Congrats Cha!

This post I dedicate to my dear friend, Cha, who got herself a bronze medal yesterday as she finished 3rd among three (just kidding!, there were more runners for sure) in the open-to-all category, women’s division, at the Tau Alpha Diliman Marathon (TADM) 2008. 

It was almost a podium finish, except that she was at the washroom (supposedly changing her shirt) when her name was called for the awarding.  LOL!      Talk about bad timing.

*And Cha, it would have been the perfect chance for you to deliver your ‘Thank You’ speech and tell everyone you came from Team MPG.  Wahaha!

What’s funny though was the weird distance they covered for this race  – 2.2K for women (exactly one lap of the UP Acad oval) and twice of that, 4.4K, for men.  Yep, small-time race you might be thinking, but guess who ranked first in her division -  Aileen Tolentino of Team Baldrunner.  Cha finished with a time of 13 mins.  Perhaps AT had hers in 5.  Hahaha!

*So Cha, rubbing elbows na kayo ni AT?   LOL! 

These past few weeks, I have the inkling my running buddies are slowly morphing into something else not-MPG.  People are getting injured, those who just got promoted to 10K have begun overtaking me, and now!, one of us gets a podium finish!

Good thing, some people quickly came up with newer meanings for the acronym MPG.  Hahaha! 

*Congrats again, Cha!  You made our day yesterday. 

At least now I know who takes care of dessert in the post- Christmas party (wink).

Runnex 25th Executive Classic

December 7, 2008. UP Diliman, QC.

This was the first homecourt race for me. I was all familiar with the race route that I could possibly finish the 10K course even while blindfolded. Exag, I know.

But surprise of surprises, what was supposed to be a more convenient race for me turned out to be one that’s filled with funnily embarrassing encounters.

Anyhoo, to start off, there were just supposedly Moks and myself to run this event. The rest of the MPG gang were either injured, chose to run the Nokia instead of this one, or just plain too busy to race again just yet.

Dree was a welcome addition, however. Just when I hit the bed last night after coming home from a Christmas party, Dree texted to tell me she wanted to try bandit running in the Runnex race. I thought: “Cool! Somebody to take my picture!” That’s because I wasn’t sure if Moks would be game enough to join me and help me do the ‘needed’ photo-ops.

(I am an MPG hardcore. That’s required of the President. And photo-ops are a staple to race recaps. LOL!)

Pre-race, with Dree and Moks

According to Rene, a friend of mine from Runnex, there were about 500 runners who came to the event. This race had plenty, plenty of company sponsors. As a result, one turns either left or right and he/she necessarily bumps into a booth of freebies. Wowowee! But my personal favorite was the cold Milo drink that quenched my post-race thirst all just perfectly.

The race I found beautiful, especially that I never tire of admiring the lush scenery in UP and its fresh air. The only bad point is that I ran this race rather poorly. I had thought it to be an easier 10K race for me as the course is mostly flat, with just really mild slopes, and I was already familiar with the route.

But OH!, I finished a minute longer than my PR in New Balance. And I had more walking breaks this time.

AND, my bosses, including our CEO, all finished ahead of me!

So my question goes – Where is the power of my youth?

While Moks sped ahead, Dree had volunteered to pace me during the entire run. And guess what happened? I think I almost annoyed her with my repeated asking of “Can I walk?” while she ran continuously from start to end. There were even times when she’d turn back to wait for me while I had my walking breaks.

Shameless me!, I was the one with the race bib tucked on my shirt while she was only bandit running.

- Was it my personal hulabaloo the day before this race while I hunted for a Witch or Little Red Riding Hood costume for the Christmas party I attended last night? – Or was it last night’s party? – Or was it my own hard-headedness and desire for speed, and lack of foresight, and lack of control?

Poor time of finish; then again, as I always assert (shamelessly), a finisher still.

Anyhoo, as I never fail of getting myself funny encounters in races, okay, I have one again for this race. There’s this old male runner who happened to be running my pace and we would repeatedly overtake each other alternately. One time when he was overtaking me as I slowed down, he told me: “Pag malayo na ko, humabol ka uli ha.” I nodded, smiling, as I realize it became apparent we’re of the same pace and we might register closely similar times of finish.

But this old man finished one whole minute ahead of me. I should know because after crossing the finish line, the man approached me - to my surprise! - just to ask how I ended my run. He must have glanced back before crossing the finish line and was taken aback to find me nowhere in sight, hahaha!

I told him I had taken too many walking breaks, and that I was amazed at how he could sustain it running continuously til end. He laughed and then answered: “Oh, but you’re young and look at me I’m 72 years old!”

Owkey, major ‘dyahe’ moment for me. Again, my question goes – Where is the power of my youth?

Finally, I should also mention another MPG moment in this race: My name was called during the pep talk of the host when runners began filling the assembly area. I didn’t it hear myself, as I was busily transacting at the baggage counter, but Dree and Moks did. And I was like, Hah? What for?

