2010 - A Remarkable Year

First off, I'd like to greet all of you a Happy New Year! By now, most of you have already looked back and reviewed your progress in 2010 and have defined your plans and goals for 2011. Congratulations and Good Luck to you all!

Last year has been a remarkable year for me as there were a lot of accomplishments and rewards. I have exceeded my target running mileage of 1,000km and have reached 1,666.24km, which leads me to my total running mileage of 2,310.42km. I pegged a total of 2,047.27 km cycling mileage and now have a total of 3,082.27 km. I also logged in 68.75km of swimming mileage. Yes swimming, i'll talk about that in a while.

I have joined a few races last year. I have done only 5 half marathons, and was able to set a new Personal Record (PR) at 2:07:45 during the Greenfield Sunset run in April 2010. I have done only 1 marathon and likewise set a new PR of 5:05:47 which gives me a 37 min improvement from my first marathon. However, what I thought to be my biggest accomplishment last year were these two important races that elevated my fitness level. I have joined the Cobra Ironman 70.3 Philippines, my first official triathlon race and my first Ultramarathon 50 km race (Tagaytay to Nasugbu). I have no plans of doing these two events last year but it just happened.

Finishing the Ironman 70.3 (Half Ironman) in August.

Finishing my first Ultramarathon (50km). Next, 102km!

I recall in Feb 2010, Jay asked, "Let's join the Cobra Ironman 70.3 triathlon", at first I was hesitant since I planned to do this in 2011, and with no proper swimming skills, i doubted it. But in March 2010, we signed up for the event and hired a coach. Then in November 2010, I received an invite from baldrunner, to join the PAU 50k run. Both Jay and I signed up and off we went and conquered. And now, we are both training to do the BDM 102Km in March!

Conquering my fear

One of my biggest fear was to swim in open water. I have no basic swimming skills at all. Being a very active individual since my grade school, I have always looked for an activity/sport where I would engage myself in. One of it was swimming, I never had any formal training. I only swam during family outings and I dont even do a proper freestyle. But during those days, I was adventurous and my positive attitude tells me that I can do it properly someday. One day, when me and my friends went for a swim in UP, I decided to start at the deepest portion of the pool. Thought I was doing it right and that I was progressing, I stopped in the middle not knowing that it was still deep. Then I drowned, I can still recall that I was trying to wave to my friends for help, and they thought that I was just joking, until I sank. Luckily, the lifeguard was there and had me up in no time. That is when I developed my fear in water. So when asked to join the Ironman, I was really hesitant until we hired a coach. I can't even cross a 25m pool at that time, but through consistent practice I was able to conquer my fear and learned to swim in open water and completed the swim leg of the Half Ironman Triathlon. This was one of my biggest accomplishment.

My first open water swim at El Nido Palawan

A new race

It was last year when I entered a new marathon of my life. I have tied the knot with Kay whom I have committed to share the rest of my life with. This indeed was another blessing.

Last year was definitely a good year for me. I was injury free, set new records, joined triathlon and ultramarathon. I'm looking forward to a better performance and a healthy 2011. Here are my 2011 fitness goals:

1. Finish the BDM Ultramarathon - 102km

2. Set a new PR for Half Ironman Triathlon

3. Achieve sub 4:45 hours for a full marathon

4. Achieve sub 2:00 hours for a half marathon

5. Lose 10 lbs this year. Current weight 180 lbs.

I hope I can encourage more people to be healthy and fit and may I be able to inspire others to believe in themselves. Anything is possible, just put your heart and mind to it. Good luck to us all and again Happy New Year!

Marathon Comeback - QC International Marathon

Beginning of this year I have scheduled only 1 Marathon and was planning to do the Singapore International Marathon. However, I opted to do the QCIM2 as I wanted to redeem myself from last year's QCIM. I ran the half marathon (21km) then and was actually nursing an ITBS injury at that time. I remember struggling from km 15 until the finish line as I spent most of the time walking. It was for me one of the worst race I have joined and I wanted to have a comeback and decided to do the full marathon in this event. But the pain of having a bad race didn't stop there. It was in November 2009 where I joined my first Marathon in Bangkok (Standard Chartered Bangkok Marathon) and true enough, this for me was a bad experience for my marathon debut. Due to the fact that I was nursing an injury last year, I was not able to train properly and had a lot of pressure nearing the event. There was no turning back since I was already committed to join the race. I went to therapy and did cross training using my bike in order to compensate for the running mileage that I lost. I did finished the Marathon in 5:42:07.

