Category Archives: Bullish Insights

TBR RACE REVIEW: DASMARINAS RUN

DETAILS: 18 July 2010, Dasmarinas Village, Makati City

RATING:

THUMBS UP:

• small community affair
• nice secure and safe route
• kilometer markers
• delightful post race freebies and raffle

BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME:

• some hydration stations only had Pocari Sweat, no water
• lack of directional signs caused some 5k runners to lose their way

The Dasma Run was a small and simple community affair that was well-attended by around 1,000 runners, mostly familiar faces in the running scene. As expected, the route was peaceful and secure as it toured runners along the rolling hills of South Forbes and North Forbes and the flat and fast course of Dasmarinas Village. It was an enjoyable race for many with race flaws being minor and forgiveable.

Another must run race for me next year.

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SICK SENSE

Nothing is more embarrassing than coughing your way through a 10k race. That’s what I did last Sunday when I managed to survive the run through South Forbes, North Forbes, and Dasmarinas Village.

I didn’t realize how bad my cough was until I spoke with a couple of runners friends at the race start. Two of them mentioned “Are you sick?” I waved off the cough thinking all would be well. After all, I ran five times the past week without any hitches.

The race started off without much fanfare. Before we knew it, hubby and I had run through the starting line arc both realizing that we hadn’t switched on our Garmins yet. Aaaack!

RACE MODE

I was in full race mode. These asphalted roads were familiar to me, and I knew that my hill training was much more challenging than the rolling hills in these villages. I ran at a fast clip and hubby stayed by my side all along. (Hubby has gotten a lot faster and I’m nervous that he’s going to be overtaking me soon!)

As my new Sennheiser earphones is my fave gear of the month these days, I took the ipod with me, something I haven’t done in a while. I wore the earphones but didn’t turn on the ipod until I needed a blast of energy from the sounds.

After around 3k, hubby stopped at a hydration station and advised me to go ahead. I switched the ipod on to hear Kings of Leon. Perfect…and I pushed forward.

THE BUNNY HOP

Upon entering North Forbes village, the nightmare began. Suddenly, a small ball of phlegm felt like it had lodged itself in my esophagus (if your squeamish this is where you should stop reading) and refused to be expelled. I was coughing every 30 seconds in a futile attempt to clear my throat, but to no avail.

Instead of running, I felt like I was doing a bunny hop. Each cough was so strong, my body would lunge forward forcing me to skip higher on one leg. Gawd. More than anything, it was embarrassing. Not only did I have the most unique stride among all the runners, but I was the noisiest too. I felt sorry for the runners around me having to run to the rhythm of my cough beat. Ehem, ehem, ehem…pause…ehem ehem ehem.

ALL THE WAY TO THE FINISH

I did the bunny hop all the way until the end of the race running from one village to the next. It was a struggle, especially on the ascents, but despite the suffering, I actually had fun! (I know, I know, I’m crazy.)

I finished 10.4k at 56:28 min with an average pace of 5:26 min/km.

LESSON LEARNED

Little boys and girls, please do not do what I did last Sunday.  Due to my foolishness (and bullheaded-ness), my cough worsened by the following day.  I got fever last night and I’m slowly recovering today.  What a way to start Week One of NYC Marathon Training!  Not to worry, I’ll bounce back in no time.

Week One: July 19 to 25, 2010. Bring out the balloons and throw out the confetti!  This is Week One of my NYC Marathon Training.  I have been waiting for this week…for weeks!

Two months ago, I only had 2 marathon training programs to choose from: F.I.R.S.T. program which I’ve tried and tested in my past marathons (and has worked very well for me, thank you), or the Runners World: Break 4 or Bust program I spotted in it’s July issue.  (I subscribe to RW US via Bookazine so I get my copies over a month early at only P250.  What a steal!)

– I usually care for all my RW issues with much love, but this one is dog-eared because I take it wherever I go –

I chose the Runner’s World Program for two reasons:

1. I felt ready to upgrade my weekly run sessions from 3x of FIRST to 5x with RW.  (If I start feeling any knee pain though, I may consider reducing to 4x a week.  We’ll see…)
2. Break 4 or Bust!  What a heading for a marathon program.  The title gripped me, made me fall into a sub-4 running dream, and got me all excited about working for a wonderfully thrilling challenge.

I love this feeling—like I’m riding on the wave of a brand new adventure.  Truth be told, I enjoy training for the marathon more than running the marathon itself!  It’s going to be an awesome 16-week ride, guys and girls!

