(Nike) We Run as (Adidas) Kings of the Road

The eternal rivalry between big brands Nike and Adidas - even in race events they're both trying to outdo each other. Nike We Run Manila was scheduled October 15, 2011 - a late afternoon Saturday race; Adidas King of the Road follows one week after, October 23, 2011 as a normal early Sunday morning race. Both are international events, with legs in other Asian cities. Both also have (outrageous) race kit claiming events. The most peculiar commonality though is that both races have the same organizer - Runrio.

RACE KIT CLAIMING EVENTS:

Both WE Run and KOTR had 3-day race claiming events in BGC area, with two days overlapping. Imagine the surge of people queuing up on the claiming locations after work hours.

First stop: KOTR at the NBC Tent, October 10, 2011. I and two TA1 teammates Daves and Rolly met-up and had a sumptuous dinner at Itallianis (and yogurt at Hobbes) before getting our hands on our KOTR race kits.

Cibo delizioso! Pre-birthday celebration of Rolly:Normal hair, afro hair, long hair, no hair (LOL!) - with Coach Rio:
Next stop: Nike We Run Manila race kit claiming in front of Nike Park BGC, October 13, 2011. Met up with Daves and claimed our (better-looking) race kits/bags.
With Pinoyfitness folks Ms. Mars and Jeff:
Compare: Nike and Adidas race tops. I posted this in Facebook and Nike was the clear winner.
RACE DAY:

October 15, 2011 - Nike We Run Manila. 8000 runners queued up at the starting line. Imagine that. No waves whatsoever. At 5pm gunstart, everyone started the long walk and attempted to squeeze through other runners (and walkers). It took me more than two minutes before reaching the start arc! That's how congested the area was.
Me and Earl - the only picture I have for this event - taken minutes before gunstart.
The race for me, was a disaster. 8000 runners for a single race category was simply too much to handle in BGC. I still managed to clock in at 1 hour 2 minutes, but I know I could have done better given better running space (and if race participants knew about running etiquette).

The fun part: post-race! TA1's got talent! Videoke at Red Box with the team is pure bliss! Haha! Best song of the night: Martin and Rocky's rendition of Careless Whisper. Such a classic!
October 23, 2011 - Adidas King of the Road. With different race categories offered - 10k, 16k and 21k, this one's obviously better-managed. I was really looking forward to this 21k event, but unfortunately, I caught a bad case of flu days before. Friends advised me not to run anymore, but I just couldn't resist to get my hands on that three-striped medal.

Strategy: Take 1000 mg of Alaxan 1 hour before the race to make my body numb. It worked! I still managed to finish in 2 hours and 13 minutes, though I really hated parts of the race when I had to deal with runny nose, my breathing definitely was affected.

Here's me running in my takbo.ph singlet! Got thinner after just a few days of being sick. :(
I wore my KOTR singlet after the race. Here's me and the rest of the TA1 KOTR runners after a hearty breakfast meal at Kabisera.
AND THE WINNER IS: Adidas KOTR! Sorry Nike, but there are a lot of improvement areas you need to focus on next year. KOTR has learned a lot from the previous years, and the KOTR medal this year is one of the best in my medal collection, so I am quite biased. :p

Octoberun Festival 2011

A hybrid team - Team Alpha 1 Max, composed of 25 well-oiled machines (or runners), joined the 21k team event. I joined the run to support my halimaw teammates, and to pace my TA1 teammate Rocky in this event.

Here's Rocky and I on the last few kilometers - Rocky smiling, and me forcing one. Haha!
Post-race, while waiting for the 25-runner team category results (Martin and Gian not wearing their TA1 singlets):
Rocky, Armbanded, Sprintingswine, FFS, Eugenator, Martian, Deemen, Chad:
TA1 Max did not place due to some race technicalities, but an average time of 1 hour and 40 minutes for its 25 runners is a feat worthy of a win.

Camsur Marathon: I am Ferdinand (What?!)

What a weird blog title. Haha! Let me explain.

Since my running comeback, I've been regularly attending Team Alpha 1's weekly race events. A surprising text message from Bryan (FFS) arrived early week of September telling me one of the supposed participants has backed-out of the trip, and I could use his plane ticket. Free airfare to Camsur? I didn't need much convincing.

The dilemma? I need to pose as this person during the flight so I had to present a fake identification in the airport. My god, am I really blogging about this? Haha! And you guessed that right, his name's Ferdinand.

With the help of a 'master' forger, I was able to get my hands on a very convincing fake identification card (let's just leave this person's identity secret; he might get apprehended). Haha!

Let's fast-forward to our arrival at Naga. Runners were greeted at the airport with much hospitality. I really felt the government's effort in making CamSur one of the premier race destinations in the country. The welcome party didn't disappoint and is just a precursor of things to come.

Here's the team upon arrival at the CWC reception:
We had a lot of food trips (or carbo-loading to lessen the guilt). Here's us after dinner and sound trip (!!!) at Triboo Grill.
Race day finally came. Numerous shuttles brought runners to their respective starting points. The wait time was long, but the atmosphere was festive. Fireworks lit the sky before gunstart (a little too close for comfort I'd say), the countdown commenced, and off we go!

