Running Aid at ROX

Despite the terrible weather, runners of all shapes and sizes—wannabes, newbies, recreational, serious, ultramarathoners—showed up in large numbers at ROX last night for the Running Aid Part 2 session. 

– Neville Manaois on anything and everything a runner needs –

Neville Manaois, team principal of Pinoy Ultra Runners, gave a comprehensive talk on Running Essentials enumerating each item a runner needs—from shoes to petroleum jelly—for distance runs. Neville was very knowledgeable about the topic, not just discussing items he’d picked up from a book, but obviously drawing from his own experiences as an ultramarathoner.  

– Dr. Paolo Punsalan on the proper form for runners –

The next speaker, Dr. Paolo Punsalan, a Pinoy Ultra runner and Orthopedic Surgeon, discussed Running Form & Technique for distance runs. I was in and out of the session but I did pick up a number of important points. He emphasized mid foot landing which is consistent with Coach Jo-Ar’s training with me. Dr. Punsalan also mentioned leaning forward, minimizing arm swing, high cadence (90 per leg per minute) and maintaining balance while running.  He even dissected the form of Haile Gebresellasie for all of us to attempt to emulate…yeah let’s keep on dreaming.

I highly recommend this talk for runners. I hope the Pinoy Ultra Runners and ROX will have another run (no pun intended) of these talks as it promotes running to non-runners and gives us runners the opportunity to improve ourselves while avoiding injury.

To all those I saw last night—Marga, Jeremy, Hector of Nike, Philip and his wife, Felipe of SOS Village, Andrew of Epic, my TI coach Nonoy B., dad and mom of CougCat, bugobugo, Mel, Irene, and Omar—it was nice seeing you. Neville, nice chatting with you again. Hope to run with you on my side of the world.