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Are you wearing GREEN or BLUE at the One La Salle race this coming Sunday?  

Most of the runners will definitely be sporting the green singlet accompanying the race bib.  But—all in the spirit of fun—some of us Ateneans are planning to wear blue.  

Now, to my La Sallite friends (or is it, La Sallian?) please don’t find offense in this.  It is not meant to be disrespectful either.  We just want to express our fierce loyalty towards our own alma mater.

Unfortunately, I have been through every sports store in the South searching for a blue singlet but to no avail. I was tempted to purchase those Adidas school jackets but my thriftiness ruled over me. (So much for fierce loyalty, eh?)  I’ll probably have to wear my aqua, white, or black singlet then.  Anything—as long as it’s not green heehee. 

Running with me on Sunday are my husband (a neutral guy because he was schooled abroad)—and hopefully (because he doesn’t have a race bib yet) my 17-year-old star athlete nephew.  This nephew of mine was pulled out from Bacolod and given a full scholarship to play basketball for La Salle Greenhills. He’s going to be the first Pinoy NBA player—in all of our dreams!  I’m pretty sure we’ll be eating his dust on Sunday even if he’s never raced a day in his life.

For now, this proud Aunt shall leave you with a basketball video of her not-so-little nephew.  See you on race day!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKg4L9v_blk]

– video courtesy of Gary Villanueva

I know.  The title is so cheesy it makes you want to puke in your running shoes.  I almost did after I typed that in.  But, how else can I write about the positive impact running has had on my marriage without getting all sentimental and baduy?!

Loyal readers know that I had, for the longest time, been praying that the hubby join me in my running crusade.  I had never planned for an all-out offensive with him.  My strategy was to inundate him with interesting and exciting running stories, show off my well-toned arms and legs (which haven’t revealed themselves to me at the moment), and simply wait and see if he would take up the sport on his own.

Lo and behold, he did!  Slowly but surely, he worked his way up to 5ks, first on the treadmill then the road over the past few months.  He then joined his 1st 5k race, the Mizuno Infinity Run, and a couple more after that.  On days when he doesn’t play golf (his great love—second to me, of course), he runs instead.  A month ago, he purchased his Garmin 405 (which was technically my birthday gift to him) and last week, he got a mountain bike (which is way cooler than my hand-me-down).  The hubby is getting serious about this—and I can only sit back and admire the new running/ biking obsessed fiend I’ve created…kidding!

Who would’ve known that—aside from the many health benefits of running and biking—we would receive another bonus: a happier marriage.  It’s not like we weren’t happy to begin with.  But, running certainly has added more color and excitement to our married life and has given us yet another passion to share.  

It’s fine if we don’t go on dinner dates often.  And he doesn’t give me flowers on Valentine’s Day.  And he doesn’t call me every waking minute to say he loves me (I wouldn’t want that anyway!)

I’m much happier with the fact that, last weekend, we ran an easy 5k together and had breakfast before the kids woke up.

I love it when I ask the hubby “What was your pace?” and he’ll answer with a number, not a blank stare. That we can pore over our own Garmins for minutes (it’s not just me anymore) and share the same amazement at these wonderfully crafted little watches (although my 305 is still better than his).  That we enter a sports store together equally ecstatic over our greatest active wear finds.

Our next date?  A bike trip to the gas station to put air in our tires—I’d choose that over dinner at Greenbelt, anytime!

The Lonerunner’s blog is the funniest running blog I have ever read.  Here are just some excerpts that left me laughing out loud:

“…I want to initiate a new program wherein runners can donate the hideous, terrible designed and gayish looking Runners shorts-shorts. All collected running shorts will be unstitched and remade as umbrellas.”

“…’Doubling’ will greatly quicken your pace, increase your endurance and most significantly your deodorant purchase.”

“…I have a big problem with the word Fartlek. It sounds like a Fart and saying is never sexy. And If we say, ‘I am  Fartleking with different partners.’-that will never,ever sound right to a non-runner.”  

To the Lonerunner, I’m a big fan.  Keep us laughing.  Run on, friend!

It was my first Mizuno Run Club session this year and it was, for me, a reunion of sorts.  

Last year, I never missed the run club, which is held every 1st and 3rd Thursday at 7 p.m. in Bonifacio High Street.  Nope, not once.  There was this one time when, despite a minor injury, I drove all the way there with my two kids in tow just to watch the runners from afar and smell the sweat from their bodies (er, the last line right there must not be taken literally.)

