PSE Bull Run (10K)

First race of the year and almost missed it :-) In my usual jologs fashion, I went to registered at PSE in Ortigas at the last minute (uhm... actually an hour before they close shop). As this is the first race to be held in the metro for this year, you can imagine the pent-up demand for this race (think New Year's Resolution meet first opportunity). At the PSE office, they told me that they've already run out of registration form. Bummer... but never fear they're still accommodating runners who hasn't officially register for the race event. Bless they're heart! For runners who missed out the registration, they can still join the PSE Fun Run but sans any bib/singlets/office race time. Ok na rin yun.

So after over a month of slacking off, I'm running my first race of the year. The PSE Bull Run. The race was held at The Fort, a favorite among race organizers. The route used for the 10K run was an old and familiar nemesis of mine, the slopping terrain of McKinley Hills. The weather perfect for running and everyone at the starting line was in festive mood.

At the race, I started slow at 8.20 pace (that's practically crawling) for first two kilometers, then gradually pick speed to catch up with main body. For my next few races (and non-major races) I'll stick to this routine. The idea being to finish a slow/strong race (albeit slower than my usual race time) but recuperate faster. A normal race for me where I try to push it will take me 3 to 4 days to recuperate before I can hit the road again (I'm getting old, I know). But with this strategy I can hit the pool or gym/rpm the next day and run the day after and dispense with 3 to 4 days of rest. Good, no?

By my watch, I finished 1:00:12 for the 10K run at 6.04 pace. Also, by my watch 10K distance was 9.91km but what's a few meters between friends :-)

There's a couple of constructive criticism to be said about this race, but it wouldn't be my place to say so considering that they let me run for free and not be an ignominious bandit. So I'll leave the constructive criticism to others far more articulate than I and those that shelled out their money to join the race. Though I'd like to emphasize some of the good things they did at this race.

1. A separate Fun Run with no entry fee in parallel with the real PSE Bull Run (running in the same route). Now this is fairly new among the races I've joined. Normally, you'd be considered as a running bandit if you didn't pay for the registration fee, so the Fun Run but san any bib/singlet/official time, is definitely a good thing.

Just a few thoughts though. First, bear in mind that the vast majority of runners in race events are more than happy to pay for the registration fee, considering how very reasonable the registration fees are. _BUT_ what's reasonable to others might not be for others who's economic prospect is not as fortunate. It was a fluke that I got to run in the unofficial PSE Bull Run, it was ok but I'm not keen for a repeat in future races. I like the bib, having my name in the finisher list (even some of the tacky singlet) too much :-) Though it would be a great gesture from race organizers if they could implement something similar.

Kudos to the PSE Bull Run organizer for having this option!

2. Professional entertainers at the stage after the race. Far too often they have race organizers also acting as the entertainers, uhm... yeah. At PSE, they had this one dude name Lucas, he was at the stage working the crowd and then belting out some tacky Pinoy jingles. At first, I thought his comedy spiel was grating to the nerves, so it took me a while to warm up to the guy and realize that ... it's a jolog brother! Definitely in the mold of my old idol. The most awesome of awesome... Ang kilabot ng mga kababaihan Filipina... April Boy Regino! The Man! Anyways, the point being, leave serious entertainment to those who hone their craft :-)

Over all, there were some valid concerns that should be address by the organizer, that said, I'm fan of the sponsors/organizers of this race for their great gesture of lettings runner who weren't able to register to still run (unofficially) at the race. May your tribe thrive! Kudos to the folks that push this "public service", looking forward to next year's PSE Bull Run!

No pic for this race yet, I didn't have my camera with me but couple of the guys there did, so what's a jologs to do? Hehe, why ask of them of course :-) So as soon as Wilbert or Gigi post their race recap, I'll ask them.

... and so I've ask! Shout out to Wilbert and Gigi for letting me swipe their pics. Danke! :-)


Clockwise: Vener, Sir Ipe, Bobby, Gene, Jay (hidden), Wilbert's back. After-race at the Finish line.


