Posts Tagged with: "Run"

I had a good laugh early this morning when, upon checking my Inbox, I find an email entitled: “Guess Who I Saw!” from Odette of Adidas. It was more of a shameful, hide-myself-behind-a-race-bib kind of giggle because of what I decided to wear that day: a navy blue Nike top with matching shorts. Despite my loud and proud proclamation of love for the Adidas KOTR singlet, I decided against wearing it in an effort to stand out against a sea of runners in red. Check out the photo and you’ll see that my mission was definitely accomplished! Haha!

Can you find yourself here? Let me know if you do!

– Adidas King of The Road 2007…woohoo! –

Thanks to Odette Velarde for the photo.  Odette, as mentioned, I promise to wear my Adidas singlet at the Milo Marathon! haha

On July 22, 2007, the day of the Milo Marathon, I’ve decided to run and help raise funds for Kythe, a non-stock, non-profit organization that helps uplift the spirits of sick children with chronic illnesses such as cancer. I was inspired by other runners who have done the same like Sen. Pia Cayetano in the past, Anton and Ben for this coming Milo race, and Neville with his 100km Ultramarathon.

I am running a 10k for this race and I hope to collect pledges from you—my family and friends—for each kilometer that I run. For instance, you may pledge P50 per kilometer thereby contributing P500 to help a child with cancer.  Any amount—whether it is P5 or P5,000—will go a long way to putting a smile on a child’s face.

If you wish to pledge, you may post a comment here or email me directly.  All the funds I collect will be donated directly to the Kythe Foundation.

Thank you in advance!

I received my Milo 10k race packet today together with my son’s and husband’s 3k packets. Thank you Mayi for signing us all up!

– Singlets of all shapes and sizes for the three of us: my hubby, son, and I –

Phooeey! Staring at the documents enclosed, I start to break a sweat when I read the following:

1. a whopping 10,000 runners are expected. As Mayi mentioned, my knees will tire not from the run, but from pushing and shoving against all the other runners.
2. the 42k race route. I’m just running a 10k for this one, but man oh man, 42k plotted out on the map freaks me out.
3. the traffic re-routing plan. After the Adidas KOTR, I was starving to death while stuck in post-race traffic. I hope traffic won’t be bad here, but I’m not taking any risks—I’m packing breakfast for the entire family!

– Race Route for Milo Marathon 3k/ 5k/ 10k/ 42k –

As with any race, however, my excitement over the following compensates for my worries:

1. It’s my 1st Milo Race. A Milo race is a Milo race. It is one of the biggest and most popular races in the country. I just had to join it.
2. Plain and simple route. To others (such as my good friend Annie), a race without hills is stale and boring. For me, it’s glorious! No surprises nor wrong turns. (I know, I sound like a sissy, but at least I’m honest!) Plus, it gives me a bigger chance of beating my PR hah!
3. My son and hubby are joining again. My 6-year-old who joined me in almost all my races turned his back on the Adidas KOTR after he announced that “Running is not my sport. I’m into baseball and soccer now.” So, with sadness, I simply let him be. When I invited him to join me for the Milo race, it was with great delight that he replied “Okay, i’ll join. Running is not my sport, but I’ll run to build my muscles in my legs.” He then leaves the rooms singing “Milo e-v-e-ry-daaaaay!” Wow, what media can do!
4. The Nestle Food Stub. As I’ve said, I’ve never been to a Milo race, so the tiny blue stub attached to the upper corner of the race materials definitely aroused my curiousity. Food huh?! What kind of food? Nestle Honey Stars with their low-fat milk? Yeah, I love those. Throw in a iced Nescafe after the run and, as frivolous and cheap as I may sound, I will be a happy camper.

So, have you signed up for the Milo Manila Marathon? The 3k/5k/10k/42k starts at Kilometer 0 along Roxas Blvd. Luneta Park in Manila on July 22, 2007.

Registration is ongoing and ends on July 20. Register at Vasquez Madrigal Bldg. 51 Annapolis St. Greenhills. For more information, call Mr. Biscocho at 727.9987. Bring a 300g wrapper of Milo to register.

Thanks to Hitme, I got invited by Peter_ob (from Philmug) to my first Nike+ Challenge a couple of days before I even tried out the nifty little gadget on the road. I had no idea how these challenges work, but anything that could give me more reason to run faster and longer sounded like good news to me!

The Manila Miles 25 Days Challenge was to begin on a most auspicious date: 07/07/07. (I felt luck would be by my side throughout the race, but I’m sure so did all the other 40+ runners!) So, I did register and crossed my fingers hoping that I would win the race to the most distance in 25 days without obssessing about it to the point that it took over my life (as running has obviously done!) I looked through the profiles of the other contenders on the board, evaluated their pace and distance, and developed my winning strategy. Okay, I’m kidding about the last two phrases!

