Celebrating 61 years with 16 Km

Today May 3^rd 2012 I turned 61 years old! God I am old! To celebrate the day I think and wish that my age is numerically reversed … 16 ….. what better way to convince myself but do 16km workout early today at Fort Bonifacio which took me along the streets of Bonifacio Global City (BGC) then to Lawton Avenue to Bayani Road until Heritage Park then to C5 all the way back to Market Market and end at 26^th Avenue and 5^th Street. On a racewalk mode I completed16km in 2.5736 Hrs . It was my worst 16k time. It is the sad reality in life that age is catching up on my body. A lame excuse is that it was too hot and I did not have the right preparation.

I shall be limiting my road races from now on to 10k distance and probably do only the 21k during the Condura events. I still foresee myself to do work-outs on the road but now with a modest distance log of 30-35km/week or 100km per month (use to be 200km/month a year ago).

With the reduction of my road workout, I intend to dedicate more time in my old passion....golfing. Since I picked up running I sacrified a great time of my golfing to running.  I could still remember that between 1994-2006 I was practically playing golf six (6) times a week and that there was a time that my handicap was down to single digit (+9) compared to present which is +22. My problem is that practically all of my golfing buddies either have, passed away, too sick to play or have aged that I need to make new golfing buddies. But, I still love my golfing buddies in Valley Golf and Tagaytay Highlands. They are down to earth and we have shared lots of jokes and laughter during a game and most of all they allow me to win.

I have stopped my oil painting….. since last quarter of last year for whatever reason all the inspiration and drive that use to push me to be prolific and produce a painting a day has died down… the urge that just came all of sudden from no where then has all of a sudden vanished life a wind… I just could not explain why I can not lift the brush now…I pray that the inspiration and talent would come back on another cycle in my life while I still have vision and strength.

To all the people that have greeted me on my birthday, THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR REMEMBERING. I hope and pray that in my own simple way I was able to touch your life as you have touched mine and you being a part of my life in that 61 years span. Certainly you were somewhere in that span of 61 years. We may have laught, cursed, fought, smiled, ate, drunk, work, golf, run, played or just talked and shared stories but without you people my life would have been empty. Thank you for being there! Let me continue counting till 100 and I will still be meeting more people till then.

Nathan Ridge Run 2011 - Breath Taking Run

Nathan Ridge Run 2011 was held at Tagaytay Highlands on 20Nov11. As planned by the sponsor and race organizer, the event met the number limit of of its participants at 1000 inclusive of the three categories 21k/10k/5k.

There had been more than a couple of races held this year at Tagaytay Highlands, but all of them are trail runs. The Nathan Ridge Run was a road race along the access roads of Tagaytay Highlands, Midlands and surrounding exclusive housings of the Tagaytay Highlands estate.

At 5:00 I with my sons Dax, Dennis and daughter-in-law Pamela arrived at the starting venue at the Sports Club Center with most of the parking already taken giving us no other alternative but take the furthest parking lot just beyond the go-kart track and just before the open arena. It was maybe a good sign as to find ourselves in the starting line required us to walk a good distance of 300 meters of uphill climb getting ourselves warmed up and familiar of what to expect during the race.

Gun time was 5:30am fro the 21k, 5:45am for the 10k and 6:00am for the 5k. As I was entered on the 10k event, I took the opportunity to watch the gun start for the 21k event participants and just watching these guys makes me envy their determination and drive not because of the distance but the elevation for the whole length of the race that is definitely the touhest there is for a road race in the country.

At 5:45am 10k was let go on an uphill climb starting at elevation 410 meters to elevation 625 meters or a climb of 215 meters in 3.3k distance all the way to the Peak Bar. From the Peak Bar it was a down hill run to elevation 320 meters or descent of 305 meters in a distance of 4.0 kilometers. While this segment was a descent it was not as easy as it looks like as running down hill was risky and dangerous. Then it was the back breaking climb from elevation 320 to elevation 500 or a climb of 180 meters in 1.7 kilometers that would make you ask “why am I doing this”? Finally the last segment was a downhill run a descent of 90 meters in a distance of 1 kilometer before hitting the finish line.

My 10k was timed at 01h 34m 01s which was a mixture of run, race walk, walk and even a snail’s walk.

My official timing as posted by Nathan is as follows;

Congratulations to Nathan for a very innovative race event. 

The Nathan Ridge Run 2011 was “breath taking” with views and scenery and with stiff elevation clim you need to tackle during the run. Breath taking indeed!

Tagaytay Highlands Woodridge to Saratoga - 4.52k Photo Blog

It has been more than 3 months since the family visited Tagaytay Highlands, given the good weather on the week end between 15-17 July 2011, late evening on 15Jul11 we headed our way to Tagaytay Highlands for a much needed weekend rest.

Waking up early on Saturday 16Jul11, I decided to take a short workout run from Woodridge to Saratoga within the Highlands estate. I firmly believe that the place has one of the best scenery for a road or trail run not only locally but comparative to any place in the region.

I have done a photo blog of the run point by point hoping to capture the beauty of the place. I usually have my 10k route but this time I decided to take only the 4.52k segment of the said route.

I hope the picture gives justice to the beauty and freshness of the place.

Highlands Mizuno Fun-Run Challenge - Lung Buster and Knee Breaker

With the recent visit of my balikbayan daughter last April, I have not been on any weekend road race for over a month. Having again found time, I am back to my regular weekend routine. I felt trilled and excited to participate on the Highlands Mizuno Fun-Run Challenge on 15May11 which is a trail and mountain run at the Tagaytay Highlands.

Being a trail run and out of metro Manila I was not expecting a sizeable number of participants, however I was surprised that the emcee mentioned that there are 820+ participants joining the 15K, 10K and 5K categories.

At around 6:14am the 10K participants numbering 350+ were started. I have always enjoyed my weekend road races but any trail run that I have participated has always been something special for me. I just cannot explain the trill and joy in running, walking and even crawling on trails and mountain slopes. The climbs are lung busting and down hills are knee breakers. With the picturesque scene and clean air, the combine chemistry I think makes a trail run rank better than a road run. While normally we do have cool weather at the Highlands as expected being right in the middle of summer temperature was really high and the humidity high even early in the morning.

The route was well marked with directional and distance signs with dangerous cliffs marked with temporary wooden guard rails for the safety of the runners. The hydration supply all throughout the route was more than adequate. I wish to congratulate the organizers and Mizuno for a well organized run. Unlike in previous trail runs in the Highlands on this occasion there were no back tracking on the route instead it was a single loop from Saratoga to Midlands and to the mountain leading to Highlands and down to the Batino entry gate of the Highlands before finishing at the Saratoga.

The distance that registered on my Garmin 310xt was only 9.54 for the 10K but I assume the difference is due to the vertical distance up/down along the trail. Unofficially I completed the course in 01h 25m 07s. It was a lung busting morning, but, again the difficulty was the trill of the day.