On the run in the beautiful island
Feature
Mantra
Sep 1st
Enlightenment came on kilometer 38 of my spur-of-the-morning full marathon, past the smiling and cigarette-smoking pair of a twenty-something prostitute with a makeup made garish by the harsh late-morning light and her 40ish client waiting for a cab outside a North Reclamation Area motel.
At that point in my unplanned 42-kilometer run last March 2, I fully understood, “Free your mind and your feet will follow.”
I haven’t read Kevin Nelson’s The Runner’s Book of Daily Inspiration, where the quotation comes from, but I kept repeating that phrase on that day, when, after leaving my house in Lapu-Lapu City for a scheduled 21K run on my way to the Sun.Star office, I decided to complete a full marathon.
It was excruciatingly hot and there were instances on the way to Lilo-an when the thought of just turning back and not completing the run occurred to me.
But I kept mumbling my mantra.
MANTRAS, according to Runner’s World, help runners “stay focused and centered.” (CREATIVE COMMONS PHOTO BY PACO FLORES)
Not a buffet ticket
Aug 25th
ULTRA-RUNNER Brod. Carlo Bacalla brought me to my senses. He expressed puzzlement when we met—of all places at a fastfood line—why I gained weight since the last time we saw each other despite my increasing mileage.
BREAKDOWN. In a moment of weakness, I succumb to temptation.“Ikaw ra man ang akong nahibaw-an nga runner nga nanambok (you’re the only runner I know who has become fat),” he said as I quickly decided, on the very spot, against ordering a double cheeseburger with extra-large fries.
That honest appraisal gave me the impetus to face something that I had been putting off from confronting for a long time: a creeping weight gain caused by a sense of entitlement to gorge on food just because I regularly run.
It’s true that by exercising, you are entitled to eat a little bit more. But like many runners, however, I thought I was entitled to the equivalent of a daily buffet. It is, as Time described it in an article I did not want to read, “ravenous compensatory eating.”
Doc Reel takes on CamSur
Aug 18th
“Lord, padagana lang gyud ko (just let me run),” is Dr. Raymund Reel Bontol‘s prayer while on the bike during triathlons.
On Sunday, Bontol, with the rest of the Cebu-based Team Reborn, will join the CamSur Ironman 70.3 hoping to finish strong in a three-discipline event that ends with running, which he describes as his “comfort zone.”
DOC REEL during the Fair Trade run. The Cebu-based doctor is scheduled to compete in the CamSur Ironman 70.3 on Sunday.Coming from hearing mass in Sto. Rosario Parish while wearing the hot pink Ungo shirt, the running shirt of a group of Cebu-based night runners, a Phiten necklace and a Power Balance bracelet, Bontol said in an interview that he’s ready to do anything he thinks can help his first Ironman event.
Preparing for the event has consumed Bontol’s life these past months. He has decided to postpone an important exam for his specialization next year because he thinks he isn’t prepared for it.
“I don’t want to go into something unprepared,” he said. A confessed obsessive-compulsive, Bontol says he could hardly sleep the night before important races, getting out of bed repeatedly to make sure everything he needs the next day—shoes, shirt, race bibs, timing chip, energy gels, cap, eyewear—are ready and in order.
On Sunday, Bontol hopes to swim 1.93 kms., bike 90 kms., and run 21 kms. in less than six hours and with enough energy left to take a phone call. He said Sunday will be the “graduation” of months of triathlon training under an elite athlete, Noy Jopson, last year’s Philippine 70.3 Ironman champion.
Bro. Carlo Bacalla: Running as meditation
Aug 13th
NOT only does running keep Bro. Carlo Bacalla physically fit and sound, it also offers him time for long reflections and meditation.
Running, especially among beautiful locales, are “moments to connect with Mother Nature and my Creator,” the Don Bosco brother told runners in Sun.Star Cebu last week.
A PHOTO FOR FACEBOOK. Bro. Carlo Bacalla before running the 102-kilometer Bataan Death March in 14 hours and 38 minutes to finish 17th.“Running gives me a clear picture of the social conditions of our cities. When I see people sleeping on our sidewalks, when I see children scavenging for food in garbage bins, when I see young girls on skimpy clothes by the roadside, lots of questions come to my mind,” Bacalla said.
