Cebu Bridges Run - Second Time for 2009

Last Sunday 19Apr09, after completing the Greenfield City Run at Sta Rosa I have to rush back to Manila as I have to go to Cebu and catch my flight at 5:00pm. Feeling guilty that I have sacrificed my usual Sunday family day, I took the family for a quick lunch out at the Podium. Thenafter, I went straight to the airport for the flight to Cebu.

As usual PAL lived up again to its name of “Plane Always Late” as the scheduled flight for 5:00pm departed instead at 7:30pm. I am still lucky though as we have barely departed Manila when a light medical plane blew its tires while take-off causing the runway to be closed by airport authorities till the following day. Because of the delay, I was able to complete by blog on the Greenfield City Run and had it posted before 6pm. Nice way to make yourself busy, blogging.

As with my previous trip to Cebu last February, I already had it in my mind to squeeze in between business commitments a run within the City which I intend to do on Tuesday April 21, 2009 to allow me at least a day of recovery after the gruelling 21K of Greenfield City Run.

On April 21, 2009 at 0428 hrs with my hydration camelback and utility belt in place, I left my hotel at Cebu Midtown Hotel located at Fuente Osmena Oval. I started the run with no definite plan and just head for Ayala Center and do a couple of laps within the area and back again in the hotel. However, upon reaching Ayala Center my inner self was pushing to instead redo the Cebua-Mactan and the Fernan Bridges which I did sometime in February. As they say, runners talk to themselves a lot during their course of running and my inner self this time did prevailed making me to decide and proceed to the bridges.

In my initial run last February, I arrived at the Cebu-Mactan Bridge still in total darkness which was a downer then so I had to adjust my speed to ensure that I will have sufficient daylight for snap shots for blogging purposes. Upon reaching the Reclamation Road daybreak was at hand;


Reaching Cebu International Convention Center a good number of joggers were already in the make do circuit encircling the convention center.



As intended, I arrived Cebu-Mactan bridge with sufficient daylight. I mustered all my courage to stand at the middle of the road with a good volume of traffic to and from the bridge to take the best possible blog photo of the bridge (people watching were probably wondering what this crazy guy was doing).




Then upon reaching the middle of the bridge I took the opportunity to take a picture of the Fernan bridge which was my next destination. Then I crossed to the right side of the bridge to be able to take a daybreak picture of the City of Cebu from the Cebu-Mactan Bridge.




At the Mactan side of the run people were already all over the street and the public transport vehicles were already giving me a hard time to squeeze in my run. To allow passers-by I stopped and instead took picture of the Gaizano Department Store, no special meaning, but just to avoid the traffic in the locality.


At the foot of the Fernan Bridge it was of course a must to pass-by and pay homage to the statue of Justice Fernan;


Again as what I did in earlier bridge, I positioned myself at the center of the Fernan Bridge to take a good picture of the same;



Upon reaching just before halfway of the span, I noticed that the Mactan side of the lower bridge was being used by joggers in great number as a place to do their running (later I was told that this was indeed a popular assembly place for runners. I told myself that I should pass below next time I come back to Cebu to check-out the place) further, there were also swimmers within the area making an early morning
swim;


At the middle of the Fernan Bridge this time I made sure to take the picture of the old Cebu-Mactan Bridge in a distance;



Just before descending the Fernan Bridge, I made my last stop to take a panoramic view of the Mandaue City at the foreground and Cebu City at the background;




After completing the Fernan Bridge, I decided to just complete my run upon reaching the junction going back to Cebu-Mactan Bridge. I told myself this will already make a good route map when I do impose google map on my actual run. I did 15.59km at 02h04m05s on a racewalk mode for a speed of 7.54km/hr and a pace of 7.96min/km. Great run with no pressure this time being already my 2nd time to do the bridges route in Cebu.