Clockwise: That's me, Jay, Gigi, Bobby, Sir Ipe, Wilbert. Breakfast at Mcdo.

Fav Tools For A Richer Blogging Experience

[Note: If you're having problems viewing the pictures, just point your mouse at the pic and click. If you're still having problems, leave a note and I'll check it out]

I've been using this Web 2.0ish online journal called Daily Mile to log my running and fitness regimen. Very nifty tool. First saw reference to it from runningdatc's blog. I thought I'd also share some of blogging tools I find indispensable or at least those I couldn't live without. It's always good to share something that other people might find useful, good karma points. So here it is boys and girls, 'hope you find it as useful as I do.

1. Web Analytics
2. News Aggregator
3. Google Alert
   

1. Web Analytics. These are tools that allows you to collate, measure and analyze data or 'hits' on your web pages. There's plenty of them around but I use Google's own analytic tool since it plays well with other Google apps. Here's snapshot:


Wordpress have a built-in but limited web analytics tools but for a richer set of data that you can slice and dice, go with a real web analytic tools. I had 3,589 page view for the last 7 months, using web analytics it allows me to mine my stats for some really interesting tidbits.

Example: One-third of my visitors came from outside Philippines (ie. US, UK, Singapore, Germany) and these are repeat visitors! (I didn't bore them to tears :-)) Of course I have to quantify that by saying that most of these visits abroad was source from other blogs, so a lot of it was referral. So for instance, half of readers from US were initially reading SFrunner's blog before heading to my site. Mucho gracias Wayne! Now for readers outside US, it's been mostly organic (via Google/Blogspot/direct). They somehow came upon my blog and came back for more (aw shucks). Now here is an interesting part, based from their network location/Internet gateway a lot of them are reading my blog at work! Hehe, how cool is that? :-)

Web analytics is good tool, use it track your traffic and get some really interesting perspective.

2. News Aggregators/RSS Readers. This topic came up briefly at the last Christmas dinner with runner bloggers/friends. From the looks of it, hardly anyone uses these tools (except for one or two guys), everyone either manually check blog updates or go to sites or blogs that have this small newsreel app that display brief headlines/updates of other blogs that the author follows. This is where news aggregrators comes in, it enables you to follow news sites, blogs and other RSS/Atom-enabled websites without using your web browser to check for updates.

Let me put it in perspective: When I started blogging I only keep track a small number of bloggers. Must read in my list are the rock stars (The Bull, The Bald, and Bards) plus a few other blogs, so that's a total of 7 or 8 blogs that I manually visit a week. Not bad. Fast forward a few months, a running boom and parallel jump in the number of people blogging their running experience. So now I keep track of close to 30 blogs. Now imagine keeping track this number of blogs manually... yeah not good. And that's where aggregators shines. It aggregates blog updates and pull them to your news reader to be read at your convenience. Really, this is more of a productivity tool than anything else although I'd hardly call keeping track of various blogs productive :-)

(Hmm... I'm starting to feel like I'm pontificating or something) Now, in case it hasn't sunk in how incredibly useful this tool is. Check this snap shot carefully.


Notice anything special? Yep, a single repository for all your favorite blogs. Blue means number of unread articles. Red means new post based on chronological order. How's that for productivity? :-) I use Akregator from KDE. For Windows check here. For Mac check here. Or just use Google Reader. Bonus points: you also avoid those bling-bling that bloggers are so fond of.

3. Google Alerts. These are alerts sent to you based on the search items that you've defined. Technically, this is not really a blogging tool, mostly just one of those tool you keep handy for some nefarious end (kidding :-)). So let's say you want to keep track of particular topic or update from any of the web sites, news, blogs or mailing lists (even video sites), this tool will track it for you. If any of these sites posted your "search items" an email notification is sent to you. I use it as personal tracker for any mentioned of my name in the web, you'd be surprise the things it can track and come up with. The little tool that could. So... wanna track your High School principal? Yep, this tool is badass.