While it pains him to see all these, Bacalla said it also reminds him of his mission as a brother and that there are still “so many people to help.”
He said running gives him ample time to think and view things with new perspectives.
Bacalla said his first race was a 10K in 1986 as a “freedom run” with Edsa hero and former president Fidel Ramos. His first marathon was the real Pilipinas International Marathon, a 42-kilometer race that he completed with permission and condition from his superior because he was still in the seminary.
Endurance sports mold character: Basti Lacson
Aug 4th
Endurance sports mold character, Aboitiz Equity Ventures chief reputation officer Sebastian “Basti” Lacson told runners gathered in the Sun.Star Cebu central newsroom last Friday.
“I think endurance sports are formers of character. You go on even if your body tells you to stop. You wake up at 4 in the morning even if your body tells you to sleep,” said Lacson.
BASTI LACSON. The Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc. chief reputations officer gets his exclusive ungo shirt with glow-in-the-dark paint from Michelle So, Sun.Star Cebu executive editor, Sun.Star Superbalita editor-in-chief and Sun.Star Running Club muse. Click on photo to enlarge. (SUN.STAR FOTO ALEX BADAYOS USED WITH PERMISSION)Endurance is something Lacson has plenty of. While finishing his master’s degree in Spain, he finished the Barcelona marathon in 1995 in three hours and 56 minutes. He finished “a couple” of half-marathons after it.
He insists that he not be called a triathlete because he was “only able to finish a couple of triathlons.”
But on Oct. 6, 1996, he crossed the Strait of Gibraltar with two companions, Spaniards Gonzalo Ceballos and Pedro Vernis, by swimming for five hours and 19 minutes from the town of Tarifa in Cadiz, Spain to Punta Marroqui, Morocco.
“It was a great experience. I was scared of the water and I conquered my physical and mental handicap,” he said.
Lacson, a former team captain of the Ateneo Blue Eagles who played with Vince Hizon and Eric Reyes, said he has always been into sports.
Above all else, safety
Jul 28th
In a different world, the disembodied hand of my mother would have emerged from the phone receiver to pinch my ear.
“Nasobrahan na ka ug dagan (you’re running too much),” she said in a testy voice that still couldn’t hide her concern.
RUN SAFE. To run safe at night, choose well-lit roads or run with a large group. If you want to to try running at night, join the weekly ungo run every Friday at 10 p.m. from the Sun.Star Cebu office to the It Park.She had known through Facebook that I was nursing a fever and called me up on a Friday, the day that I organize a weekly run from Sun.Star Cebu to the IT Park, to tell me I should scale down on my running.
“Mangaligsan gani mo (you’ll be run over),” a teenager said with a laugh after taking a drag of cigarette and blowing a puff of smoke at the sidewalk while watching scores of runners in one of the Friday night runs that I organize from the Sun.Star Cebu office to the IT Park.
Recent incidents have raised questions on the safety of the fastest growing sport in the country. Fatalities have been reported in the Milo Marathon in Manila and a recent night run in Mandaue City.
Friends express worry on the risks of running on the road, especially at night. They express their concern with a tone appropriate to someone trying to stop a person from pulling out his own fingernails.
Not to trivialize the risks but more people actually die of illnesses caused by a sedentary lifestyle than by running-related accidents or illnesses.
5th University Run offers personalized race bibs for first 500 registrants
Jul 22nd
The first 500 registrants to the Cebu Doctors’ University’s (CDU) flagship race, the University Run, on August 15 will get personalized race bibs, organizers announced in a press conference Tuesday night.
This is the first time that a race in Cebu, even possibly in the country, will allow registrants to specify what is printed in their race bibs.
PERSONALIZED RACE BIB. Organizer Dr. Potenciano “Yong” Larrazabal III with a sample of the personalized race bib that will be assigned to the first 500 registrants of the 5th University Run on August 15. CLICK TO ENLARGE IMAGE (PHOTO BY MAX LIMPAG)Dr. Potenciano “Yong” Larrazabal III, a marathoner who has been recognized by the Sportswriters Association of Cebu for his contribution to running, said the first 500 people to register for the run can specify what combination of letters and numerals would be printed in their race bibs. Larrazabal said the bib has room for 6 letters or digits.