This year, however, I realized that my injuries had kept me from attending the run club for half a year already.  You can only imagine how ecstatic I was over the fact that, with my shin splints gradually disappearing, I could finally run with everyone again.

So, I arrived a little before 7 p.m. to see that I didn’t recognize anyone except KC from Mizuno.  All of a sudden, I turned shy and went to ROX to drool over the bikes first.  I returned around 10 minutes after happy to see a lot of familiar faces.

From Happy Feet, there was Ben and his fiancee Missy who was going to run for the first time.  Marga and her bike Sixto arrived along with her good friend Jeremy, my “editor”.  I finally got to meet Maui who I have forever seen online and in pics but never got to talk to.  Taki ran too soon after he signed up for the TNF at ROX.

My pathetic goal was to run a safe and slow 3k.  This was, after all, just my second post-injury run.  I started out with Ben, Missy, and Taki chatting about running, biking, and everything else in between.  Soon after, I ran alongside Coach Ige who, as it turns out, was injured like me.  I asked him the cause of his injury and he replied “overtraining.”  As if we were two athletes on the same fitness level, I answered “hey, me too!”  Then, he adds “Yeah, I just came back from two marathons, one in Vancouver, the other in Singapore.”  I wanted to slap myself in the face; I just got injured from a pitiful 5k in U.P.

As we ran, I saw a man in white running in the opposite direction.  It was Bald Runner.  Now, I know for a fact that BR is true to his word.  In his last post, he said he would try waving at lady runners just to see their reactions.  I told him I would look forward to a wave from him should we run into each other soon.  That wave definitely came sooner than expected.  We got to run together for a few minutes but ended up parting ways as he completed his 10 mile goal for that evening.

I ended my run at exactly 3k.  No more, no less.  And, oh, no pain after the run either.  Yes!

We were to meet at 6:30 am on that fine Saturday morning.  I was a little bit excited over my first bike trip with my two girlfriends, Annie and Marga, but it certainly did not compare with the usual over-the-moon feeling I have over each and every morning run.  Put it this way, for a run, I am Manny Pacquiao…fight!  For any other sport, such as biking, swimming, or the gym, I give it a good fight like Diaz but there’s just something missing.  There’s no umph.

I arrived at our meeting place to find Annie in complete biking attire, something I have never seen her in since we met as running buddies over a year ago.  She was standing over her driver who was fiddling over the tight chains of her road bike.  Where was Marga?  Probably somewhere in between Bicutan and Sucat.  She biked all the way from her place, and unknown to us at that time, she actually had to walk through parts of the West Service Road as it was under construction.

– Annie testing her bike.  I want a road bike like hers or Margas! –

By the time Marga arrived, at around 7 a.m., Annie had declared that she couldn’t join us because her bike chains needed oil.  As for me, I had lost all enthusiasm for biking under the intense heat.  How could so many things go wrong that early in the morning?!  At that point, there was one thing that could turn things around: McDo!

We decided to bike out of the village for a good meal at nearby McDonalds.  It was to be my first ever bike trip on public roads and I was nervous.  As we biked our way towards the exit gate nearing the first intersection, I yelled out at Marga: “How do bikers stop at the traffic light?”  (Yes, you can kick me for such a dumb question)  I couldn’t quite hear her response and, as much as I wanted to just close my eyes and teleport my way to McDo, I knew that on a bike I would probably find myself at the hospital instead.  Luckily, the light turned green and we just biked along with the cars.  After crossing the street, Annie who should’ve been behind me was unusually quiet (Annie is never ever quiet!) so I had to yell out at Marga again: “Where’s Annie?  Can you check?”  That’s because I can’t even look behind while on a bike, much less scratch my face, fix my helmet, bike in between that narrow strip of flat road between a hump and the sidewalk, nor stand on my pedals to avoid the pain that comes from passing over a hump.  Gosh, I’m such a newbie.

A little over a kilometer later, we were happily chatting about running, boys (to my hubby, I was actually just listening!), and races over our meals.  We biked our way back to the village and, surprisingly, the super short bike trip gave me a lot more confidence already.  It was definitely a more relaxing ride on the way back—I could actually manage a smile!  Yeah, I finally found the courage to explore more roads on the bike.  Give me a month and I’ll be fast and fearless…I hope haha.