New Year and Resolution!

Ho ho ho! 2009 is here, time for your fav wish list/new year's resolution. As usual, I have accumulated quite a list (most of them being freshly recycled from last years' old resolutions) hmm... pero teka teka the problem with starting with a bang is that you're most likely to end up with a thud. So what I'll do is just list down the most 'manageable' resolution, nothing fancy or overly imaginative and just stick to it come hell or high tide.

• Run 3x a week using the FIRST method
  
• Do a marathon in 2009 (two if I can do the above consistently)
• Blog more (5 or more post a month)
  
• 2009 is flat out going to rock!
  

There, it shouldn't be that difficult for a serial procrastinator jologs from the block like myself.

Happy New Year and Happy Running Everyone! See you all at the races!

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Mga Kapatid!

Wishing you all Happy Holidays. May you have a joyous and meaningful celebration.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Everyone!

Christmas Get-Together with Running Friends/Bloggers

Last Monday was the get-together of the many runner-friends-blogger folks at Italianni's. Great food, great conversations, great fun, and great people! Since pictures can speak for themselves, here are the pics (mostly stolen from Wilbert, thanks bro! :-).


Vimz, Jaymie, Doray, Tiffin, Jaimie, Abby, Gigi, Que, Rio, Jun, Jinoe, Hector, Vener, Taki, Vince, Gene, Dingdong, Ben, Jay, Dindo, Bard, Philip, Vina, Bro J, Mark, Wilbert, Mesh, Mikey, Aljo



With Mesh, Gigi, Jinoe, Que and Taki


Two of the lovely ladies at the dinner party.


With Taki.


With Philip and his wife.


I'm a Ninja, I'm there somewhere.

Fun Run for Cancer Warriors

Running dudes and dudettes, a bit last minute but if you're looking for race with a cause to run, check out this race.

Name: Rotary Club of Quezon City Circle Fun Run
Distance: 15kms and 7kms
Venue: SM Fairview (until San Jose, Bulacan)
Date and Time: 14th Dec (Sunday) at 6am

Registration starts at 5am, Race starts at 6am

(there is on-site registration, registration fee is P15o)

Prizes for 15kms:

• First: Php 10,000 and all-expense paid to Taiwan Full Marathon
• Second: Php 7,000
• Third: Php 5,000
  

Prizes for 7kms:

• First: Php 7,000
• Second: Php 5,000
• Third: Php 3,000

For inquiries, please contact Mr. Bing Quite at 09289698028 or 09165122208

32nd Milo Marathon Finals (10Kms)

First some few words: Good luck to all those running in Singapore this Sunday! Go get 'em folks!
---

As usual, should have done this earlier in the week but didn't so this is post is already getting dated. I'll make it short :-)

First off, I went in to this race to do my recovery run. I haven't run since the New Balance Power Race 2 weeks ago. I tried to a week after, but my knees were still giving me some problems so I thought it prudent to rest it for another week. With plan marathon on February 2009, I'm a bit paranoid on getting waylaid by a training injury. Better slightly under-prepared but a bundle of energy than over train and an injury waiting to happen.

Aniways, almost missed this one, because of late registration on my part. The same lady handling the registration is still in her same agitated self :-) but that's ok Ma'am, with so many people trying to register at the last minute and in our usual Pinoy makulit fashion, I would be too. In any case, the 32nd Milo Marathon is well organized and well handled, kudos to Mr. Rudy Biscocho and his team of organizers. I'll have to chalk this up to my OK race, not as memorable as the last Milo race but still ok.

