Tag Archives: Michelle So

Joel Garganera: There is no substitute for preparation

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WRITTEN on three acid-free pages of a Moleskine cahier, a small, elegant notebook, was Joel Garganera’s six-week training pledge for the 100-kilometer Singapore Sundown Ultramarathon.

“No more peanuts/nuts until June 25,” starts the pledge written by Michelle So starting on page 5 of her notebook. The pledge was Garganera’s idea; So, a close friend he occasionally paces during runs, wanted it in writing.

“No buffet on my own until June 25. Red meat twice a week. Starting May 11, will run 100K/week. No alcohol except on Pablo John’s birthday and on June 12 after the Phuket marathon. Reduce weight to at least 147 lbs. on race day.”

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Wednesday is the new Friday, but only for the Holy Week

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It’s the 7th week of night runs for the ungo runners—a motley group that meets every Friday night to run from the Sun.Star Cebu office to the IT Park.

As I said in my column last week on the ungo runners, we call ourselves ungo after that Bisaya word and its double meaning—the noun for that creature of superstition that comes out in the dark and the adjective to mean addict. We are running addicts who run at night.

WE OWN THE NIGHT. Ungo runners prepare to run to the IT Park from the Sun.Star Cebu office.

Since this week is Holy Week and Holy Thursday and Good Friday are two of the five days in the year when there is no work in the Sun.Star Cebu newsroom, we decided to hold the run on a Wednesday. It will also allow ungo runners to go to their Holy Week break refreshed (we get sick if we don’t run)—not that devotion will stop us from running on Good Friday.

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Running an unplanned marathon

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“What was in those beans?” I chuckled to myself on my first pass by the Cansaga Bay Bridge on my way to Liloan early this morning.

John Pages, the person responsible for my addiction to running, sent me a coffee brewing set because he wanted me to try preparing one using a French Press. I brewed one cup as soon as I woke up yesterday morning and proceeded to suit up to run for work.

My day had already been planned: I was to run to work, write my column piece on Joel Garganera, perform my news desk duties, meet with the Visayan Electric Company (Veco) staff for lunch to discuss a fun run they were planning, and run back home at night.

I had formulated my lead for the Garganera column piece in my head but I felt something was amiss. I felt I knew Garganera based on the several occasions that I interviewed him, many times while on the run, but I was anxious I was incapable of doing justice to his story.

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