, Bike-Off (Bike O2) Project. The news made it to the front page of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, and I’m sure it was met with cheers from bikers and environmentalists everywhere. This is definitely something worth being thankful for – a step towards a greener metro.

I began bike commuting early this year. What started out as an act to commemorate Earth Day soon became a practical solution to the horrendous traffic, and saved me a decent amount of cash while helping build stamina for the weekend rides. The ride from my apartment in Quezon City to my previous office in Paco, Manila was about 14.5 kilometers long, passing through Project 6, Mindanao Avenue, North Avenue, West Avenue, Quezon Avenue, España, Nagtahan, Otis, and ending at Peñafrancia Extension. My fastest time for that stretch was 35 minutes. In contrast, the longest time it took me to get home from the office while stuck in traffic was close to three hours. That alone should be enough to convince anyone that bike commuting is the better way to travel. But I also discovered that when I ride to the office, I was far more relaxed when I arrived, and it took a longer time before I started cursing, if at all.

Suh-weet!

Christmas came early for Pinoy Weekend Warrior.

I received a care package from my uncle Tristan, who lives in beautiful Salt Lake City, Utah. My package contained:

An Oakley Juliet X Metal; a pair of shades which I have always dreamt of having, and

A pair of Teva Wraptor Shields, which I just found out are trail runners! How cool is that?!

Yapak Trail and (almost) Pestaño Farm

While it may seem like I’ve been riding for a long time, I still consider myself a newbie especially since lately the rides I’ve joined are led by real veterans of the game. They’re bonafide trail-blazers, having been avid mountain bikers for over a decade. A lot of people can say that they’ve been to all the trails out there and ticked all the boxes, but it’s always very humbling to be in the presence of people who made the trails. And tagging along with them will certainly bring you places.

Last Monday, I joined a group of riders to Yapak Trail. By far, it has got to be the best stretch of dirt road I have been on. It has everything a rider looks for – technical descents, steep climbs, and tracks made of everything: rock, gravel, sand, clay, mud and asphalt. Some portions of the trail are covered in canopies and tall bamboo which provides a cool shade from the scorching sun. In these parts you can either hear crickets chirping, or nothing at all. It was like falling into the same rabbit hole that once got Alice.

Run Against Climate Change

Pinoy Weekend Warrior will be running against climate change on November 15, 2009. The race will be held at the UP Diliman Campus, and has 5K and 10K events. Registration fees are Php 300 and Php 350 respectively, at various registration areas (I signed up at the university oval, coming home from a trail ride--the race was a pleasant discovery).

There will be plenty of other races during the date but I'm hoping this one will have a decent turn out. Come and run with us! Run Against Climate Change!

For more information about the race from Takbo.ph, please click here.

Image via UPIS Batch '88 website

Progress

After ranting about littering on the trails, I sent an email to the administrators of PinoyMTBiker, arguably the biggest and most popular Mountain Biking forum in the Philippines. Below is a copy of my original email.

Getting Back on the Saddle

The last time I rode my bike was on September 28, 2009. Though I was covered in mud by the end of it, I wasn’t riding off-road. I was merely doing a grocery run and cycling through the mud-caked streets of a post-Ondoy metropolis. The succeeding weekends after that were either just as wet, or I had a run, or I was traveling, or some other excuse which kept me from hopping on my Papi. Yes, that’s my term of endearment for my bike. You have any problems with that?

Determined to get a ride in, I checked the bike and saw what four weeks of negligence did to it – the chain was dry, the tires needed some air, and the brakes were stiff. A few minutes into the ride, I felt what four weeks without riding did to me – it felt a bit unnatural, something I found unnerving. My legs were screaming at the slightest incline, and I was huffing on relatively easy climbs.