1st Mayon 360° in 2 days!

On Saturday, 2 April 2011, the much awaited 1st Mayon 360° will happen in Albay. The ultra marathon race will cross 10 local government units (LGU) including the cities of Legazpi, Tabaco and Ligao covering 50 miles or about 80.5km! All runners joining the race have finished a marathon race (42km) in the last 12 months. It is the first run around the majestic Mayon Volcano, dubbed as the World's Most Perfect Cone.

Cash Prizes to Top 3 in Men's and Women's categories are as follows:

• Champion: $1,500
• 1st Runner-up: $1,000.00
• 2nd Runner-up: $750.00

This event is organized by the Junior Chamber International–Legazpi Chapter in cooperation with Liga ng mga Barangay–Albay Chapter, sanctioned by Philippine Association of Ultrarunners (PAU) and sponsored by the Provincial Government of Albay, Governor Joey S. Salceda and the Magayon Festival 2011.

Albay Runner's Club which includes some of new running buddies based there are going to volunteer as support crews and marshals during the event.

Finishers will be rewarded with a finisher's medal like this. Magayon! (Beautiful as in Bikol language). Isn't it?

Angkulet has the schedule for this year's Magayon Festival.

Registration: TNF100 Asia Pacific Series CamSur

The registration for The North Face 100 Asia Pacific Series in CamSur, the fastest growing tourist destination in the country today, began on February 18. And today, March 31 is the last day to register.

TNF 100 has become the most well-received and anticipated distance trail running series of seven Asia Pacific countries. The series will begin in Taiwan this coming April 9, followed by the Philippines (April 30-May 1), China (May 7-8), Australia (May 14-15), Singapore (October 15), Japan (November 6) and Thailand (in November). It is the largest trail running series in the region.

The registration fee for the 100km and 50km trail running challenge is P3,500 ($90). Runners may also choose the 22km and 11km challenge for P750 ($20). Race kits contain the following: an exclusive edition authentic TNF100 race jersey for 100/50km runners and a standard race jersey for 22/11km runners, bib and map.

Local runners may register at TNF stores, ROX BHS, and Res-Toe-Run stores in Ermita, Gateway, Trinoma, Naga and Legazpi. RunnersRunner.com also offers online registration.

All set for Hyundai Accent Fun Run

I am all set to hit the big city again for the 1st Hyundai Fun Run. It is a run for a cause for the benefit of Gawad Kalinga Center for Social Innovation (GK-CSI), St. Scholastica’s Priory, Habitat for Humanity, and the Haribon Foundation. In their website, Hyundai encouraged the participants to commit to run with them on April 2, 2011 and they commit to another Hyundai Free Run. So here we come!

My friend Peter has claimed our FREE race packs yesterday at the Second Wind Store, Ortigas Home Depot. Claiming the kits was hassle-free. As of posting, he is en route to Ayala to claim his race pack. He is among 20,000 registrants who were able to secure slots before the allotted number of free race packs ran out. Originally, this event only targeted 5,000 runners. However, due to overwhelming support and demand of additional slots, Hyundai Asia Resource, Inc. (HARI) which the generous sponsor, opened the events to a bigger number of participants.

Facebook users posted their race kits at the official page. This is how the singlet and race bib look like. It has a minimal yet decent design, and pleasant color scheme. The material used seems of good quality as well. Found on the upper right corner of the bib is the race category and on the lower left corner is the wave order. The packets also include a tote bag and an RFid!

There are two categories in this run, 10km and 5km which are divided into a number of waves since this is a big event. Condura Skyway Marathon 2011 which I joined in on February 2 used the same system in releasing the runners.

Assembly time is 4:30am for 10km runners while it is 5:30am for 5km runners. This event is supposed to be held in Bonifacio Global City however the organizers thought Quirino Grandstand would be a better venue. Gunstart is as follows:

10km Category
Wave A: 5:00am
Wave B: 5:10am
Wave C: 5:20am

5km Category
Wave D: 6:00am
Wave E: 6:10am
Wave F: 6:20am
Wave G: 6:30am
Wave H: 6:40am

This will be an opportunity for me to crack my 10km record. The route only covers the stretch of Roxas Boulevard so I expect a good result. Other runners expect it would be a fun walk like that of Run for Pasig 10.10.10 in October wherein over 100,000 people joined in. But I am optimistic.