He said that in races abroad, personalized race bibs are only reserved for elite runners.
If you still haven’t registered, however, you should do it now because there were already about 100 registrants on Tuesday night. Registration fee is P250 but students need only to pay P200. Registration areas are in Larrazabal’s Center for Sight clinic in Cebu Doctors’ Hospital, Nike Athletic Club in the Banilad Town Center and CDU.
The race distances are 3K, 5K and 10K. There are separate categories for students and CDU alumni.
Semantics
Jul 21st
Organizers of the Pilipinas International Marathon (PIM) are standing their ground. Not only are they not going to reschedule their event, which, admittedly, is understandable, they insist that a 25-kilometer race, by Patafa diktat, is a marathon. Pataka (nonsense).
“It is already accepted worldwide, even by the International Association of Marathons; they also accepted that they can use marathon as their ‘lingo’ if it goes beyond 21K and there is a 25K marathon,” International Pharmaceuticals Inc. advertising manager Tito Dela Merced was quoted as saying in a Sun.Star Cebu report on Saturday.
The debate on the use of the term might be getting tiresome but it is necessary. Standards are important for any sport. They are the foundation for records on which we gauge performances. A key component of any set of standards is the correct usage of technical terms.
Know when to finish another day
Jul 14th
Death marred an enjoyable Energizer night run last Saturday that gathered about 2,500 people in Mandaue City.
Alexander Landera, a 19-year-old member of the Danao Runners’ Club who was accepted to his school’s varsity running team just last week, passed out at the finish line of his first-ever fun run and was taken to the Mandaue City District Hospital.
LIKE A SPRINKLE OF FIREFLIES. Runners wearing Energizer headlamps light up Mandaue City’s streets in the first-ever Energizer Night Run. Runners described the run as unique and enjoyable. CLICK ON PHOTO TO ENLARGE. (PHOTO BY NORWIN DETALLA)There, he regained consciousness, started jogging in place and asked for his shoes. He then reportedly asked people where the finish line was before running into the emergency room’s glass door, breaking it and severely injuring his arm. He then jumped out of the window before people could restrain him and take him back into the hospital, where he died reportedly of loss of blood.
Details aren’t clear yet as to what caused Landera to faint but what happened raised the need to educate people to listen to their body and not push too hard.
Yes, people cheer the podium finishers but they also cheer, and even reserve the loudest applause to those who finish last.
Dr. Peter Mancao, a heart surgeon who espouses recreational running, says runners should immediately stop when experiencing what he describes as warning signs: being out of breath and feeling chest pains, headache and vertigo.
Why I’m joining the CDU University Run
Jul 7th
Dr. Yong Larrazabal’s disappointment was palpable during our phone conversation.
The eye surgeon and marathoner had purposely announced in advance in Facebook the date for Cebu Doctors’ University’s flagship running event, the University Run, to inform other race organizers and avoid another conflict in race schedules.
CDU RUN. Dr. Yong Larrazabal helped make running a mainstream sport in Cebu City with his annual University Run and monthly Run for Sight. Click on photo to enlarge image. (FOTO TAKEN FROM RUN FOR SIGHT’S FACEBOOK PAGE)The run, which serves as opening of CDU’s Intramurals, was scheduled way ahead, when activities in the school’s academic calendar were determined.
University Run organizers coordinated schedules with other race directors to make sure that they would not hold their runs on the same day. But late last week, the buzz started spreading among runners in Facebook—another race has been scheduled on Aug. 15, the date of the 5th CDU University Run.
It’s a 25K international “marathon,” an oxymoron that should serve as warning. Runners know that you only use the word marathon to describe a race that is 42.195 kilometers long. There are no shorter “marathons.”
The Pilipinas 25K International Marathon is backed by International Pharmaceuticals Inc. (IPI) and organized by Joe Deresas, an affable man who was in charge of two of the most problematic races I’ve joined.