The plan going into the race was to run slow and steady and let my legs acclimatize back to it's running form. My concern going in was the two weeks of non-running might have some dire impact on my running. During the race I did feel sluggish for the first 5 kilometers but the dull pain in my knees wasn't as noticeable. After 6th kms, hardly notice it. It was a good race, not the most eventful but that's Ok. Well, except for that brief moment of _eliteness_ when the leading marathoner pass me. Hehe, standing on the shoulder of giants so to speak :-) as soon as he was beside me I tried to run with him. The idea was to run with him until the Finish Line and then wave to the adoring crowd, it's evil I know, but that was the plan :-) Or at least until the support crew wise-up and tried to shout discouragement my way. Heh, since the I didn't show the slightest care to whatever they're shouting themselves hoarse, I wonder what they would have done. Ahh... but that was before my knees betrayed me :-( It was 42.2kms run and the lead guy is still doing 4.20ish pace/km and I can only keep up for 600 meters or so... lame ... very ... I know. Dude, I'll race you next lifetime!

It's probably the tail-end of the racing season, I'll see if any of the December races will caught my attention, if not, will probably be my last race for the year. After this race, I'll just take a few days rest then go full blast to marathon training.

By my watch, I clocked the following time:

Distance: 10.26 kms
Time: 1:04:31
Pace: 6:17/km

Here are some of the pics at the race:

With my two posse (left) CJ, the mean-eating Ben 10 and Paolo, the Mystic Force Overdrive Ranger #1


Family pic of my gorgeous Ading, with hubby and two kids.

#3 Todo Stuff Before Getting Married

[Note: This was mentioned by a couple of readers but haven't really took note of it until now. Apparently, if you're using Windows/Internet Explorer, the pics in my blog only shows up as microscopic thumbnail (you have to squint to see it) as opposed to smaller size picture that are still reasonably viewable. I use Linux/Firefox combo so haven't really notice it. In any case, just point your mouse on the picture and click on it. This should enlarge it. 'hope this helps.]

I've been really slack in posting stuff on my blog. That's because it takes me a while to post a single article. A normal post/article for me takes at least 4 hours. An hour to scribe the idea, an hour to make it into some coherent, readable article, and then at least 2 hours to finalize it (I always get bog down on whether I'm supposed to use "in" instead of "on" or incorrectly using past/present tense, etc). It ain't easy boys and girls. My Ading (Ading is an Ilocano word for younger sibling) keep telling that I should at least proof-read my articles before posting it (unfortunately, critiquing your own work is easier said than done since errors, syntax or otherwise is not as obvious).

Aniweys, I thought I'd post a quickie article that doesn't take too much brain cells. My list of TODO stuff before I tie-the-knot, settle down, and live blissfully ever after and into the wonderful world matrimony and monogamous relationship. Number 3 (but in no particular order) in my list TODO stuff before getting married is rock climbing! Wuhoo!

This was something I was into before I got into running. It's physically and mentally demanding, but serious kickass! After work, I'd hop into my bicycle and head over to Kangaroo Point with a couple of guys at work and hit the rocks and the fräuleins and mademoiselles that hang out at the scene (Hehe, joking :-))

Hey Spidey baby, this is how you do it.


First, No Fear.


Then, look cool.


Then see if you can pull those Asthanga moves from master Yoda teaching yoga.


Is the Force with you?


Yes? No? Just take a deep breath...



Then shout for help. Saklolo!


Hmm... you ok up there junior?


The rock walls (man-made) at Kangaroo Point.


At the local wall climbing gym, but not too often though since it's Besides, wall climbing at the gym is very much like running on treadmills at the gym (a poor second choice).

Hey, tomorrow's going to be the Milo Finals, one the major running events in Manila. I'll be running in 10K category, my recovery run (and my first run since the NB race two weeks ago). See you all there people!

New Balance Power Race 25Km

25Kms of hard running, some crawling but no walking!

