A one-live cat’s life

August 27, 2007 was the scheduled UP great run.  Ran with my h@ppy feet running mates.  At past 5am we were picked by Mon and his friend John and Joseph who was kind enough to bring us with him in his car :).

I was registered to run 10Km this time.  New venue.  Hoping it will be okey as i am not familiar of the UP Diliman campus very well.

Below is the 10KM route:

Broke my 10KM record with the time of 53.54 minutes.  Getting better so i am happy Well, hmm according to UP record as it clocked 51.32.

10-KM Women

I was surprised to see the first placer :)  My Highschool batch mate Cristabel Martes.  She has been our Track and Field athlete eversince.  Her dad was my Grandfather"s athlete on Track and field at the same time. I guess she is already with the National team.

After the race we had a very very good picnic at the UP Lagoon.  Anton and my late bday celebration, and celebration for the company of h@ppy feet runners:)

Pictures from b3n, happy feet runner-friend.

Days before my travel i was thinking how would i do my VR in Singapore? I wasnt prepared my week was abit hectic and i havent plotted my planned run.

Although i am a bit familiar of the place in the center so i guess i would do fine told myself.

Wednesday i set my phone to alarm at 400am, as i was told by the concierge that 430 is too early and it would not be really safe for a visitor to run that time they suggested that i go out at 6am.  To find out that they were right 430 was too early, too dark!

So i woke up 530 Thursday morning and they were right 6am was still dark.

Below is my route on my 2nd VR.

VR 2 route
Distance: 10.3823
Time: 1 hour ++

VR Runners:

Eric
Jaymie
Hitme
Ben
o.0
Banggigay
Bench

I remember when Ben and i were
chatting,he was telling me he is excited on his first VR. Being a novice in running and ignorant w ith
running jargons, I asked him what’s a VR? H e answered, VR is Virtual
Run(ning). That is you get to do your
runs, synchronized with other runners around the globe of different timezones
at the same time. Just reading the word,
i thought at first, you get to hook a gadget to yourself record your run while
online in the internet.haha okey i am being funny and ignorant :D.

okey, after gathering enough motivation
to try and join the VRs, i finally encoraged myself to join them on August 24
@430am. I got to choose and run Salcedo
Village and Legazpi Village try for approximately 10km.

So 4am, i woke up convincing myself
that my run will burn calories than sleepin so that was enough
motivation.Prepped myself and brought my house keys linked to my swiss knife
for the just-in-cas-moments and for my safety. a hard enough object to hit an abductor.430 from our bldg i started my
run. See route below.:)

start 430

finish 533 
total distance: 11.105 KM

VR Runners:
Jaymie
Ben
o.0
Bangiggay
hitme
Eric

I have been out of internet access for four days now so here is my post run write-up.  Feeling lazy because of what good work has brought, stress.. well okey good stress i am not complaining.  Anyway here it is:

It was August 19,2007, Sunday i and my friends rey and sam with our h@ppy feet friends (Mon,Ben,John,Anton,Jaymie,Roselle,Tisha) scheduled to run Run for Ariel. Ariel Toledo is an orphaned child, a cancer patient, a valedictorian and Magna cum laude class 2006 of the Philippine Military Academy.

This was a run for love for someone in need.there was no singlet just race numbers.

As we arrived the race venue, we wer right to find out that only few runner enthusiasts joined d race, as expected more crowd on students of PMA and its graduates joined the run.

Media covered by Abs-cbn. The start was a stampede of Aer gazelles, it was like racing in the safari. I told myself i will not compete against this military men as i know they are trained well physically.

The route was good but challenging with three uphill track, pot-holed-asphalt route. planned and announced the route was 5KM.It was 6.8 to 7.2 kms, i clocked 35 point sumthing seconds. The ladies were strong, Jaymie finished 5, myself 9th followed by Roselle and Tisha.John was also one of the top finishers on d male category.

Top finishers were given Uniliver goodie bag and Petron travelling bag.

Hoping that prayers bring miracle on Ariel’s healing. pictures are provided by Jaymie and Rey.

I asked Amy for dinner this week, which she asked to be scheduled on tuesday.Amy is a canadian girl i met at d pool while i was doing my regular workout.She’s nice and sincere when u talk to her and very entusiastic on how she likes Philippines.She likes to travel so that encouraged me to continue conversing with her. We’ve been friends, that i know of, eversince.

