Running in the Rain

Posted on April 20, 2009 by Running Bananas

Yesterday, we planned on running in UP in the afternoon until night. We just decided to switch time due to variety of reasons. First is the heat of the sun during summer time. We almost always start running way past 7am for our last two or three runs here and we end up being drained too much by the heat. In the process, we could not get our target mileage for our preparation for the North Face 20k Trail Challenge. Second reason is that we have work the Saturday before and we would need to sleep longer the following day. Third and the last reason is I need to watch the boxing card featuring Viloria and Donaire. I’m glad that we switched time because the boxing match was a blast. Congrats to Bryan Viloria for getting the IBF light-flyweight championship belt and Nonito Donaire for defending his title, the IBF flyweight champion. Truly,  you make us proud to be pinoys.

So after a good treat of boxing match, I had to rest again to prepare for our afternoon long-run. This time, only three of us will be there; me, Cocs and ReVO. Other RBs were unavailable for the whole Sunday. We arrived there around 5:30pm. By that time, the weather seems a little unusual for summer and it seems theres a huge chance that it would rain. The three of us planned a continuous 2 hour of running. We calculated that we should make  8 laps (17.6k) where we had to have a pace of not faster than 15minutes per lap.  Btw, one lap of the UP loop is about 2.2k.

After about 3 laps, we can feel that the pouring of the rain is inevitable and we quickly took-off our singlets so that it would not get wet in the rain. We put it in Coc’s vehicle and we all decided to finish the planned mileage no matter how heavy the rain would be. The good thing about the rain was, it refreshed our legs that it feels almost like starting again where we still have lots of energy. We were all shouting like kids when the rain poured very heavily. It was our first time to experience this and that was a great feeling. While running, we counted few other runners who were unwilling to stop just because of the rain. There were a total of  9 of them, 2 females, 6 males and a dog. These guys are truly hardcore.

When we finished 8 laps, it was already past 8pm. We had a quick food stop at one of the stalls that we frequently go and we ate pancit canton while sipping a cold fruit shake. It was really an awesome experience though the downside of this was our body were itching like crazy because of the insects (higad)  and other objects  that fell on our body during the run.

-pugs

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Easy Sunday Run with a new RB (My pacing experience)

Posted on February 8, 2009 by Running Bananas

Today is my day to pace a new runner who would like to run with our group. Her name is Muy and she first posted on Takbo.ph asking if anyone would run on Feb. 8 (Today) at UP. The Takbo.ph peeps, I understand, did run today but not in UP but in Bonifacio High Streets in Taguig. Rans took the initiative and invited Muy via the forum and told her to join our easy 6.6km run at UP today.

Next week will be very hectic for our Runner’s World program and today is the last day of three consecutive easy runs. So off we went to UP with cocs, bhing, eulalei, rans and ReVO. We would be meeting with Muy at the front of the oblation statue. Also at the same day, we would be running with our boss from our work who was invited by bhing. So here we are, waiting for our boss (sir gerry and his lovely wife, sally or sallie?) and our new runner friend.

Sir gerry with his wife arrived almost the same time with muy and we started our short program. The stretching (a must for every runner) was led by cocs. We started immediately since it was already past 8am and the sun’s rays would be much hotter. The freshly cut/trimmed trees inside the UP that day wouldn’t help. We started at a slow pace of 3:30 just to feel each of our new guests running capacity. In our group, most of us can relate to the pace of an oval since we run 2/3 or 66% of our time in Ultra. So we always use this pace setting even if we are in UP. We know how 3:30, 3:00, 2:30 or 2:00 feels. We know that maintaining at 2:24 would be at 10kph. Back to the run, I am pacing muy and bhing was pacing sir gerry with the wife. I noticed that muy is no beginner and she runs quite fast. She admitted, that she always run and just needed company so that running would be more enjoyable. I let her choose the pace where she run comfortably. In a moment we are separating from the others
picking-up to 2:40 pace. She is indeed quite a strong runner because even at this pace, we can exchange stories without her catching a breath. Rans and cocs noticed this also and decided to run with us. I don’t want them to join because me and muy were beginning to get close (hehe!). They later explained that this is their target pace too. Ows really? hehehe! So the four of us are now running together while bhing and sir gerry were left behind. Also, eula became the pace mate of sir gerry’s wife who were also left behind by bhing and sir gerry.