The much anticipated out-of-town race of the year is the New Balance Power Race 25km in Clark. Everyone seems to have ticked off this event in their race calendar and rightly so, as this one of the really great races of the year. The venue was well-chosen and well-provision, weather-perfect and organizers up to par. As this is my first 25K and my longest run so far, it easily qualify as one of my great races.

The race was in Clark which is a new race venue for me, since I'd hate to drive there and find my way on race day I booked a hotel accommodation inside Clark Zone. On Saturday, I picked up Wayne from Makati and then hook-up with Mon Domingo and other members of Happy Feet (hehe, I managed to get myself invited to a pre-race party). We did a convoy, with me was Wilbert and Wayne (great conversation guys!). In Tarlac, we meet up with Jinoe/Queenie (takbo.ph) before heading to Tanya's place for one great pre-race party.

At Tanya's place, there was heaps of food, so much to eat, very little time. A special treat for me was the buro-lite and the stuff frogs, yummy bear! I haven't had those in years. Hehe, I got an invite to stay the night (with other Happy Feet) but I've already booked the hotel accommodation sayang (Tanya pretty please, can I get an invite again next year? :-)). After the party, we head back to Clark. Since I'm pretty clueless in this place, I just tailgated Rosselle and her friend Willy back to Clark. We had to circle SCTEX a couple of times to find our way, so a bit late when we got to the hotel.

Woke at up 3:40am, as this is my longest race to date, I kept to my my pre-run rituals. Over-hydrate (so I don't have to make a pit stop during the race), yoga/asana stretch, quickie download at the toilet, pre-race banana-load before heading out to the registration area. Saw a number of blogger-runner folks so took it as opportunity for photo-ops. Now this is where it always gets dicey. Over-hydrating means I gotta take a leak a couple of times before the race, normally I'd just find a wall and drill a hole in it with my superpowers (if no handy portalet or there's long queue). But today's race venue is closer to nature, a wide swath of greenery and foliage around us, down-to-earth so to speak. So walked further up, and under the cover of darkness, I took out my weapon of choice and gave Mother nature the shower of love.

After which, I headed to the starting area with the rest of the runners. There was a few minutes delay but that's alright, they're probably calibrating the RFID timing chips. Then we're off to a slow jog before runners found their own pace at the first kilometer. Prior to the race, I was thinking of using my old Timex watch for one last race, but I don't want to risk bonking out like at the last KOTR 21k so chuck it instead for spanking new Garmin 405. Yeah bebe! (Actually I wasn't too keen to use it since I haven't had the chance to tinker it - just enough to use it but not enough to be comfortable in it). First few kilometers was uneventful so I settled down to my race pace.

At kilometer 9th, I saw dyosa ng kagandahan and her sporting bib# 218x run past me. This was the very same super-chick who I run in to at the Adidas KOTR 21k and still looking divine in those very short shorts. For the next 6 kms or so, I tried to keep pace, run by her side, sometimes ahead but mostly just draft behind her. So there we are, couple of guys behind, thanking our lucky star for this flash of encouragement and inspiration. (But Honey baby, you gotta stop fiddling with your hair, you're driving us crazy, you're hot enough as it is). Soon she tired out of her blistering pace and had to slow down. Sayonara dyosa mia, next time, I'll slow down for you.

At kilometer 18th to 21st, I was running behind troika of Doralicious, Coach Rio and Bullrunner. Now this is the part where we had to run 4kms of straight but gradual ascent, grabe, ang lakas ng dalawang girls na ito. Killer looks na, killer legs pa. I thought I'd crawl up those supposedly 'manageable' uphills, barely kept up with the girls (actually they left me behind). Thankfully, there was the downhill after, where I manage redeem myself since these girls are still keeping up the same pace. Of course once the terrain flatten out, they run past me again. And to rub salt to my wounded pride, that super-chick with legs na nakakasilaw I thought left behind in kilometer 16th, effortlessly zing pass me... (Honey, we gotta stop meeting like this).

