Monthly Archives: July 2010

Meet my evil twin sister!

Posted by maan on

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First photo taken on December 2008. Second photo taken on July 2010.

The one on the left is my evil twin sister. I don’t know where she is now, nor do I want to find out 😀

How did I do it? I honestly don’t know…

The weather helped a bit (parang sauna kasi sa Manila!).

I tried boxing, but after 2 or 3 sessions I decided it wasn’t for me.

I went back to basketball and joined the MBT league with my friends and former teammates, but as soon as the season ended I had nothing else to do again…

So I tried running. And I’m still into it. Yay!

If it weren’t for Det, Anne, Cai and Margie, I’d still probably look like my evil twin, or worse.

If it weren’t for Takbo.ph and the friends I’ve met there, it would’ve been harder for me to find the motivation to run.

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Training starts this week

Posted by maan on

So the last race on my list is done. Congrats Jinoe and Que for a very organized race! I really had fun during the runfest, probably the most fun race I’ve ever attended. Also achieved an unintentional PR hahaha!

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Training for my first ultra starts this week. Dunno what to expect… Except for the nerves. Feels like I’m starting from scratch. And more dead toenails 😦 After the runfest I felt another toenail saying bye bye, and that was just a 10km run. What more if I go beyond 42kms… Uh-oh. Time to invest in quality black nail polish…

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60 days, yehey! ❤

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I need to watch more movies. Read more books. Play more Guitar Hero. See my (non-running) friends. Go out on Saturday nights. Get my previous life back – except for getting piss drunk. But with the training coming up I guess the going-out-on-Saturday-nights will be put on hold… Again… Not that I’m complaining (well ok a little bit), but the memory of my last drinking session is still strong enough to convince me to never drink that much again 😀

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Apart from the physical training, there’s another kind of training that I need to do. Self-control, baby! 😀 I spent so much the previous month and now my wallet is suffering, so no more excessive spending for the meantime (one of the main reasons why I’m not joining races. Pulubi na ako eh). I said things that I shouldn’t have said so now I’ll just have to keep my mouth shut. I may have overstepped on some boundaries so I gotta be more careful with that as well.

It’s like retrofitting myself. Gah. Painful, but necessary.

Aral na naman?

Posted by maan on

So it’s an upgrading program versus a masters degree. Which one will take me to Alberta faster?

Taking the upgrading program this fall (hopefully) and passing it with flying colors (naks!) will definitely allow me to take up the 2-year course that I applied for. It will speed up the process, but it’s not a masters degree…

Taking up MA will take 3-4 years of my life, and it will allow me to get the minimum 3-year work experience that I need to be eligible to apply for a provincial nominee. But how old will I be till then? 30? I can’t wait that long. But it’s an MA.

So… which is which? Hmmmm.

Past Tense

Posted by maan on

Day 5 of no running. Damn I’m getting bored.

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I was reading my old blog, and guess what I found…

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pogi mo boy.

I grew my hair long during senior year in college, just because I wanted to look a bit more feminine on my grad pic. Two months after grad, I went to the nearest salon and chopped my locks off. This is how I look like with a short ‘do… and I think it suits me more.

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gets mo? ako, hindi na.

I had to do a lot of computations for my undergrad thesis, and memorizing the major formulas was something my memory wasn’t capable of. So instead of writing them on Post-Its, I drew it on MS Paint and made it my desktop wallpaper. Population Growth Rate Formula? Population Projection Formula? Errr. It was my wallpaper for a whole semester. Boring stuff.

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After the Milo marathon, I did a 10km recovery run at Buddy Run. And now I’m doing recovery, as in zero running (for the benefit of my knees). I’m getting bored!

No more racing.

Posted by maan on

Friday night, me and my sister were talking about football and the upcoming weekend… And then she said something that hit close to home.

“Ano ba yan, pwede bang kahit isang Sunday nasa bahay ka lang?”

Then I had an epiphany: I’ve been spending way too many weekends RACING.

And you can’t even call it racing, because all I ever do in races is just run in a really slow pace. Didn’t even try doing a race pace mode — except for the Lactacyd relay, where I’ve ran my fastest 5km ever.

What my sister said really hit me.  She was right. I’m rarely home on Sundays anymore.

😦

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After the Milo marathon, I realized that I wanted to join quality, organized, cause-worthy races. I know that no race or race organizer will ever be perfect, but I’d like to someday look back at the races I’ve joined and say positive things about them.

Oh. And also AFFORDABLE races! My goodness. If I were to compute how much I’ve spent for registration fees… I guess I would’ve been able to buy that JanSport backpack, or a new pair of Chucks. I guess it’s okay to shell out more than P500 for a race if there’s a beneficiary, or if the organizer is good, if hydration stations are reliable enough that I could leave my belt behind, or if the route is either runner-friendly or challenging.

Hindi naman ako mauubusan ng races no. Madami pa naman jan. Pahinga lang sandali.

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So here’s to more speed, endurance, and core training! (Woohoo!!!)

I’ll get back to racing sooner than you think 🙂

iPod-less

Posted by maan on

I heavily rely on my iPod for some musical entertainment during long runs. During Milo, I had to give it up because I accidentally sponged it. Sob! 😦 Of course it showed signs of malfunction, and it was becoming a nuisance, so I had no choice but to leave it at one of our support stations, kesa naman masira nang tuluyan.