Check out a gallery of Hyundai cars here.

Health & Sugar Rush (12.5.10)

For the longest time, my 1 hour and 2 minutes record in Health & Sugar Rush remains unbroken. Here, I cracked my time in Milo Marathon by 8 minutes. It was quicker by 15 minutes than my first try in Summit CamSur Marathon in September 2010.

Health & Sugar Rush was co-sponsored by Diabetes Philippines and it aimed to educate the public about diabetes. Another run with same cause, Run Sweet Burn Sweet, was held in Legazpi in celebration of the World Diabetes Day a month earlier. That run was a small race with big cash prizes.

There had a problem in getting the right singlet size in this Rush specially smaller runners as the organizers thought that most of the participants here would be large people. There was no even other options in singlet size in the registration form but M and L. I needed to have my singlet repaired so I could wear it. Health & Sugar Rush introduced the quality of singlets that seemed to be rushed.


With Jing and Charles, tens of pounds ago. With other 10km runners checking in.


Peñafrancia, San Felipe and Pacol roads would become overused parts of fun run routes after a couple of months.

I would not have joined this run if I was not encouraged by running buddies. I was planning to run 13km in Jingle Bell Run scheduled a week later. But I opted to join because this run covered the same route as Milo Marathon. I wanted to know my improvements that is why. And they told me there would have lots of freebies to be given away since the event had many sponsors.

I got a give-away canister.


In August 2010 when running events in CamSur came once in a blue moon, a drugstore named South Star Drug sponsored Run for Wellness wherein runners went home like they had grocery shopping. No other local run, to this date, was so generous like the South Star Drug Run for Wellness, as far as freebies is concerned.

On a lighter note, something funny occurred in this race. (At least during those times, it was funny). The 10km run started without marshals at the first turn of the route. Elite runners who were leading pack went straight to Jacob Street. As we approached the first turn, we saw these runners made full turnaround in Universidad de Sta. Isabel realizing they missed the turn. They were cursing the policemen at the outpost nearby for some reasons.


Florence receiving her prize. She would become a perennial winner in 5km runs in Naga. The ever sweet Floreces at Run Sweet Burn Sweet.


Caceres Runners prior to the formal organization of the Club.

As for the reason why my 1 hour and 2 minutes record remains unbroken, there are two reasons. I have moved to longer distances, and the only two 10 kilometer runs I have joined after this were either short by few meters or long by some kilometers.

St. Xavier Day Fun Run (11.30.10)

As part of the celebration of the feast of Saint Ignatius, ADNU held this fun run. The route covered the streets of downtown Naga. It was about 4.5km.

Since MTR, Ralph, Niño, Simon and I had run several times in Naga in weekends. Niño, a freshman in ADNU, informed us about this fun run so we participated (though Ralph and I had not fully recovered from the Unilab run). Simon missed this.

We finished 2nd (Niño), 9th (me) and 15th (Ralph) here as most of the participants, around 50, were students taking PE classes.


It was DNS for Kgd. Eddie.

Unilab Run United 2 (11.20.10)

Nearly a month after that very challenging trail run in Legazpi City, I was back ready to conquer my first half-marathon on the road. This time in the big city!

Takbo.PH, "the largest running community and website in the Philippines," gave me a wider perspective about running as a sport. Here, I have also known about the upcoming races in the country including the RunRio Trilogy Unilab Run United 2. This particular leg of the trilogy was one of the most talked about runs of 2010. With about 40,000 participants, it was one of the biggest in the country! Runners had high expectations about the race. Almost half of the expected participants were early registrants.

Knowing about the world class standard of the runs organized by RunRio Inc. whose founder is coach Rio de la Cruz, a Bicolano from Bato, CamSur, I thought I must run in here. I have known Coach Rio in Summit CamSur Marathon in September 2010. I did not know a thing about him but judging the way he looked, how he supervised the race and was crowded by runners, he must be somebody or a "dakulang tao" in Bikol.

The process of getting our race packets here was not easy. We could not register online so we needed others' help. My college friend Ely who is now based in Manila was so kind and patient to register us. She went back twice to ROX in Bonifacio Global City just to pick up the freebies and our singlet of the right size. My sibling who happened to be on an official travel there met her and picked up our kits. But we were lucky compared to the early registrants. They received their kits later than us while others received theirs even after the race day! This was due to the change of supplier of the singlets.