Later on, during a small talk with Rene, he told me that he, indeed, asked for my name to be announced in the greetings part of the pep talk. Hahaha!, thank you but that too is so-MPG, Rene. How funny!

Anyway, for this race we had a different kind of cool-down activity. Moks, Dree and I went cycling and covered a total distance of 6.6km (3 laps of the acad oval). Thanks to Moks and his UPM friends for lending us their mountain bikes.

Starting the Run-&-Eat Tradition

I had a blast with MPG runners – who are also my super friends from way back UP days - last night in my run&eat birthday celebration. As expected, the first timers in ULTRA were amazed at discovering such a gorgeous running place in Pasig. I, too, was kinda surprised at how beaming an atmo ULTRA had last night – considering it was a Friday night. I had thought for most runner-yuppies who usually train there to be somewhere else hanging out (read: NOT running) – and getting themselves a life! (Hahaha! But of course there’s an active social life among the runners community!) Part of the reason why ULTRA was so lively last night was the fact that there was an ongoing soccer games by high school girls at the center of the track oval – and the bleachers were half-filled with their families and friends watching their game.

Except for a few people’s misadventures last night (sshh… ‘bandana runner’ got lost in Ortigas! Ayan, southerner ka kasi e!), everything pretty well went on as planned. We spent around an hour and a half running in ULTRA, a few kulitans on the side, and some group pictures. I think I finished around 12 or 13 rounds on the track oval (roughly 5K), Jihan had 10, Carla had 4 or 5 (?), and for Cha and Pao… I am clueless. The ChaPao tandem, like me, also began running early (since we were the ‘early birds’) but I could not keep track of how they’d ran as I would see them stop and stay on the sides for some minutes, then resume to running every now and then, so… there… (exactly, how much/long did you run guys? …)

At around 9:30 PM, we left ULTRA with mouths hungry for water (at least I could speak for myself: I WAS BADLY THIRSTY that I had to semi-grab Pao’s Minute Maid drink which was the only liquid stuff left to us) and solid food. It was time for carbo-reloading, as well as do the birthday celeb the traditional way – EAT! We headed to SM Megamall and had our fill of food and chitchat. And chitchats to the max(!), some topics were even bordering on chismis (not evilish though, we’re not that). ‘So who among our batch are married now? … Whaaaat???!!! He’s married? How come?!!!… So are they still together?… Oh no, they broke up na?!… Somebody thinks you’re not ETC and you’re ******?!… Gee, what’s that – they think you’re too socy to be in ETC?… or they think you’re NOT relevant? or you’re NOT conscious?!…. Wahahahaha!!!!’ And the banter went on and on until we realized Megamall’s gates had began closing and we had had to find our way to the building’s main entrance just to get out. By then it was already nearly 12MN and we thought it should be bye-bye time already.

Dree also just finished her get-together dinner with her former MBA classmates and met up with us outside the mall to introduce her friends to us, the MPG runners. Her friends were bit amazed at the ‘run&eat’ gimmick as one of them remarked (I suppose directed to me): “Talagang tumakbo ka pa for your birthday ha!…” I got pretty ashamed as I thought he surveyed my outfit (!) – take note, I was the only one who still wore my running shorts during my post-run birthday dinner as the others have changed back to their office attire and were more decent-looking. Yikes, but it’s my party anyway – no one’s gonna shoo me away!

Anyway, to that comment, I replied: “Oo, it’s tradition…” Blessie snapped: “Anong tradition, e first time nga to eh!” I almost pulled her hair, and then I corrected my self: “I mean, we’re trying to start a tradition in the group…”

Then again, I’m really clueless as to whether the other people in MPG will find it okay to get sweaty from running on their birthday…

Torn between two goods

Tomorrow I shall turn 18.  Nah!  Am too old to be a liar.  Anyway, it’s really my birthday tomorrow and I shall celebrate it with my best/ closest friends all way back since college – and now they got the value-adding property of being my constant running buddies too! 

In MPG, I suggested that we begin a birthday celeb tradition, and we could choose if we want the eat-&-run version, or the opposite, run-&-eat.  Of course, the second sounded more logical lest we want to risk it fainting on the track oval having pushed ourselves to run with our bellies all stuffed with sisig and bulging with iced tea.

For tomorrow night, we choose between an Ultra run & dinner in some pasta-rich resto - OR – (the equally tempting!) run in UP Dil then dinner at Mang Jimmy’s (oh! how we missed you Mang Jimmy!).

This has so far remained undecided.  We shall know by tomorrow.

For Option 1, the ‘ULTRA’ run is the main ‘pro’ to me (since some of the MPG runners haven’t been there yet) while for option 2, the ‘Mang Jimmy’ factor is soooo delectable to the senses (their tapa is simply amazing!).

Hmm… torn, torn, torn.  Gee, aren’t we happy we usually have plenty of equally good choices in this life!  ;D   So many things to thank God for! -  and one of them is His giving me these strong pair of legs to discover and pursue this sport I have come to love, which has also helped me nurture these many good friendships and even build new ones.

OH! And I must shut up now before I totally turn you off with my cheesiness.