She’s leaving the country on Thursday because she found work based where she stays,Switzerland.It was challenging for her to be away from her boyfriend that’s the reason she wanted to go back to the alps.

Anyway, we went for dinner at Greenbelt at Banana Leaf.The dinner was good, aside from the company and the stories told. i insisted to pay the bill which that night i just brought my BPI local credit card, to my disappointment they do not accept the card in the establishment. But funny the waitress handed the credit card to Amy. The name on the card sounds so pinay,is it because the waitress thinks Amy was paying for the bill because she was white? I did not mind.

To cut our dinner situation short,embarassing she insisted in paying the bill. We went for gelato and stories after our meal.

We decided to head back home since it would be her turnover day today,her last day at work.We thought its going to be a long day for her. We took a cab at Greenbelt 3 driveway.

As we boarded the cab the driver said 80 pesos flag down. I didnt want to argue and destroy my night, i wanted to go home, i was tired. Amy asked why is that so i asked the driver why? He said it was difficult to queue at the driveway, well he has options not to fall in line in that driveway.or is it because they knew that Greenbelt was a tourist haven. And-or is it because i was with a white girl. I was a bit pissed but i just kept cool.

Dropped Amy at Leviste st. As i dropped her off the driver asked, ‘amo nio po?’(is she your boss?). I answered him, ‘Why? Not just because she’s white she’s a boss, not just because we are pinoy and all whites they are our superiors’ and he kept mum. I said, she is my friend not my boss. He said probably out of embarassment he said, because she seem so kind. Duh!

This is just one of many stories of thinking the foreigners are better than us.

Whenever we see Caucasians some of us call them sir or ma’am. In a plane ride from Europe back to Pilipinas a Caucasian couple took Joel’s sit, and asked if they can take it.  Joel and i did early internet check-in so to choose a comfortable sit in the plane. Joel consulted me what he needs to do. I told him not to agree and just get pushed over. Well we could have been nice if they were elderly or disabled, not just because we are brown and they are white we would have said yes.

I hope one day people get over of feeling inferior of other races and other race would treat us one of their equals.

A night before the race, i met with my college friends for thanksgiving for blessings.
Had dinner that finished ’round past 2130hrs and headed to Malate.  I was still thinking should I join the media run tomorrow or not as Mon of h@ppy feet was already asking my confirmation.  I thought i would just join as one of my weekend plans did not push through i might as well divert it to something positive.  I confirmed my green light to Mon.

Promised my college friendships that id go cinderella on the malate thing.  Danced non stop on the dance floor till 12, left the pace round 1220. Had quick bath because of the bad smoke.  My shoulder still sore from last sunday’s run when i was bumped.
1Am went straight for a snooze, past 4am woke up by Rey (who opted to sleep than join the race). That was 3 hours of sleep with still an aching shoulder. I told my self bahala na just have fun in the race. 

I did not have enough time to buy and drink my Lipovitan as Ben of happy feet with Mon and his friend John is already parked outside our bldg for the carpool going to QC circle (event’s venue).

Arrived the venue quarter before 6.  I was registered for 6Km so we need to go round the circle for 3 times.

h@ppy feet friends who were there in the race were: Ben, Tricia, Tisha, Joms, Rorenz, Roselle, Mon, Zaldy

Timed 33:16 after 3 roundabouts (6KM) i finished the race.. was able to place 3rd. Its all good.

Had goody bag from Cocacola, a basketball, a Phcare fem wash, powerade bottle, free sandwiches, and sponsored Tender Juicy snacks, oh and acold lipton iced tea.

Still hungry we went to Tropic Hamburgers for brunch :).

First two pictures are from Ben of h@ppy feet - thanks Ben

Mon from h@ppy feet picked me and Rey at the bldg at round 520am Aug 4, 2007.

Took a cab to Malate, Raja Soliman Circle since Rey would need to register, I was registered earlier, thanks to Ben.

10 minutes 6am, the race started.  Almost half of the course, the lead runner for 5KM crossed the path of the runners going towards the roundabout, lucky me i mean unlucky me, he bumped into me and i can tell the impact was really bad as i was abit dizzy.  I lost momentum thanks to him.. ggrr!

anyway I finished the race and beat my PR at 23.08 for 5 KM(looks short though).

group pics by Jaymie