Muy said that she can only run 2 laps in UP which was around 4.4k (2.2k in one lap). I told her that we are planning to do 3 and she could always stop if she cannot run anymore. After 2 laps of running with exchanging stories, i asked her if she wants another lap. She just exhaled (heeuiigh!!!) and nodded. That was the cutest exhale that i’ve ever heard. hehehe! By that time, we also didn’t noticed that bhing and sir gerry were fast approaching and trying to run with us. They did get to us but because of this effort, bhing suddenly had her reserved energy spent and was forced to walk half-way through the 3rd and last lap. Kudos to our boss, sir gerry for beating bhing even if this was his first time to run. Shame on you bhing. haha! Also at that moment, I can frequently hear muy’s exhale. She was digging deep but was still ok and could still carry a conversation. Jules caught us and introduced him to muy.

Now the three of us (me, rans and cocs) suddenly had the urge to sprint the last 800 meters. We need to do this to satisfy our ego. We always sprint our last few meters even if its an easy run. We left muy for a moment with jules and just told them that we’ll wait for them at the starting point. We finished this easy run with a time of 47 mins for 6.6k. Muy and jules came a minute later with a time of 48 mins. Not bad for someone who have done her first straight 6.6k. See you next run.

– pugs

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Takbong May Hangin (Foundation for the Condura half)

Posted on February 1, 2009 by Running Bananas

It was a tiring but fulfilling Sunday for the RB Trio (Rans, pugs and Cox, unfortunately, ReVo wasn’t able to join them because of his initiative to update our site).

Rans came late at the usual meeting place, MINIstop katipunan. It was the only reason why they started late for their marikina route.. hehe sorry Rans late ka kasi!! They arrived at UP oblation at about 6:30AM for a quick stretch then off they go for a slow start. Except for the UP “Takbong May Yabang”, it was a typical Sunday present at the UP oval. Kids playing, family gatherings, cars parking while guards complaining and trees partying, greeting, cheering and encouraging the runners for a powerful stride. The trio was running at an LSD pace. Slowly but surely, they have to conquer the distance first before anything else.

Nothing can stop these guys from running a 20k+ route from UP oval to the polluted Marikina River and back. Not even smokes coming from vehicles can outrun the trio. They were not surprised when they came across the Marikina River. It was indeed a depressing sight they’ve seen. They ran nonstop for about an hour and 17mins for the first 11.55km route shown in the picture (tnx to google earth). A pit stop was held at a sari-sari store for a quick recovery. Cox and pugs had themselves a couple of band-aids for foot-blisters (now tnx to lunar trainers), both of them were wearing those! But proper running should fix that problem.

After a 10-min break, they were off again for a strong run. They started a bit faster than the latter course. Now aside from the weakening flesh, the heat of the sun was considered an adversary for the trio. They realized that things like cap, “sun-block” and sunglasses were necessary for this kind of runs. Three-fourths of the run was successfully completed when pugs and Cox halted for a 10min rest at 7-11 Riverbanks. Rans joined them even though he wanted to continue without stopping. They picked up again for the second win until they finally decided to walk the remaining 2k+ distance from Shell Katipunan up to UP oblation. Watta #@&&^$#*# 02:54:05 was the total time for that run. Wow that was nothing compared to Buenavista’s marathon record!!

We still have to train hard to attain a possible target of sub-2hrs for Condura 21k. But as for now, we made ourselves proud to finish such distance for a beginner level. And we re-quote and rephrase from Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao…. …

“If the race is easy, you trained hard.”

-= RB =-


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