Globe Run 4 Home

Another exciting race from Runrio.Inc: Globe's Run For Home 2011. d

Per and I have done the two previous Run for Home events and both were quite spectacular - in that the 21km routes passed through Ayala Avenue before heading towards the finish line. The first Run for Home event introduced the Chip Timer to the Philippines Running Community, for more accurate race results. It was also Per's first 21km race, which I ran with her.

We did again last year's 21km Globe's Run for Home event and had a good time running in and out of Greenbelt area amid the hot, humid weather.

But this isn't just an ordinary run. It's a run for a good cause, and as a runner, you have four options as to where your money would go to:

Gawad Kalinga - builds communities to end poverty through its community development programs

Habitat for Humanity - funds to be used to build houses for public school teachers

Haribon Foundation - for conservation of Natural Resources and improvement of environmental issues

Virlanie Foundation - provides home and education to abandoned, neglected, abused and orphaned children

Registration fees are as follows: P650 for 3K, P750 for 5K, P850 for 10K, P950 for 15K and P1,050 for 21K (with an ongoing promo of buy 4 get 1 free as long as it is for the same race category)

Registration may be done online at www.globe.com.ph/run or by going to the physical booth at the 4th floor, Cinema Lobby of Greenbelt 3 in Makati City (from 12noon to 8:00pm).

Gun Start for the race categories are as follow: 5:00am for 21k, 5:15am for 15k, 5:30am for 10k, 5:45am for 5k, 6:00am for 3k.

Added bonus for the 21k finishers: The very first Globe Run For Home Finisher Medal! Dang!!!

Inquirer 25th Anniversary Run - 10k Event

Feb 27th, 2011 - It was really hard to wake up early for the 5:50am gun start for the 10km race. Luckily, things worked out in my favor as race was delayed for a few minutes. I even made it to see the 5-person relay take off! Phew!

With a little bit of stretching and basically a 100-meter jog to warm my muscles, I walked slowly to the starting line to await our gun start.

Wife Per accompanied me to this race (she wanted to go to Mercato Centrale and only way she could do so was to ride with me this morning... hehe) and took a picture of me a few minutes before my race.

The Emcee was still speaking when the gun was fired. Haha! I wasn't even sure he knew the race had already commenced for us! The weather was perfect for me - cool weather with no sun yet. The route was great too as it was tweaked in such a way that we went to this new long road that has a little hill climb to it. There were ample water stations in this race and I made it my point to stop at every single one of them.

Personally, I had a great time! There were no foot pain for me and I enjoyed the feeling of panting, wheezing and being out of breathe. I made it a point not to pressure myself by NOT looking at my pace or time on the road but only looking at my Garmin to see the distance I've finished. It was more of a "what-I-feel" race.


Thanks to Active Moments (www.activemoments.net) for the nice race pictures. There were a lot of photographers this morning so I was sure to get one or two good pictures in.


Nearing the finish line.


10k race completed and one with a happy face!




Hmmm... I am NOT in this picture!

But I had to post it because of this guy: Mon (according to the back of his pink Powerpuff shirt) that I used to push me forward. Whenever I am tired, I will use him as my motivation to keep on running (instead of walking) and that lead me to chase him.... and to eventually finish the race at a good time... He left me eating his dust but he helped me in this race. The last time I got a time this fast or lower than this was in June 2010! Thanks Powerpuff Mon!

I finished my race and got a nice environment bag from Inquirer, which I used to fill up with Powerades and bottled water.


My official results are as follows:

Que Pe Dennis

Category: 10 km

Chip Time: 1:03:58

Chip Time Ranking Details

These rankings are based on chip time. Your chip time is the time from the moment you cross the start line to the moment you cross the finish line

Chip time rank: 165

You had a faster time than 1% of runners in your category


Wow, I beat just 1%? How impressive!

NOT!!!

Still, it is my best time for over 6 months so that is a great thing for me! After all, isn't running more about competing against yourself vs other runners (unless you're an elite or a Kenyan of course).

Good race organization and what I liked here too was seeing the relay runners head out fast with their silver batons in order to make it to the grand prize of Php 25,000 (split among the 5 runners of course). That was an exciting sight!

And the grand prize of both me and Per: breakfast at Mercato Centrale! Mmmmm.... chicken adobo with rice! Yummy!

See you in the next race (Clark 21k for me).