I was pacing with Philip (BBR) at the start of the race. I think by kilometer 7 he told me to go ahead so I was mostly on my own after that. There were no U-turns, the route was basically one big loop, so there was no opportunity to get to see the other TA1 members.

It was an all-terrain race - I ran on cement, asphalt, wood (bridge), metal (bridge) and soil and mud. The scenery was tops and the air so fresh (with occasional smell of cow poo, lol!). A lot of locals were on the side streets cheering racers on, and I particularly like the kids giving runners high-fives along the way.

The last few kilometers, I paced with Daves. There were still some crazy hills before we reached the finish line. Here are our finish line photos taken by Kathy:
Team pic (BBR still missing) - all wearing our "sili" 21k medals:
Our post-race breakfast with a killer wait time! We just cheered full marathon runners on while waiting.
Dinner at Bob Marlin - best food award! Haha! Ms. Mars of Pinoyfitness graced the occasion (parang celebrity lang, hehe!).
The following morning was a different story! Typhoon Pedring arrived, signal number 3 was declared and all flights were cancelled. It's as if Sunday's great running weather was a thing of the past, and the winds were howling crazy as we were scrambling on deciding what to do next. But the odds were still in our favor - our van driver's wife works in bus dispatching, so we were able to buy first class bus tickets going back to Manila that night. It'll be a long 8-hour trip, but we took the risk instead of waiting for the typhoon to leave (which might take days).

Presenting the Team Alpha 1 bus:
Everyone arrived safe and sound early Tuesday morning. This out-of-town trip with TA1 was a blast and will be fondly remembered. And I have to thank Ferdinand for it.

The Jump of a Lifetime

Last September 21, 2011, I finally crossed one of the items from my bucket list - do a bungee jump! I did this on the highest commercial bungee jump in the world - Macau Tower, with a drop of 233 meters. I've been to Macau 5 years ago for a quick side-trip from Hongkong, and this is when I started the dream of doing that crazy jump someday.

So here it is, in all its video glory! The day I braved to jump the jump of a lifetime! Given the chance, I'd do this again in a heart beat.

AXN Run: An Almost-Perfect Race Event

I have been waiting for the day wherein another race organizer would match the quality of Runrio-organized races. That day has come. Race organizer Finishline, in my opinion, has given us a great race event today - AXN Runs Philippines, the first ever race sponsored by AXN.

Race Likes:

• New Ortigas race venue with a very challenging route specially for the 21k category - passing 4 flyovers and 1 tunnel along E. Rodriguez and Katipunan Avenue.
• Hydration was well thought-off - Water stations are located 1 kilometer apart along the race route wherein merging of different race categories occur. This way, wait time and congestion in water stations are much controlled. You also have a choice of water or 100 plus isotonic sports drink in all hydration stations. Water cups are small as well so there's not much waste. Hydration stations are clean and cups on the road are collected at once by race volunteers.
• Digital timers at select water stations - this is a great idea from the organizers, specially for runners who don't have their own timing devices. The only issue I had with those timers is that it seems like the time is not synched with the start/finish area; the time is advanced by 2 minutes.
• Portalets along the race route. Most race events force male runners to just do their thing at the side of the road. AXN Run put a bit more privacy for those who need to pee. :p
• Dole Cavendish banana served in halves - race volunteers cutting those enormous Dole bananas in half so that nothing goes to waste. Smart thinking there.
• Lots of post-race activities - music bands performing, lots of booths to visit.
• Race village is located wherein you have a lot of choices for that hearty post-race breakfast.
• And of course, a nice finisher shirt and medal (picture below).

Congratulations to Finishline to this very organized race! You've definitely raised the bar!

Team Alpha 1 21k runners - Me, Bry, Jesy and Rocky

21k Finisher shirt and Finisher Medal

First Back-to-Back 21k Races: Run United 2 and Earth Run

Unilab Run United 2 - August 21, 2011 (5th Half-Marathon)

This is my 2nd time to do a pacer duty (first one's from BGC run - blog can be read at this link). Chrissie and her sister Lyn have 3-hour PRs for 21k and we set a goal of 2:30. I know 30 minutes is quite a big slash from their previous PR but it's worth a try.

I arrived early at BGC and met up with Team Alpha 1. Told them I would have to pace some friends and we'd just meet after the race for some post-race breakfast. I then went to the 21k assembly area to meet the Lim sisters.

Target is to do a 7-min per kilometer pace, which equates to 2 hours and 27 minutes for 21 kilometers. The extra 3 minutes would serve as buffer for quick water breaks.

We were doing well the first few kilometers but I could feel the high humidity and I was sweating profusely. Between kilometer 6 and 7, Chrissie told us to go ahead. She seems out of breath, and it looks like she's having an asthma attack. I asked Lyn if we should go ahead; she said we could because she knew her sister will be alright and will just finish the race with her own pace.