On the last 2 kilometers, I caught up with girls. Man! it was the last 2 kms, as lovely as these ladies are, no way I'm gonna get _chick_ to the finish line. A man's gotta have his pride. And so with my quads bursting, knees wobbling, and cramps about to kill me, I gave it my one last bestest shot, the HE-MAN finishing run!

< WUHOO! AND THE CROWD GOES WILD! >

By my watch, I clocked the following:
Distance: 25.07Kms
Time: 2:33:38
Pace: 6:08 km

Pheidippides my brother, hear me and rejoice, soon I will be with thee in spirit, for I WILL BE RUNNING MARATHON!

Memorable Moments:
- Running the whole 25Km race. F**king Awesome Experience!
- Meeting new folks from the running/blogging community. Johnny (Johnny's Run), Baldrunner, Levy (Happy Hour), Philip (ForeignRunner), Vener (Run Unltd), Jinoe/Queenie (Takbo.ph), Wilbert (vballrunner), Jerry (HighAltitude), BugoBugo, Annie (the perennial age category winner), Mon Domingo, Tanya, Roselle and other folks from Happy Feet. Actually, there's more but I don't recall (my bad) all their names. Very Nice! Some of the supermoms I was hoping to meet but didn't the chance was Annalenemb (meekrunner), Nora and MJ (but I think they skip this race).

Couple of things strikes me at this race:
- One thing about the local races these days is that they're _all_ kickass, well-organized, well-provision race. If you backtrack the last 10 races or so, you'd be hard-pressed to find a race that didn't deliver. Man, woe on the future race organizers who can't keep up and deliver on race day.
- One of the off-shoot of the running boom community is parallel boom in runner blogger community. If you check, most of the rockstar running blogs made their debut last year, with the rest following suit this year. Probably safe to say that one of the many tell-tale tipping point in today's running boom is the number of runners blogging it.
- Since it always good to see and bump into a familiar face (even if it's virtual) at the races, there's an air festivities (I suppose all those after-race endorphin rush) among runners. Really, weekend races are more like catching up, beso-beso, after-race run with other runners and breakfast. All fine by me.
- Maybe it's just me, but _most_ of the runner-bloggers seem to be more or less on the same level of running (except for some like baldrunner). A lot of them got serious about their running this year and run their first long 10k race, then proceeded to their milestone run of 21k and 25k this year (a few will be will running their first marathon late this year or a number of us early next year). Give or take a few minutes difference in their run time for a given distance.

Here are some of the pics for the New Balance Power Race at Clark:


What can I say? I got an uncanny talent for getting invited to the coolest parties :-) Wayne with Happy Feet.



Yummy Pics:
1. Smörgåsbord of Filipino delicacies, plenty more that wasn't shown on the pic.

2. Tanya said these are called Ben10 (or something). Basically, these are little frogs that you skin and deep fry with some stuffing. Supposed to taste like chicken but really tasted more like a pork. We have something similar in Pangasinan, but we cooked it Adobo-style but I like this better though. I had 3 or 4, would have come back for more, kaya lang after my 4th round, na shy naman ako, (pero ganuon talaga ako, mahiyain kung minsan).

3. That's my first round plate. There's grilled hito, ben10, paella, buro-lite with mustasa leafs, plenty of green salad. Veggie load before the race, carbo load after the race. The buro-lite was a really nice touch, I thought that was a delicacy peculiar among Ilocanos/Pangasinan. The version that we have in Pangasinan is a bit stronger, more oily and leave a weird aftertaste (heads-up though, those buro we have in Pangasinan is an acquired taste, its not as lite or cosmopolitan as those served by Tanya. Really, this is the first time I've seen it served in cold hors d'oeuvres with mustasa leafs and a bottled of wine- in Pangasinan we normally eat it with rice, viands, sabaw and softdrinks). Love your cooking Tanya! Merci pour le soir enchanteur.