Luckily this year I was able to train and was glad to have been invited by the baldrunner to join the PAU 50k run (Tagaytay to Nasugbu) in November. I remember that my split time at 42km was 4:57. It elevated my confidence level going to this marathon.

Race day at QCIM2

There were 4 members of Gone Running Club that joined the marathon, Me, Jay, Jun, and Kuya Ernie (his first marathon). We arrived early in the area and had ample time to prepare before the race. I thought the gunstart was at 4:00am, and was actually surprised that the organizers were still setting up the clock, portalets, and genset arrived late. I had an initial expression that this race was not organized properly. But didnt dwell on it, as I dont really let negative vibes affect me so I patiently waited for gun start and just focus on my goal which was to at least have a sub-5hr marathon. Told Jay at gunstart I was eyeing for 4:45 (stretch goal).

The race course for me was tough due to the rolling hills but it was a good route. Turnaround was at the La Mesa Eco park, the place was nice and well preserved. As we enter the La Mesa Eco park, we were advised to leave our hydration belts. Not sure what the logic was behind it though. Jay's experience last year was the lack of hyrdration and it was a good thing that it was addressed this year. Hydration was sufficient and I have no complaints. I was doing fine in the first 28km, but not too long did I hit the collapse point. I started doing more walk breaks and it was all mental for me all throughout as I was starting to cramp in the last 8km. On the way back to commonwealth, I recall that I was practically walking along that road last year, and made me push to avoid too much walk breaks. Eventually I reached the last km and I knew that my time was better than my first marathon and I was happy about it. I did finish in 5:05:15 it was a 37 min improvement from my last marathon. This is a new marathon PR for me and definitely I will be training more so that I can improve further in the next marathon race. Who knows, I might be able to pull another 30 min improvement next time.

with Jay who paced with me all throughout and motivated me not to walk too much.

Jun Moslares who finished in 3:31 (unofficial time).

Kuya Ernie who finished his first Marathon at 5:41:43

Going beyond your limits

In the midst of my training for the QC International Marathon, I have received an invite from Mr. Jovie Narcise (aka baldrunner) to join the PAU T2N (Tagaytay to Nasugbu) 50K ultramarathon. I was honored and felt that I was considered to be ready to do this race. I have been doing long runs with my team (Gone Running Club) on weekends and we have done a 40km LSD 2 weeks before the PAU 50k race. That basically builds confidence that I can finish the race. Together with my buddy Jay, we both registered for the event and would log this as another milestone in our running career.

It was a cool sunday morning in Tagaytay City where we all gathered at the start line. Happy to see familiar faces, and knowing that it was an ultramarathon, I knew that all runners have prepared for this race and have pure will and determination within them. Jay and I were among the newbies and we were glad to be part of it. There were about 160 runners who participated the race and I learned that 159 have finished.

We decided to set a target time of 6:30 for this race. The first 35km was a good run as we were able to increase our pace and we were ahead of our target time. However, from then on I felt my heart rate has reached probably 90% or more and it was difficult to recover. I had to run and walk which obviously slowed as down. At 39th km, I told Jay to run his pace as I can't maintain a 6:40 min/km pace, and that we see each other at the finish line. It's 11km to go and in my mind I knew that I can finish the race, no doubt. I slowed down a bit, but I have another focus, my 42k split. Yes, I had a new Personal Record on my 42k, I logged 4:58 (my first marathon was 5:47). I was smiling as for me its another milestone of improving my time for a marathon. As I move on for the next 8km of the race, I managed to recover my breathing and heart rate was at a comfortable level but I was struggling already due to leg fatigue. More walk breaks for me. In the last 5km, I started to pick up some pace and mindful of my target time, but at this point I noticed that my garmin hanged and I was now totally blind of the time and pace. As I saw the Jollibee signage saying last 3km, I began to focus and and avoided walk breaks. The finish line was at the Nasugbu City Hall which was near the Jollibee Outlet. As I saw the Jollibee sign, I was too eager to get there the soonest that I can, but it seems to be the longest 1-1.5km of the race. I saw one of the bald runner marshalls and guided me to the final turn reaching the finish line. It was yet again another memorable moment as I have tested again my limits on this race. If you put your mind to it and prepare for it, you will achieve whatever goals you have envisioned. Keep raising the bar and believe in yourself. There's a long way to go, keep it one stride at a time and try to make a difference.

Thank you to team bald runner and PAU. It was a good race and a good experience. Looking forward for more PAU races in the future.

50km done! My longest run so far..

with Jay and Sir Jovie (baldrunner), I finished in 6:12:48 and 65th out of 159 finishers, Jay finished 5:52:50 at 51st place.