As soon as I left my iPod… The world became SO QUIET. (Okay, my world at least). I wasn’t used to running long distances without John Mayer or Urbandub or Incubus screaming in my ears. Few meters after that, I heard another kind of music…

My body’s.

It was amazing, how my legs would tell me to slow down or speed up. How my lungs would scream for more oxygen. How stiff my arms and shoulders actually were. How my toenails were protesting. How my brain was shutting down during the last few kilometers. How the searing heat was taking its toll on me.

Amazing how I was able to listen to my whole body complaining about the pain, yet I trudged on and on and on.

(I was like, why are you so obsessed with me? HAHAHAHA okay biglang kumanta! 😀 )

Kidding aside… I kinda enjoyed the experience of running without an iPod, coz I got to pay more attention to my own needs. There’s something about the silence which made the run more… Meaningful? Or something. Hmmmm.

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However, I couldn’t stop myself from singing from time to time. It was like having my personal jukebox embedded in my head.

John Mayer’s Stop This Train was a bad choice for a first song, coz the lyrics said ‘stop this train, I wanna get off and go home again‘ LOL I definitely didn’t wanna stop and I certainly didn’t wanna go home in the middle of a marathon!

Then it was Incubus’s Wish You Were Here. Ahh, one of my favorites. On one of the flyovers I caught myself singing, I lean against the wind, pretending I am weightless, and in this moment I am happy, happy 🙂 Hmmmmm I certainly wasn’t happy doing the flyovers 10 times, and there certainly wasn’t any wind to make me weightless… But I was happy to be running in the first place coz not all people get to run.

Basil Valdez’s You came unexpectedly. You give me hope, the strength, the will to keep on… Hahahaha okay, besides my family (blood and running), I dedicated it to most of the runners I saw that day. There were loads of superlolos running the marathon as if it was easy-peasy. I saw a guy with one arm, and a guy with no hands. I thought of Team Logan and Never Run Alone. They all gave me hope, the strength and the will to finish.

(And, para kay ano… Hahahahaha yaaak, sobrang kesow!~)

Jason DeRulo’s In My Head was up next. In my head, I see you all over me in my head, you fulfill my fantasy HAHAHA I was definitely thinking of the prestigious 42km medal!

Corey Hart’s Never Surrender… Yeah. The title speaks for itself!

And lastly, the most meaningful song I’ve played in my head over and over again, was… Jordin Sparks’s One Step at a Time. It was SO PERFECT! We live and we learn to take / One step at a time / There’s no need to rush / It’s like learning to fly / Or falling in love / It’s gonna happen when it’s / Supposed to happen and we / Find the reasons why / One step at a time DIBAAA 🙂

So in case you haven’t noticed, I think of songs when I run. I’m quite the music junkie… And I really can’t live without it. But leaving the iPod behind was probably one of the best decisions I’ve made last Sunday 🙂

Overjoyed!

Posted by maan on

Whenever I look at these two photos, they always makes me speechless.

It makes me look back at the experience and thank my lucky stars that they were there in the first place.

It looks so easy, so simple… Giving out bananas, water, Gatorade, Pocari, sponges…

Cheering your heart out… Taking your picture…

But for me, those small things are a big BIG boost!

You were there for my first marathon. And you were there again for the second.

I hope you’ll never get tired of doing this. Thank you so so much.

I love this running family from the south, and I will always be grateful to all of you.

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🙂

Milo reflections

Posted by maan on

There really is wisdom in the Prayer of Serenity —

Lord, God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.

There were many things I cannot change — the route, the weather, the road, the smoke coming from all the vehicles, the cramps (!!!) among others. It was frustrating. Having to cross the flyovers 10 times was so tiring. Having wet shoes while running was very, very painful for the feet and toenails. It wasn’t nice inhaling smoke and smelly whatevers along the way. But… these were things that were out of my control, which I just had to accept.

There were some things that I could change —

My attitude. I signed up for this, despite the doubts that I could run another full 5 weeks after TBR. I was doubtful that I could finish it, or give a similar result. But as soon as I was handed the race kit, my mind was set.

My pace. I have a very slow pace (compared to most runners I know), so I knew I had to maintain a certain pace to make it before the cutoff. It was a constant struggle between my mind and my legs. It’s so hard to want to run faster when your legs don’t want to.

Fighting the urge to quit. Hell, how many times have I entertained the thought? DNF? I wouldn’t be the first one to do so… But I didn’t want to DNF. Not in THIS particular race! Despite the cramps, the pain, the frustration… I kept on running. One step at a time.

Wisdom to know the difference? I dunno about that. What I do know is I made a huge time difference between TBR and Milo. 5:41 vs 5:04 (unofficial)!!! My knees are still in pain, but not as much as my feet, which are still crying out loud. Two toenails are already dying huhuhu.

Milo experience = PRICELESS. I guess marathons are always sweeter the second time around!

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Ms. Nao and EVERYONE sa aNR-Alabang, sobrang THANK YOU sa support! You were there for me during TBR, you’re still here for Milo… Sa susunod, ako naman ang magsusupport!

Takbo.ph support station, THANK YOU for the cheers, the spray, the water and the Pocari. And most of all, sa encouragement =) Jinoe, Bryan, Eire, Irene, Jeric, Carina, Mccoy, MarkHernz and Bea, and to everyone else, you’re the best!

To my fellow 21 & 42km runners – we did it!!! Woohoo!!! 😀 rest and recover na!