And so there were two. I'd regularly check on Lyn if she's ok with my pace and we'd slow down at times when she feels she needs to catch her breath or hydrate. As usual the Buendia flyover's a killer, specially on the way back to BGC. Numerous times I'd be much ahead of Lyn, and I just do quick back glances if she's still visible. I needed to do that to motivate her to keep running, because if I run beside her, I feel as if she's the one pacing me and not the other way around.

The sight of the finish line gave us a quick burst of energy as we ran the final stretch, finishing with a time of 2 hours, 41 minutes and 32 seconds, 11 minutes shy from the goal but still a big improvement from her record time. What a great feeling to make someone else set a new PR!

Camera-ready Lyn and Me - finish line in sight!

Post-race breakfast with Team Alpha 1 - Langhap sarap!

Earth Run - August 28, 2011 (6th Half-Marathon)

Peer pressure: refers to the influence exerted by a peer group in encouraging a person to change his or her attitudes, values, or behavior in order to conform to group norms. That's according to Wikipedia. :p That's what made me make a last-minute decision to change a supposed 10k run to a 21k. Bry was such bully (lol), he convinced me to run another 21k a week after Run United 2. I didn't know if I'd survive a back-to-back 21k race, now that I've just come back to running.

I usually psyche myself days before a race depending on what distance I'm about to run. A week before race day I was psyching myself to do a sub-55 minute 10k run. With only a few minutes left before gun start, I had difficulty changing my mindset.

With Team Alpha 1 - first time to don my red TA1 singlet

The entire race was a disaster - it seemed like all types of negative thoughts came to me - I'd not finish the race, I will be injured, I need to find an ambulance immediately. In fact, I was getting ankle and knee pains which I believe were just caused by these bad vibes. I needed to clear my mind and just enjoy the run. At kilometer 12, I started to feel better and I was just ignoring the race boo-boos (no water at water stations, water stations where runners share the container lid just to get a sip of water) and went on. By this time I knew I can finish this and get my hands on that finisher medal.

And as I cross the finish line after 2 hours, 22 minutes and 14 seconds later, injury-free, still feeling good and holding my finisher medal, I knew I just underestimated myself. Never again. :)

Post-race: Serenitea addicts (except Marvin, haha!)

Team Alpha1 Introductions at Rexona Run 2011

Blogging definitely has grown my running friends' network. I love reading other people's blogs and how running impacted their lives. In fact, I also get inspiration from what I read in these blogs. It was also on one of the blogs that I met Bryan (FFS). Early this year, he told me he was planning to come up with a running group, and asked me if I was interested to join. I was, but the timing was not right for me to commit yet because of what is to come with work and travel. So I had to delay joining.

And so Team Alpha1 was born. And while I was on a long business travel, I just had Facebook to see how the team members bonded every single race they've joined in. It looked like it was a very fun group to be with.

When I got back, Bryan was still as most welcoming for me on joining the team. Almost everyone from TA1 has registered in Runrio's Rexona Run 2011 on the 21k category, and so this was the perfect opportunity for me to get to meet them.

TA1 members were on pacer duties on this run, with one group doing a sub-2:00 pace, with another doing a sub-2:30 pace. I started to be introduced to each member, but they didn't know I already could match the names with the faces as I did my homework by memorizing names from the team's FB account (Haha!). I kept fairly quiet though as I'm still adjusting.

I tried to follow the sub-2 pacers (Eugene, Bry, Rolly, Daves and Marvin), but this being my first 21k this year, I had difficulty catching up and had to slow down by kilometer-10. I was on my own and following my steady pace until the finish line where I clocked in at 2 hours, 15 minutes and 9 seconds, just between the time the two pacer groups finished. Haha! I should have had my own pacer bib with 2:15 written on it.

Red singlet required :p

It was Kathy's birthday so it's a post-race breakfast treat c/o Bry and Kathy! Talk about good timing! Got to meet 10 members of the team (out of 14). Cool (and funny) people to hang out with!

From L-R: Jesy, Billy, Martin, Kathy, Daves, Rolly, Bry, Rocky, Jayson, Eug, Me, Marvs

about to devour Kathy's favorite Black Forest Cake

Post-Race:

Runpix - top 25%, not bad!

Nice medal addition to my collection :)

2011 Comeback Run: Yamaha Run for the Heroes

After three months overseas and not being able to run, and about half a year that passed being out of shape, I craved going back to running. I wanted a well-organized race so I registered for the nearest Runrio event - Yamaha Run for the Heroes scheduled July 3, 2011 (7 months after my last race event SCMS 2010). I'd take it slow and just registered for 10k.

I had a few weeks to go back to the gym and prepare for the race. I got really worried when I easily got tired running 5k's on a treadmill. The farthest I've run prior to the race is a 7k (and on a treadmill as well).

Come race day, I just wished the little training I did would suffice to endure the 10k distance. I was still hoping to do a sub-1. Glad to have been with HP officemates Joel and Eleni who were both running 10k too.

Finishline photo

10k finishers' photo wall

I finished with a time of 1 hour 1 minute and 16 seconds. A bit far from the goal I've set, but hell yeah it feels good to back on the road

Runpix