H is for Hills…and Higad

Yesterday, my NYC Training Program required hill training of 11km. I wanted to run outdoors, but for the first time, I was apprehensive and anxious about it. The mere thought caused sweat to drip down my forehead even before I started to run.

You see, during my last run, I spotted three higads in different locations leisurely hanging from the Acacia trees lining the road. Twice I leapt to the side avoiding a nasty and not to mention itchy rash that would’ve been caused by those hairy creatures.

I also got a text from a friend, Michelline, who runs regularly on the same course. She has rashes all over her body, even inside her shirt, from those awful higads. Rumor is their coach, Patrick, now carries Caladryl in his bag as most of his students have higad rashes.

I may be The Bull Runner but urban higad legends like that scare the hell out of me. So, as I neared the intersection where I was to choose: road or treadmill at the gym, I questioned my driver hoping for some kind of reassurance:

Me: “Manong, madami kayang higad ngayon?”
Manong: “Meron maam. Pero, mahuhulog lang sila kapag nahanginan. Kung walang hangin, walang problema.”

I took a quick glance out the window and observed the stillness of the trees. I took a deep breath and pointed ahead.

Me: “Deretso tayo, Manong. Tatakbo ako sa kalsada.”

So help me God.

I ran on the road like a poor animal being hunted by a predator (only the predator in my case was much smaller than I was). All my senses were in full alert. My eyes were focused straight ahead, as it should be, mainly to watch out for higad. I ran as fast as I could hoping to finish 11km at the shortest possible time to minimize the risk of catching the rash.

Half the time the battle was all in the mind. I cannot count how many times I flicked off something away from my neck thinking it was a caterpillar only to realize it was the tail-end of my braid. I scratched my left arm, my right leg, my left leg, and my ears so many times that I wonder how I was even able to run. It didn’t help that it suddenly got windy. Manongs words kept on playing over and over in my head.

I covered 11k of challenging hills with a pace of 5:43 min/km. That’s close to race pace for me. Who would’ve known the higads could’ve helped me run that fast on a training run?! I was happy. But, what made me even more ecstatic after the run was the absence of any itching whatsoever. I survived! Take that, higads!

Posted on 08.20.10 to 01 Bullish Insights. Subscribe to follow comments on this post. 14 comments. Add your thoughts or trackback from your own site.

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14 Responses to “H is for Hills…and Higad”

higad? haha in my case its snakes since I run near rice fields plus the occasional angry cow

sprintingswine said on Aug 20 10 at 3:44 PM Reply
congrats! dati ants in one of your photo shoots, ngayon naman higad. good they didn’t get you. they need to train and increase pace

Reylynne said on Aug 20 10 at 5:35 PM Reply
Also hate those higads. And we have millipedes too. Turns out, I’m allergic to both. Creatures made an obstacle course in the road (didn’t want to step on them, didn’t want any hitching a ride with my Asics). One week bagsak mileage ‘coz of allergies Bahhh!!! Can’t wait for higad season to be over

Gail said on Aug 20 10 at 6:09 PM Reply
my friend and I ran at the UP oval last week and became victims of these small but terrible creatures! Where is mang zorro??!!

crabs said on Aug 20 10 at 6:59 PM Reply
Nasty higad!

BanditRunnr said on Aug 21 10 at 6:53 AM Reply
in cebuano, we call it TIL-AS! hehe.

katol said on Aug 21 10 at 9:35 AM Reply
hi! I do blogging and following you actually, but I’m also from Haribon and I’m inviting you to join our Million Hectare Challenge a pledge run for the environment on Nov. 21, at the McKinley Hill, hope you can make it. Thanks!

hahai said on Aug 21 10 at 11:08 AM Reply
Jamike is always a victim of higads! He claims to be an expert in higad treatment. He got it already twice this year. So when we don our runs together, i constantly watch out for those hairy creatures. Jamike gets it on his neck and on the chest. We wonder how it got inside the his shirt.

Mayi said on Aug 21 10 at 12:00 PM Reply
Hey Jaymie, you never got back to us on your review of the vibrams. Still waiting for your comments before i buy… hehehe

stephen said on Aug 22 10 at 9:53 AM Reply
glad you didn’t encounter any higads… dami nga ngayon..

Melanie said on Aug 22 10 at 3:37 PM Reply
urban higad legends – hehehe this made my day.

Haste said on Aug 23 10 at 10:56 AM Reply
H is also for Hataw! well…the higads definitely made you run faster hahaha…;-P

bobby said on Aug 23 10 at 7:07 PM Reply
hilarious. =p

paolojohann said on Aug 29 10 at 10:32 PM Reply
U should run all your races along tree-lined areas. Keep on (bull) running!

Jay said on Sep 13 10 at 1:14 AM Reply