CamSur Bum, Running: Mayon Trail Run (10.24.10)

Indeed, this is the toughest! Mayon Trail Run or MTR was dubbed as "The Toughest 21K Trail Run in the Philippines." This was my first half-marathon. I have conquered four half-mary since then but MTR was the hardest. It was also 4 kilometers longer as the organizers did a last minute change to give us an even more tougher finish on the top of Lignon Hill.

Locally-organized runs were too little back then although there was running boom already. So when I learned about MTR on Facebook, I considered joining this race. I did not have a problem where to stay because I have relatives in Legazpi. However, I was bothered that I might not even finish the race! The words "toughest" and "trail run" really concerned me. This was my first run outside CamSur.

Studying the route, I thought I could only cover the first 10km (Peñaranda Park up to Estanza, back to Old Albay and to Lignon Hill) and might not survive the remainder of the race. The lava wall at the foot of Mount Mayon was my motivation! Initially, I only planned to just run until Lignon Hill and to decide later if I could still continue. I crossed the finish line after 5 and a half hours!

In my previous runs, I had only used walking and trekker shoes which gave me blisters after each race. Running shoes are expensive so I only bought a pair of Adidas in an Ukay-ukay for this run. However, we were advised and were told during the orientation by Yves Yu, the race director, to use trail shoes. So, I saved may new shoes for my next runs. Good thing that I obeyed since we covered concrete and dirt roads, climbed rocks and crossed streams.

My companies with in this run were my college mate Mons, Armie (I only met her in FB and it happens she is a friend of), our former teacher Virna and my cousin Ellen. They did not run but were there to give moral support. Here, I met my running buddies Niño, Ralph and Jing, who are also from CamSur.