LuntiRun - March 27 , 2011

If you are looking for a run with a different route, then this race is perfect for you as it will be held in Alabang Area.

Details below:

Distances:
1.5km (for 12 years old and below)/ 3km / 6km / 12km

Registration fee:
1.5km – 300php // 3km – 350php // 6km – 400php // 12km – 450php 
(RACE KIT includes: Event Singlet, Race bib and stub for 20% off on regular priced New Balance item)

UP Students may register at the UP IE Club Tambayan (3^rd flr, Melchor Hall)

You may also register online at http://runnersrunner.com/luntirun
Check out our FACEBOOK page at http://facebook.com/luntirun

Other registration sites are:
- SECONDWIND stores (45 Malingap St. Teachers Village, QC || Ortigas Home Depot, PASIG CITY) 
- NEW BALANCE shops (Festival Mall, Alabang || Shangri-la Plaza); Saturdays and Sundays
- BIKE KING PHILIPPINES (Bonifacio High Street)

- MJ46 Factory Outlet (Bicutan)

- The Village Sports Club (BF Homes Parañaque)


(Registration is until March 20 only!)

Personally, I am still deciding whether to do this (12km) vs. that of Globe Run for Home 2011, both held on the same day. Either way, both races should be a good excuse to burn the calories!

Rogin Last Man Standing - Feb 20th 2011

The Rogin-E Last Man Running was a one-of-a-kind event in that hard core runners have to run for 7 hours at McKinley Hills area and the winner after said 7 hours will be the one who covered the longest distance. To qualify for this event, a runner must be able to run at a certain pace (6min/km first two hours, 7min/kim next two hours, etc.) or face being eliminated by the various marshals posted along the route.

With this kind of restrictions, I expected only a few people to join this event given how hard it is to qualify inside (pace required, marathon proof, medical certificate). Little did I know about the abilities of the Filipino people (and some Kenyans) as they vie to be the Last Man (or Woman) Standing! It was definitely interesting to watch these people conquer their distances one step at a time and be inspired by their abilities!

But I didn't watch too long as I had my own race to do... and that is for the 10km race event. I was able to park at 5:35am and did a short jog to the starting line just in time for our 5:45am race to begin. My goal was only to finish this race as prior to arriving here, I already did a 4km run near my house as looking to do a total of 15km distance today.

Unlike all of the previous races I've done for this year, there were no finisher medals waiting for me after I have finished my running. These things were reserved for the people who competed on the 7-hour race and if you ask me, they all deserve to get their huge kick@$$ medals. What's good about this race was the nice singlet I got at the race packet claiming area some two days ago, the free Fitness magazines at the finish line and lots and lots of water scattered around the 10km course (but missed out on the free breakfast due to the long queue at the finish line).

First time I conquered the McKinley Hills (where McDonalds was) without stopping to walk! But I did walk at various parts of the race course AFTER doing the McK Hills. This, being my first McK Hills 10km run for the year, it gave me an okay-but-not-fantastic 2011 PR of 1:07++.

Here's to more races on the dreadful McK Hills. And great job for the organizers for making this unique survival-of-the-fittest race!

One more reason to love this race: Free Photos (there were about 3,000++) to be uploaded!

Inquirer 25 for 25 Run

Here is another race for the month of February:

Inquirer's 25 for 25 run:

Race categories are as follows:
3km - Php 400
5km - Php 500
10km - Php 600
25km (5 - member relay) - Php 2,500

Each race kit would include the following items:
Singlet, Race Bib, Route Map, and Chip Timer




There will be a lot of cash prizes with the 25km relay having P25,000 for the First Place!


Now, who wants to earn that P25k for 25k for (PDI's) 25?

Registration Areas can be found at various Mizuno stores, Made For U stores (Glorietta, Trinoma, Megamall), 360 Fitness Club, Yoga+ (Fort Bonifacio), and Philippine Daily Inquirer Satellite Offices

Condura Skyway Marathon 21k event

(At the starting line - 21km Wave A)

This serves as my first Half Marathon for 2011, and therefore an automatic PR for the year. I know it will take some time before I could be fast enough to ever beat my all time PR but decided instead to do yearly PR records to be able to push myself to improve but at the same time, not to push myself too much that would injure me some more.