Simon and I initially planned to just run 10km here and to join another 10km run in Ateneo the following day. However, after considering our budget, we decided to skip the run in Katipunan Avenue and upgrade to half-marathon in Unilab run. We wanted to have the beautiful 21km finisher's medal!

Running in a place we were not familiar with was thrilling. Ryan, my elementary batchmate, picked us up early Friday morning. We stayed in his condo in Ortigas. Saturday, anxious on how we could get to BGC, we saw a guy wearing Run United singlet. We were thankful we could join him in the taxi. We arrived at the venue so early. Ralph who I met in MTR also did the same distance with his Team Solomon.

With tens of thousands of runners participating, we knew it would be very difficult to find each other after the race. So, we decided to just pace during the race.



My official time was 2 hours and 32 minutes.

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.





Browsing the photographs in the MTR taken almost five months ago, I am now familiar with a number of them. In fact, some are them are now my friends.






Me and my fans

Hupog sa Sadiri

Hupog sa Sadiri is a Bicolano poem I wrote after the MTR experience. It is a poem dedicated to my friends who have been missing me since I get hooked to running. It is also for those who do not understand why we keep on running.

It sounded like my epitaph. Ironically, the finisher's medal I received was somewhat like a tombstone or lapida.

bakô man an kapagálan an tagatulód, o
huyop kan mga kutód an kagbungsód

sarô iníng pagbakláy na daí nin kaantósan
dalágan bagá nin manlainláin na kamàwótan

sa kasagkóran na iyóng pinopònan, dumán
naghahalát an baláog na kapahingalóan

Here is the Filipino translation.

hindi rin ang kapaguran ang tagataguyod, o
ihip ng mga sugod ang siyang nagbubunsod

isa siyang paglalakbay na walang hanggan
takbo ba ng sari-saring kagustuhan

sa katapusan na siyang pinagmumulan, dun
nag-aantay ang biyayang kaginhawahan

My friend Yatoy, who also write and is into Parkour, shared me this inspiring video.

34th National Milo Marathon Naga Elims (10.3.10)

The 34th National Milo Marathon was the event I looked forward to. For weeks, we saw the Milo advertisements about the race and we got charmed!

This is the mother of running events in the country! And who does not want to run in this race? I am clueless however about its previous editions held in Bicol. What I am aware of is that, Milo advocates sports and it supports young athletes to fulfill their dreams. One thing common about my first four runs is the level of excitement.

Here, we beat the deadline of registration. We were paranoid of not being able to register. At Naga City Youth Center, we were able to secure our race bib and singlet. We also registered in the 5km category just for the free singlet.

And guess what? I almost miss this race!

We arrived in Naga minutes before the gun time. We hurriedly walked from Universidad de Sta. Isabel to Plaza Quezon. I needed to take a pee, so I went to Jollibee. I heard the emcee calling the 10km runners to check in already. But I needed a bottle of Gatorade. I rushed to the nearby drug store to buy one. No luck. I went to Lucky 9 Store. There was a line of costumers at the counter. Luckily, the guy was so kind to give way! At the starting line, everyone's bib had been signed so I looked for the assigned marshal. I was wearing the two bibs which confused the man. (In CamSur Marathon, I also had two bibs. My sister's co-teacher who happens to be my elementary batchmate could not join. So, I just asked her bib knowing about the freebies.) At least, that man and one marshal in CamSur Marathon had sense of humor unlike that old marshal at the finish line in Milo Marathon, who yelled at me to stop and then grab my other bib!

My performance here was good. I wanted to improve my time at least by 10 minutes. But I could only do it in 1 hour and 10 minutes. I knew I beat my previous time because I walked less. Nonetheless, seven minutes was still fine.

Looking back, the most difficult part of the race for me was the first 3 kilometers. Breathing was my main concern. My legs could still run a few meters but my lungs were not that developed yet as compared today.














I realized that I really have improved in some ways. Before, I could not count the runners ahead of me. Now, those familiar faces who used to be on the other lane already, after the turnaround, are now on the lane I used to occupy.