Cool!!! Leadville 100!

In the words of Mikey: Asteeeeeeggggg!!!

Check it out here.

Dean's Cup Triathlon

Before last weekend, I had done exactly 1 Triathlon before. Last September during the UPLB leg of the Speedo NAGT.

Since then, I've always wanted to do another one, but ultra marathons and injures got in the way of that.

However, some time ago after watching one to many IronMan Kona videos, my friend Hector and I decided that this is the year we would rekindle our love affair with triathlon by doing the White Rock Triathlon this year.

Which is why I found myself in the start line of the Dean's Cup, a 750m swim-20km bike-5km run, sprint distance triathlon.

My swim started off pretty well, Hector, Neville, and I started in the 4th wave, which luckily had the least amount of participants. By sheer luck, I also found myself near the front of the pack when the race was started, from there I just took off and manage to stay ahead of the pack, thereby avoiding the dreaded "washing machine".

Washing Machine!

3 loops and 16 minutes later, I got into my pink floral tsinelas and made the long run to the transition area.

Check out the slippers!

A quick change of footwear and a shot of GU and I was on the bike and of to start 8 (Yes, 8!) loops of the UP academic oval.

Being a mountain biker by blood, I knew that the bike portion would be the hardest for me, even though I've been road biking for a few months now, the skinny tires and tiny cogs still make life difficult for me. Though I am slowly gaining confidence in it and my legs seem to be starting to adapt to the different gearing.

but for now, my strategy was to survive the bike portion in 1 piece and try not to lose to much time.

Just for fun... I dropped my water bottle trying to put it back in the cage on my 4th lap, which meant I had no hydration. I never even considered going back for it... mustn't lose time, remember. Besides It was an old bottle and the bite was getting fiddly.

To top it all off, an over-aggressive shift lead to my chain slipping off the crank on my penultimate lap. In the minute or so that it took me to uncleat, step off, place the chain back on, get back on the bike, try to re-cleat, comically slip of the pedals, re-engage and go, Hector managed to over take me.

If I wasn't racing him then... I was now!

We managed to catch up with one another in transition. Hector was on his way out, as I made my way in.

"This is it! You and Me!" I said to him as he left.

In hindsight I shouldn't have said it. Probably gave him fuel to run faster.

Unfortunately, that was the closest I got to him for the rest of the run, the late morning hear making it a bit though for me to run and I was constantly pouring water on myself at every aid station.

Hydrate! It can get pretty hot out there in the Big Island of UP! Hehe (Sorry, Inside Joke)

26 long minutes later I found myself near the finish line, which unfortunately Hector managed to cross 2 minutes ahead of me.

Of course, being the sport that he is, he stayed in the sidelines to cheer me on and as a fellow sporting gesture, I gave him the universal sign for a job well done and I passed him...

Its nice to see competitors respect one another. It's what the spirit of Triathlon is all about.

The very serious Team Second Wind

P.S. Thanks to Tania, Migs, and Eng. Carlos for the pictures. The great thing about having alot of friends, is that you have alot of pictures! Especially if they all have fancy dSLRs and one of them is a professional photographer!

P.S.S. The best thing about the triathlon came after the event. When we had gone home already. We didn't stay around for the brunch and awarding anymore as Neville has some pressing concerns.

We didn't expect to take home anything anyway, as we were sure the level of competition was much higher than we anticipated.

Imagine then, our surprise when our friend T.J. informed us that we had won 8th and 10th place overall and that he would be dropping the medals of at the shop!

Wow! My 1st medal! I haven't had one of this since grade school! Now I'm even more excited to join the next tri!

See the full results here.

Nike Philippine "Flag" Advertisement

I was every surprised seeing this billboard of Nike on C5. It is seemingly depicting the Philippine flag, but the red portion is on top.

As everyone knows, the Flag Code aka Republic Act 8491, Section 10, clearly states:

The flag, if flown from a flagpole, shall have its blue field on top in time of peace and the red field on top in time of war; if in a hanging position, the blue field shall be to the right (left of the observer) in time of peace, and the red field to the right (left of the observer) in time of war.

I know basketball is a very serious sport here and we follow the participation of our National Team abroad with fervent enthusiasm. But to say that we are at war over this is taking it a little to far, don't you think? :)

Second Wind Run Clinic at Blue Wave Mall Marikina

Hector Yuzon, president and proprietor of Second Wind running store was invited to give a talk to employees of Blue Wave Mall Marikina. Read about it on the Second Wind Website.

Yihieee! Spotted at Second Wind

Ang cute naman ng heart!!! Hehe

I'm sure everyone knows the story by now... for those who have been living under a rock, check this out.