4. Happy Feet digging in. Galit-galit mo na.


Woot! Woot! Ms Tanya Lara! The very lovely and gracious host of Happy Feet party. 'missed your cooking already! Alam mo, na shy naman ako when you ask me if I wanted to bring home some pabaon from your very sumptuous handaan. But if you ask me twice, mawawala din yun. Muchos gracias for the take home bananas, baguettes, driving us back to SCTEX and for the invite!


With Roselle, the Running Diva. I loving singing too, kaya lang I sing mostly when I'm in church, where people are more forgiving.


Philip (ForeignRunner) and his lovely friend from the Missionary (I think), *sigh* ... just as well Lord. But Philip my good man, that was one mean running, not too many of us runner-bloggers can catch up with you. And to think you used to have weight problems.


Roselle, Johnny, Wayne, yours truly, Dindo and his signature bandana. Hey Johnny, just to let you know, meron din akong konting naitatagong acting talent (I won a couple of acting awards when I was in Grade 2 school), baka lang kailangan ng Star Cinema ng mga kontrabida, pede tayo duon.


Whoa! Doralicious, you look luscious :-) And looking hot in those singlet! Where did all those Crispa Pata and extra rice go?


Loved this pic (stolen from Doralicious' blog). That's me, a true-to-life pic while I was about to cross the finish line. Behind me was Coach Rio, Doralicious, unnamed runner, Jaymie (Bullrunner).



Happy people of Happy Feet! It was great hanging out with you guys.


See those dreadlocks? Ito ang tunay lalaki na may tunay na dreadlocks. Sing bangis ng mga Habigis! (iconic singing group in the 70's) Don't mess with this dude, this is one mean hombre. Hehe, ser Edwin kita uli sa next race :-)


See that small watch on my left wrist? Garmin 405, yan ang sikreto ng mga gwapo, hindi skin whitener! Gagandang lalaki ka pag yan suot mo.


One of the icons in Manila's running scene. Paglaki ko gagayahin ko si Baldrunner! (pero actually may edad na ko eh).


Santa baby, I've been a good boy this year, can I have these two sweetheart for Christmas? Promise, no spanking unless they've been naughty and bad. And Santa, is it OK not to share?


After race breakfast with Wilbert, Dindo, and Wayne.

Mga kapatid, see you all at the next race!

Dinner out with other runner bloggers

Clockwise: Jaymie (Bullrunner), Dindo (RunningDATcom), Wayne (SFrunner), Doray (Doralicious), yours truly, Erik (Run4Change), Bards (BananaRunning), Jay (Prometheus Cometh)


Clockwise: Marga (Changeling Child) Jaymie (Bullrunner), Dindo (RunningDATcom), Wayne (SFrunner), Doray (Doralicious), Jay (Prometheus Cometh), yours truly, Erik (Run4Change), Bards (BananaRunning)

This was last Monday night, dinner out with Wayne (who's visiting Manila) and other runner bloggers at Centro restaurant in Greenbelt 4. Great time to swap stories with other bloggers, even got to talked to one of the local running scene's icon, The Bullrunner (or at least for the whole 12 seconds for us to say hi and hello's :-)). Except for Bards, first time to meet everyone and like Wayne said, great group of people. Food was also great, except for the vivacious Doralicious and I, everyone kinda restraint themselves from the mouth-watering and sinfully delicious but smokin hot deadly Crispy Pata. Hey Ms Doray, next time extra serving tayo plus sizzling pork at chicharon! No SURRENDER! Matira matibay at walang hypertensions!

Hey Greenbelt is really nice, last time I was there was like 3 or 4 years ago, now I barely recognized the place. It's really setup more like the malls in States and Australia, where it's more open air and outdoorsy. Very saucy, very posh, hardly any traces hoi polloi-ness (definitely not place to rub elbows with tiange at pawisin crowd, I'm super-jologs talaga PERO DI BALE, takbo naman ako bukas sa New Balance 25K race hehe :-) See you there people!