Blogging - Sharing Knowledge, Experience And Even Mistakes

In the course of our lives there might be simple and even maybe very minute things that we have done that could touch the lives of others and in the process share experience, knowledge and even mistakes with the ultimate goal of being able to make use of these matters for the benefit of oneself.

Today I received an unexpected email from a certain JOHN FLETEMEYER of Germantown MD USA. I wish to share the following email;

Mr. Castro 

We happen to come by your blog on race walking. We found it very useful. My wife Mary Ann is from the Philippines. We adopted our daughter, Irene from there when she was 12. Although having never participated in athletic programs before, we put her in track. I am a track coach. She placed in the National AAU Jr Olympics in 3000m race walk her first season as a 13 yo. She also placed at 14 and 15. 

We plan to use all your suggested drills. She just entered HS and we plan to do some 1500m indoor events. I attached some pictures from the JO 2010 and 2009 seasons. 

Thanks for sharing your race walk knowledge 

The following are the pictures attached to the email.

I tried very hard to answer the email of JOHN, however, for whatever reason/s my attempted relies just bounces back and gets a fatal error. Another unexplained matter is that when I received the email it was incorrectly address (not my email) but I just found it in one of my email boxes as a message forwarded.

Anyways JOHN, I am making use of this blog post to reply and share your kind words with my readers and wish to take this opportunity as well to greet your wife, MARY ANN and all the best wishes to your daughter IRENE in her endeavors in RACE WALKING.

We all learn from one another. 

The 34th Milo Marathon Finals - A Fitting Event To End A Season Of Running

The year 2010 has only but a few weeks more remaining. It is at this time of the year that I do as well end my running activities for the year and what better way to end the year than with the 34^th Milo National Marathon Finals.

While there are now other road races that have gained followers and popularity from the local running enthusiasts, Milo Marathon is still by far the most prestigious of all the local road races. The regional eliminations conducted from 17 different areas all over the country are a testament in itself of the magnitude and prestige. Should you win on this event, your name will be etched side by side with the cream of the cream in marathon running for the 34 years it has been held.

Click on Screen to watch video

When I arrived Luneta grounds, I more or less sized up the crowd was not as many compared to the elimination based on the parked cars along the streets. It was easier for me to get a parking this time unlike during the eliminations when the parked cars was all the way to Taft Avenue.  It was just also about the same time that the 21K runners are being briefed before being gun started. I would estimate that the number within the starting area would not be more than 700.

After the 21k runners were started, the 10k runners were next and as scheduled the 10k was gun started on schedule at 6:00am. The route that was used was along Roxas Boulevard all the way to just before Buendia and back-tracked all the way to the Quirino Grandstand for the finish line. On my return track to Quirino Grandstand just after the Philippine Navy it was then that I noticed a huge crowd who participated on the 5k. Just a few kilometers after at Pedro Gil street, a much greater number of 3k participants were still in the road. These 5k and 3k crowds were mainly from the different schools in Manila. In the end the organizer provided a crowd estimate of 25,000 for all categories 3k/5k/10k/21k/42k.   

One thing that is very noticeable in today’s event is that it was much organized and well managed both logistically and control. The organizer had exceeded the norm. I would say that the Milo Marathon Team have made sure that all things were in place to avoid the ugly experience during the elimination. Problem could arise but if corrective measures are done, it gives you a feeling of professionalism and sincerity of Milo in their advocacy in sports development in the country.

I crossed the finish line in an un-official time of 01h04m59s for the 10k. It was a good run to end my road race season for the year 2010.

Veteran Eduardo Buenavista proved he is still the country's top runner while newcomer Flordeliza Donos surprised the field when they ruled the men's and women's category respectively.

While the road races have ended, the usual daily run will continue and maybe even built up more mileage to remove all the guilt feeling of the food, drinks and partying that will be attended from now to the end of the year.

To Milo Marathon Team congratulations and looking forward to next year’s event.

Caught A Flue - Not A Superman

One of the realities in life is that no matter how old, how strong and what gender you are there will come a time that your body will be affected by a common flue.

It is very seldom that I have experienced a flue in as much that I have my regular yearly flue vaccine. However, last Monday 29Nov10 when I woke up at 4:30am I was already feeling sore all over my body with sore throat. On times like this in the past, I made sure that I do not fall on the spell and temptation of foregoing my daily run, otherwise, sickness will surely befall on me. My belief is that rather than taking a rest, I go ahead of what I normally do to arrest the soreness and pain that I do feel in my body. So off I went to Bonifacio Global City even though the temptation was twice as much since it was a local holiday then.

I started my run 5:33am hoping to complete the usual 10k, however, after the 4^th kilometer I decided to cut short my run and completed only 5.38k as I could feel heaviness on each stride that I make. I went home hoping that by afternoon I should be feeling well. In deed by afternoon I was feeling strong and recovered so much so that I decided to join the family for an afternoon shopping.

It was just before going to sleep at night that I felt again soreness in my throat and muscles. Still hoping that things will go well in the morning. Morning came and the reality in life faced me, I was having a runny nose, coughing and muscle ache all over. I could not stand up and surrendered myself for a day off. Wednesday came and it was just the same, however by Thursday I was on my way to recovery and already feeling restless. It was a three day ordeal.

As experienced in the past, getting yourself back to your rhythm of daily work out after more than two days of break is difficult as laziness set in that you find yourself with heavy legs and debate within if you should run or not that day. Today Friday was such a day to me, it was really tempting to tell myself not yet today, tomorrow na lang! Luckily, I was able to wakeup, dress-up and proceed to BGC. By 5:16am I was already running and debating if I should make only 5k or go for the 10k. I told myself to go for the 5k only, but when I reached 4.5k I was still feeling good so decided to take it all the way to 10k. I did complete 10.04k in 01h17m22s.

I could now say I have recovered! Thank you Lord for the recovery.

I wish to share the following links on the subject of RUNNING SICK which I think will be a good resource for running enthusiast out there.

Runners World Article

Running Forum on Running When Sick