Sadly, after doing this year's Condura race, I realize I am not yet fully healed but it is a big improvement from before as I hardly limped this time around when I finished the race. Just a few months ago, it will take me at least 24 hours to be able to walk properly again. So hopefully, I was able to get the right shoes (and shoe size) from Runnr Store in Fort Bonifacio.

But the foot pain was still there (from 10km onwards) and it gave me a hard time to be able to fully enjoy the race. I definitely need to do more stretching and use more weights for my legs this week.

Other than that, this was a great race! The route was different this time for the 21km runners as we started on Ayala Avenue and headed towards the Skyway, made the U turn there (after passing the U Turn areas for the 10km and 16km runners) before going down to Buendia Avenue, and going to Fort Bonifacio via Kalayaan Bridge for the finish line. A lot of hill (or bridge/skyway) climbs, which were painful for my knees but it was still a great experience.

There were so many runners! From what I read in the newspaper, they expected about 15,000 runners! And Per, who waited for me at the finish line, mentioned that the finish line resembled that of the STARTING LINE (in terms of the number of people crossing it)! Wow, how crazy is that?

There were a lot of sports drink and ice cold water and I even got a banana at one of the stations along Buendia Avenue (excuse to walk to as I happily gobbled it away). Takbo.ph members were there too in one of the support stations and Takbo.ph founder Jinoe screamed at the top of this lungs to make me run again!!!! Boy, I was scared so I had to run.... away from him.... before I stopped to walk again! Hahaha! But seriously, thanks for that push!

The Skyway route was longer that what I expected (as thought that we would go down the same way we came up from) but there were regular road markers indicating how far I am from the exit: Buendia Exit 2km; Buendia Exit 400 meters; so in a way, it's pretty cool that road signs meant for cars were used this day for the 15,000 runners!

Yes, we runners for one morning owned the SKYWAY!


Picture picture!!!!
21km finisher!

As evidenced by these photos, a good thing about running a race as popular as this one is that you would see a lot of familiar faces on the road. Whether they are your friends or family members, you all have one common goal: to meet the challenge of running a race and to finish it! A hearty congratulation to all runners!

Kudos to race organizers (TonTon and Patrick C.) for an awesome event! Can't wait for Condura Year 5!

3rd 2011 race = 3rd Finisher Medal!

Race results are out and can be found here: http://www.pinoyfitness.com

I ranked 1158th place out of 1,733 runners (top 66%) with a time of 2:43:51.

My Garmin time was at 2:43:26, a 2011 21km PR. Hahaha!!!

A Runner's Circle, Manila Branch

Some weeks ago, Per and I ventured to one of Manila's newest running store: A Runner's Circle (ARC) Philippines.

Not really expecting to buy anything (as I had just purchased a new New Balance running pair some weeks ago....more on this later) but ended up buying a lot of nice goodies:

First up: since we were there on a Friday, they had the TGIF promo, "Thank Gu It's Friday", where you get 1 free GU after buying 3 pieces. So many flavors to choose from that I ended up buying 8 pieces of GU that afternoon. At least I will be able to use one or two on this Sunday's Condura Race. Expiration for some of the GU is end of 2011 so I'm sure to finish it all by then.

Then, they had some pretty nice running socks for sale there. Being a cheapskate, I bought the ASICS three pack socks that had almost the same price as one pair of running socks (forgot the brand name). Seems good when I used it for a run and signal to throw away my old moth-chewed white socks away.

There were also stuffs that I can used for stretching like the Prostretch device and some elastic stretching band (for Php 300). Both items I used in last December's Physical therapy and can now do at the comforts of my own bedroom.

Some pretty nice ARC branded shirts and shorts (made by Asics) were for sale too but my wallet was already complaining so I just drooled over them and promised myself (to Per's consent) to buy the ARC Manila red bag once they have stock of it.

Perfect reason to come back again!


There were also insoles for sale, Saucony running shoes, Asics shoes, hydration belts, etc



I had my feet tested as well and surprisingly, I am still neutral arch! YAY! But heat zone were at my heel! Boo! But they checked my foot size and made me run back and forth as well. The verdict: I'm a "STABILITY" kind of guy, preferably New Balance for the big feet width and my left foot is bigger than my right.

We will definitely return to this store! Now, if only they would open a branch in Makati or Ortigas area....


DISCLOSURE: Everything we got from this store, we paid from our own money. We did not get anything free except for The Bullrunner's Magazine, which was free to begin with..