Why I would ran a Marathon

So many people ask me along the way why I want to run the marathon. I hear many comments like these, Why do you have to subject yourself with so much pain? What's in it for you? Are you sure you can do it? Why suffer? Most of the time I always gave them the most truthful response, "Because I love running and Life is always a challenge".

Running is something that not everyone would like, something that I don't really recommend to any people. Its spreading like virus today more than a year ago. Honestly I took up serious running when I gave myself a self imposed deadline to run the marathon and not the other way around. In time I was hooked, and came to love it by heart. Why run the marathon? Because if your a runner, running a marathon is the Mount Everest of running. Its every runners ultimate goal.

Its easy to run 10 kilometers perhaps half a marathon over time but to run twice that distance is tough, really tough. It takes months of preparation, not to mention the time devoted for it. It take months when you have to sleep early because you have a dawn run the next day. You give up staying late at nights. You give up watching movies to the extent that your wife would complain.

If a would have finish the Cebu Marathon, it would be up high on my list of my life's greatest achievements. Running for me is humbling. It reminds me that I have my limitations but at the same time give me a sense of strength, toughness that only the human spirit can do. It also reminds me about life in general, that life as it is must be kept moving forward.

In the next three weeks, the ultimate test to my endurance would be tested. I have trained hard for this. I may not know the future but certainly the efforts over months and months of training has given me a assurance that I am not likely to fail. May God be my guide and strength!

Hitting the Wall

In running, they have a term when your body simply just don't want to run anymore many times reducing yourself to walking. They call it "The Wall". Well, I just hit it at mile 19 of my run last Sunday. Yes, I was reduced to simply walking the last kilometer of the scheduled run, my back aching and the knees about to give up holding my body. Not that I wanted to expect it but I have the notion to feel it, and to learn from it in the process.

That damn Sunday run was the most tiresome run so far in my short, exciting and injury filled running days. It took it everything I got especially the last 2k. The run was the longest in the training, 32 kilometers of almost non stop running the paved roads of 3 cities including two climbs on Cebu-Mactan twin bridges. I have done 3 hours of running but this one, a four hour run, was something I call uncharted waters. They say you would hit the wall at 32K without sufficient training. I hit it a kilometer ahead with my very insufficient training, I would say with the injury I had in the last months. I even ran with blood oooozing from my nipples which made me look like a runner who got shot in the chest.

I'm glad I've finished it. I'm glad I felt the wall hit me like a brick. It made me realize how difficult running a marathon is and in the process made me realize that I could with my heart run through the last 10k to finish one. The injury came back after the run, maybe because it was after all unwise for me to run so long so close to an injury.

Two weeks of resting beckons me before I start to condition my body for the big day. Yes. I would be running the full marathon this January with or without the pain. It make it doubly exciting, scary but hey I like challenges and this is one challenge I would not let myself pass. Now where the registration paper I'll sign?

Dumaguete Adventure Marathon

I would have wanted to run this marathon if not for the ITB injury I have sustained last month. The knees seems better already but I didn't want to force it again giving it this time a mandatory one month rest period. Zero running. No five kilometer run, not even one! Was it frustrating? Yes it was but I did manage to keep myself busy with the business. Besides running would never go away. Races would never be gone and keeping your legs in tip top shape for the future is one smartest way to see injuries through. I've always say to myself that if I don't run this marathon, there's always the next!

But off we went to Dumaguete for it. I intentionally left my running shoes behind just in case I get tempted. Smart move. My brother and another team mate was running. For me, I was just delegated for now as a photographer. huhuhu. But hey, I miss taking picture so I guess it was just an opportune time for me to get back in shape on my other passion!


Harold registering for the full distance.28K

The race distance was 28k. They call it adventure for nothing. It traverses a trail in the mountains. They say the view would be beautiful on top. The race gun sounded off at 5:30 just outside our hotel were we were staying. Convenient. The sun didn't shine which was a good thing. Off they went from the back of the pack. slow easy run, slow easy run I called them the last time.


race started at exactly 5:30am


the waiting game.


the baller. it came with the race pack. really nice.

So what did my brother Harold and teammate Roger say after the race?

Harold: "It was the most toughest course yet I've race so far." "Pirting Kapoya jud"

Roger: " Grabeha ka arangkada, walay pasaylo"..That was the single phrase he ever blurted out, he nearly collapse in the finish line!

Yes it traverses a trail. Yes it went up the mountains. but they didn't say it went up for eternity! Lo and behold starting from Km 11 till the 16, they were running at a grade 3 elevation non stop! What made worse was that the trail was really a trail. big boulders, very rough terrain not even a "habal-habal" would want to venture. From the look in the faces after the run shows it all. Tired as in seriously tired, Harold clocked at slow pace of 3:27 while Roger finish it 10 minutes later. Why so slow? That was part of the training run making sure we don't run fast this time but the usual Sunday long run pace. From the back of the pack, they sure made their way to the middle pack as one by one some of the runners fell back from the tough terrain.


happy tired faces at the finish line.

Harold finish 26th among a hundred runner. Not bad. Except for the singlet which was pathetic for the 500 pesos joining fee, the race was well organized with appropriate water stations.


The pathetic uniform.very rough. For a P500 fee, it should have at least been made better


team yykredit official logo

After the race, we hoped in a tricycle and headed towards a local carenderia to feed our hungry bodies. Except me of course. Later in the afternoon, we submitted ourselves for a massage which was really good. Roger left us for the neighboring municipality after that. And so ended our Dumaguete Adventure!

Me and our uniforms sponsored by Mizuno. hahahaha