My Ironman 70.3 Swim Relay Experience

"This is alot harder than I thought!"

...was the 1st thought which popped into my head around 300 meters into my reconnaissance swim on Saturday morning.

Having done all of my training and multi-sport racing in a swimming pool, having to go 600 meters into one straight swoop was very, very new to me and it was a challenge that I have to admit I underestimated. Add to that the disorienting feeling of not being able to see the bottom of the low visibility lake, meant that I had to try doubly hard... just to stay on course!

By the end of the 1.2 recon swim of Lago del Rey, I was pretty confident I had a rudimentary swim-stroke-sight maneuver thing going down, but I was really far from confident for the race day. I know my team mates prepared hard for this. I didn't want to let them down...

Oh well, I had committed to this, so there was no turning back!

RACE DAY!

Having slept most of yesterday afternoon and evening, I was wide awake for at 4am for the 7:10 relay start, so I made the most of my time.

So I had a leisurely breakfast of everything in the buffet table, took a shower back at the room, changed into my Speedos, got body marked and tried to figure out a way to release the butterflies in my stomach.

R416!

Before I knew it, it was almost 7 am and we were being corralled into the pre starting nipa hut. There I didn't feel as nervous anymore as I was making jokes with Angel, July, and Berns, all fellow relay swimmers, all of whom were former or current varsity swimmers.

Hmmm, I hope people don't judge me by the talent around me!

The 1st part of the swim was everything I heard it would be. Despite the relatively smaller number of swimmers for the relay, there were definitely some unintentional hitting and kicking involved. I remembering having to make a full stop at least twice in the 1st 200 meters as I got cut my this guy twice, as he made his way diagonally across the swim course.

Right around the 1st turn around the field around me started to spread out and I got some free space. Around this time the 1st of my troubles began. One the way to the turn around, my stroke-sight technique worked well enough, helped by having people around me whom I could watch. On the way back, the sun's glare made sighting the far end difficult and this problem was compounded by my getting water into my goggles. Dang! I was gonna be one of those diagonal guys on the way back.

Eventually I made it back to the crossover point and I made the short run over to the cable park lake with no problems.

Once in the water though, I did I double take. Literally! having not swam the pool the day before, the moment I dove into the pool I saw nothing but green! I closed and opened my eyes quickly to be sure I wasn't seeing things. sure enough, algae or something made underwater visibility almost nothing! A person could be swimming beside you and you wouldn't know it until they hit you!

Amazingly, the 1st thought which came to my head was...

MUST NOT

SWALLOW

ANY OF THE

WATER!

After which I thought, shit this will be hard.

To make a long story short, I struggled with that loop, running into people, making the most of my breast stroke technique to find my way around.

But I eventually made it to the end! Boy! I tell you, for a 1.8 kilometer race, I was never so glad to finish! That was one of the the longest 48 minutes of my life!

I standing up dead tired, when the cheers of my friends and fellow competitors(who had finished way, way before I did) reminded me that I was still in a race, so I quickly broke out of my dazed stupor and ran into the relay tent, where my team mates Dandan and NVP were waiting. A quick hand off of the transponder a few seconds later and my part was done!

After catching my breath. I made my way back to the room. Took a crap. Had a long, long, hot shower to get ride of any lake residue and headed for the Mcdonalds van.

Around 2 hours later, I made my way back to the relay tent to assist Dandan and NVP in the hand off and then made my way to the finish to watch Terenzo Bozzone take 1st from Macca!

But the real highlight of the race for me was around an hour later, when Dandan surprised me by how early he made it to the finish. A 1:30 21k run quickly erased whatever swim deficit I left them with and gave up a top ten finish for the all male category, behind the super teams of Timex, Camsur Tri and D.O.T.

Not a bad way to cap off a great race!

P.S. Check out the running form of the runner of Relay Team winners Timex-Runrio. 1:27 half marathon time! He's probably not human.

He's not touching the ground in this pic.

Apparently, they also doesn't have to drink water in his planet! Hehe

An Open Letter to Fellow Important Running People

Hello Fellow Important Running People (Shoe Suppliers, Race Organizers, etc. You know who you are.)

As you can see, I have a blog...

... therefore, aside from now being filled by an overwhelming sense of pompous self-importance, I should get invited to the big events and get free stuff.

You guys know the drill, I have a blog, ergo I am now important, my opinions (which are voraciously read by at least 3 people, one of whom I think I am not related too, every single week!) matter. So therefore because of my blog power, you guys should give me thousands of pesos of free goodies.

I held up my end of the bargain, I'll wait for my free stuff now.

Sincerely,

Your brother-in-blogging.