There’s a very well-written article on “How to Avoid Pitfalls of Long-Distance Running” by Romina Austria on Philippine Daily Inquirer today.  Click HERE to read the full article.

The article comes on the heels of the recent death of Remus Fuentes who passed away after the Milo Marathon.  It provides us with a glimpse of Remus, a runner and family man, like many of us and what exactly happened on the day he collapsed.  It also presents the side of Milo and its organizer, Rudy Biscocho.  More than that, it offers tips on proper training and how to avoid heatstroke.

As I said in an earlier post when I wrote about Remus (click HERE), I feel that the best response many of us can give at this point is to listen to our bodies and practice caution in our own runs. While it is the race organizer’s role to provide adequate support and medical assistance, it is also our responsibility as runners to train properly for the race.

If you are an experienced runner help spread the word about proper training and racing, especially to the beginners.  Let’s encourage people to run, but to do so at their own pace and to build their mileage gradually.  It took me months before I had the courage to run a 10k, and it took me longer to run the 21k.  Nowadays, it’s quite frightening to hear about newbies signing up for a 21k for their first event when they’ve never even run 5k (nor do they know how long 5k is!)

Yes, there’s a running boom.  Yes, we love it that more people are getting fit and healthy through running.  But, as I told a friend last year: We have to be careful that we don’t have a boom in injuries or worse fatalities.  This is a wake up call not just for organizers but for runners as well.

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Just one comment about Rudy Biscocho’s claim in the article.   Mr. Biscocho said: “There was a hydration station (water or Gatorade) around every one kilometer of the 21K race path for a total of 13 water stations…”

I have deep respect for Mr. Biscocho as one of the leading race organizers in our country.  But, Sir, while there were stations at the last 3km of the 21k course, there was absolutely no water left to serve when I and several runners passed it.

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These other articles may interest you:

• Remus Story as told by his Father – Pinoy Fitness
• Tips on Running Races Safely from the Experts – TBR

Boo to you Basyang for wreaking havoc in Metro Manila and other provinces. Boo to you for causing some deaths and injuries, sweeping a crane off of the skyway creating hellish traffic on South Super Highway, and worst of all, creating problems with Meralco’s electricity thereby leading us to lose wifi access for over a day. Ack.

Running for me did continue regardless of Basyang’s wrath (and I hope it was the same for you as well.)  You must know that no freak storm messes with The Bull Runner’s training program, especially when she has her eyes set on a serious goal (read: New York).  So, I spent my morning at the gym yesterday as my usual training ground looked more like a trail route (as confirmed to me by Francis who ran on fallen branches and leaves rather than the usual clean, concrete roads).

For first time, I survived 7k on the boring treadmill gym; 5k is usually a feat for me already!  There are only two reasons why I got to run that “long” on the treadmill:

1. My laptop and cellphone were charging at the locker room, so the longer I ran the better!
2. It was the first time I tried out my brand spankin’ new Sennheiser MX680 Sports earphones indoors (given to me by Sennheiser at last week’s Sennheiser-Adidas tie up press conference).  I never did give much importance to the brand of earphones I used, but now that I’ve tried Sennheiser, I realize it does make a huge difference!   I didn’t notice how long I was running on the treadmill due to the sound quality.  I’m so happy I’m dedicating a separate post for this soon.

So, here I am sitting at Starbucks reconnected with the world wide web.  I still owe you a report on Robinson’s Supermarket Fit and Fun Wellness Buddy Run. Let me get to that after I’m done with the backlog of work.

Hope you’re all safe out there!

Guess who we bumped into at Bonifacio High Street after a quick, exhausting and completely fulfilling hill training session with Jun: Coach Rio and good ol’ friend, Philip Le Roux (Foreign Runner).

Philip was an active runner and blogger a couple of years ago. We would see each other often in races and occasionally at get togethers.  I still remember how nervous we were when we joined our first triathlon at Animo Tri in 2008.  If I recall right we were two runners worried about two things: 1) how we’d look in a tri suit and 2) drowning!

Philip and his wife together with their three adorable kids relocated to the province for work a few years back.  It’s nice to know they’re enjoying life there and that Philip has plans of joining the Milo Eliminations in his province.

Philip used to be pretty good at speaking Tagalog, now I can say he is super fluent!  The staff at Runnr couldn’t help but listen in on this “Foreign Runner” asking us: “Saan ba tayo kakain?”

So, we had an impromptu dinner at Pancake House.  Catching up and laughing about all things running.

It was nice seeing you again, Philip!  Until the next time.