Picasso At The Ultra

Today 12Jan09 at 5am was a bit chilly comparative to recent days as my thermometer was registering 19C. In the past 8 months I have not experienced Ultra Oval to have so many athletes doing their respective training all the same time. As early as 6am there should be no less than a hundred people at the oval primarily members of the different UAAP athletic teams.

Given this scenario, please do not be mistaken that I am complaining of the crowd. However, it was because of this crowd that has gotten my attention the beauty of what was transpiring before my eyes as I was doing my own speed walk training. Different UAAP teams, runners, joggers, walkers and group into specialized training were clustered all over the oval not to forget there was even a PBL basketball team at the bleachers getting ready for their warm up.

You have sprinters, mid-distance runners, long distance runners, race walkers, javelin thrower and other atheletics disciplines either doing their warm up or already into their actual training. But with all this things happening at the same time you might expect CHAOS but what will strike you is the SILENCE all over. This silence was broken once in a while only by whistle sounds or inspirational shouts from the coaches. But what is very evident is the silent sound of each stride, the burst of breath, drops of sweat and pain of muscles that each individual athlete was expressing in his/her face and body language. If only the Oval can amplify and document the thoughts that were on each athlete mind I am sure a thousand stories can be told. Determination and the drive to push can be seen in each person at the oval for whatever their purpose and goal is.

They have a saying that when you are running it is that particular time you have a one on one with yourself where your mind has no limits to discuss with you. Without knowing it and overtaken by the beauty of what was around me, it has been already 01h19m45s when I started and have already logged 11.35km.

Ultra Oval was like a painter’s canvas with so many colours of the different athletes. Picasso will have difficulty to equal this raw beauty of a picture as painted by sports. What an inspiration way to start the week.