It’s been a little over a week since the challenge started and fortunately it has not consumed me. Phew, thank God for that! I’ve stuck to my regular running program—which basically covers 40 to 45 km a week—and I just upload this to the Nike+ site and pray a silent prayer that the other runners experienced one of the following to shorten their distance: 1) heavier workload, 2) diarrhea during a long run, or 3) stolen rubber shoes. Hey, I’m kidding…again! This challenge is all about friendly competition, just to get all of us runners more motivated and excited about running further than we usually would.

During the early parts of the challenge, this is how the board looked…

– Manila Miles Challenge: July 10, 2007. A bull run run run, a bull run run! –

Oh, my son was just so proud of me! When he saw this, he screamed “Yes mama, you are the winner!” with both hands jubilantly raised up in the air. I almost burst into tears with joy about my son’s reaction when he suddenly pauses and asks “Wait a minute. You are the bullrunner, right?”

Last night, I rechecked the board to see the changes that occurred in a mere week’s time. Ack. I don’t think I can match up to njrunner_fred’s distance. I concede! Njrunner_fred is apparently training to qualify for the Boston Marathon so go go go njrunner_fred! I am right behind you…literally!

– Manila Miles Challenge: July 16, 2007. A bull run gone gone, a bull run gone –

My feet and I got to know each other a little better today. Thanks to Adidas, I got a free runner’s check up with Kristine Warren, the head physiotherapist of the Moro Lorenzo Sports Clinic in Ateneo de Manila.

So, there I was, standing in the middle of the Ateneo Highschool parking lot under the pouring rain with my feet soaked in dirty rainwater (how many times should I remind myself to stop wearing flipflops now that it’s the rainy season?!) I was searching for the Moro Lorenzo Gym and—since that entire structure was not even conceptualized during my college days—I could not for the life of me find it! After calling a friend (who just tells me to go straight ahead), I see it before me. Now how could I miss that colossal thing?!

After a brief wait, I am welcomed by Kristine herself. She cordially ushers me into her cubicle, plops down a black rubber pad right outside the door, and asks me to run as naturally as I can over it—with my bare feet. Uh huh, I nod and then I nervously peep out her door to note the handful of male athletes who will be forced to watch my attempts at landing on that little mat properly while I try my best to curl and hide my hideous runner’s toes (which, as I’ve told you, were earlier submerged in rainwater. Cover your noses people!) After reminding myself that these men are practically a decade younger than me (so they could care less about a ditzy mommy) , I muster up the courage to run and successfully finish the simple test in three tries.

Kristine pulls up a chair and I sit beside her to watch my feet pop out on her monitor (much like what the Predator would view using his infrared vision.) In the case of my foot image, the red portion shows areas of high-pressure landing against the backdrop of my yellow footprint. The monitor also reveals how and where my feet land and the full movement of each foot as I run.

– Kristine and Joseph of the Moro Lorenzo Sports Clinic posing with my feet image! –

My first reaction was panic. Do I land the right way? The image portrayed me clearly as a heel-striker. No doubt about that. But, with all the opposing information available in books and the net, I wasn’t quite sure if it was good to be labelled as such. Kristine says there is no hard and fast rule to this one. Some coaches teach you to strike at the heel, others prefer mid-foot. Whatever works for you, she says. Images of Haile Gebrselassie, Adidas endorser and greatest runner of all time, landing on his fore foot—not his heels—flashback into my memory and I know Kristine is right. To each his own.

Next, Kristine reveals that I—ack I hate to admit this—sort of turn my knees inward while running, then my feet try to make up for it by moving laterally. What?! I didn’t know I was capable of such a complicated maneuver! Perhaps I should have been a flamenco dancer instead of a runner?

Kristine instantly makes me feel better though when she calls me a “lightweight” runner with narrow feet. (Now you know: the best way to boost the self esteem of a knock-kneed runner is to tell her that she’s lighter than she looks.) She further says that I put heavy pressure on my forefoot (oh, you should’ve seen all those tiny red spots right below my pinky toe and in the middle of the ball of my feet) so she knows exactly what shoe to recommend for me.

Kristine says I must focus on cushioning. (Cushioning. Cushioning. Cushioning. Remind me about this the next time I go shopping for shoes. Now I know why I’ve got more calluses than skin under my feet. Okay okay I’m exaggerating, but really I do have a lot.) For competition, I should get the Adizero CS which has climavite cushion. Meanwhile, I could choose between the AdiStar Cushion or Supernova Cushion for my training shoes.

I hate to admit it, but I’ve confirmed what I knew for the past few weeks: that my current running shoe isn’t compatible with my feet! Through the Adidas Runner’s Check Up, I learned that my shoe is way too wide at the front and lacks the cushioning my special feet deserve. Aaaah, that’s what I get for buying a shoe without ever having my feet assessed. Lesson learned, but money wasted.

So, to all you future running shoe shoppers out there, go for a feet evaluation before you open your wallets! The Adidas Runner’s Check Up travels all around the Metro offering free feet assessments to everyone.

Thanks to Odette Velarde for making all this possible! Yeah, impossible is nothing with Adidas, eh?