Category Archives: Bullish Insights

We almost didn’t show up for this one.  I woke up at 4:30 a.m. to the sound of rain outside so I immediately consulted my team mate a.k.a. The Hubby who was quite conveniently half awake on the other side of my bed.  “Do we go?”  (Yawn)  I wasn’t particularly excited about this race as, I’ve said before, I had TNF thoughts on my mind.  “Do you want to go?” he asked although I knew he didn’t want to run under the rain again. I told him we should go on two points: 1) The rain could stop by 6 a.m. and 2) We spent a whopping P1000 for race registration.  Sayang naman diba?!  So, with that, we decided to get dressed and show up at NBC Tent.

– TBR and Team Mate aka Hubby –

The assembly area was a welcome sight from the overwhelming OROFOLS crowd.  By this time, the rain had stopped and there were a few hundred runners waiting for the race to begin.  Before that, we were treated to uhm a dance warm up courtesy of Regine Tolentino who seemed to be the only one wide awake during that time of day.  (Yawn) Oops, sorry there I go again.  I just wasn’t into this race for some reason.

When the gun went off, “Team Pizarro” ran together at too fast a pace at around 5 min/km.  I sort of knew that we couldn’t keep this up together.  By km2, we slowed down a bit to 5:30.  By km3, we slowed down even more.  And, you don’t have to guess what happened at km4 and 5.  

We finished the race side-by-side, a strict rule imposed by organizers, at a ho-hum time of around 32 minutes for 5.4 km. 

This was, suprisingly, fine by me.  It was not a big deal that I couldn’t ran faster, beat my PR, or we didn’t win that trip to Cebu (although a suprise win wouldn’t have hurt).  It did matter that we didn’t argue at all, we didn’t leave each other behind, and he got me my own water to drink at the station.  (I wished he could wipe the sweat off my face too but that may have been asking for too much.)   

After crossing the finish line, I ran another 2km around Bonifacio High Street and met my bestest team mate in the car. Then, we went straight home eager to meet the rest of the team, the two kids who were still fast asleep.

– Our lootbags can feed our family of four –

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!