Gearing Up

It seems like there's no better way to end the summer than with a half-marathon. Despite the pain and inevitable humbling-experience, I'll be starting the new academic year with a 'bang', so to speak. Stay tuned.

I'll save it for a later post, but there is much to reflect on from these past couple of months. Needless to say, I am so grateful to have been back in Asia. The upcoming months and anticipation of big changes in my life is very exciting. Meanwhile, I'll bask in my being 'centered' for the first time in a while and make sure I exercise heroic time management skills :)

Here's a summary of my summer miles:

August: 27.9 Mi 4:29:59 hours
July: 18.5 Mi 2:55:17 hours
June: 50.9 Mi 7:52:08 hours
May: 58.1 Mi 10:47:32 hours

I can't wait to start catching up on my fellow running bloggers...thanks for keeping track of me, guys!

*Sending my best to all you fall marathoners*

P.S. Anna is about 2.5 years now and it's amazing that I can already predict a few of her future interests. She's a natural musician and dancer. *Shock* My musician brother is always impressed by her ability to sing songs in tune and how quickly she can pick up melodies in general.

Of course, she sees me run and play soccer so she's influenced by example :)

Take a look at my little runner.

Hang Over

To the left is a picture of our friends in San Pablo City, Laguna. NJ was a Fulbright fellow here in Michigan so of course, we had to go visit them on their stomping grounds. This picture was taken during the day -- before our day's adventure of white water rafting in Pagsanjan Falls. And BEFORE our night of debauchery.



It was my first time in San Pablo though I've been to Pagsanjan when I was younger. It's an out and back trip so you can just imagine what it's like to shoot UP the rapids. If you've never gone white water rafting Filipino syle, you AIN'T NEVER gone white water rafting...let's just say our guides are marathon ready and fearless. Either way, it's a beautiful trip and as usual, I took crazy pictures.


In the evening, we had more drinks than I've had all year at a very cute pub in downtown San Pablo. It turns out, after talking up the bartender/owner that the beautiful ambiance is due to his artistic filmmaker sensibilities. Good thing I noticed right away otherwise, I could have been in a dingy basement drinking and it wouldn't have mattered.

Of course it made sense to us to go for a run the next morning to 'sweat off the alcohol.' So, JJ took me on his 12K route around one of the seven lakes in San Pablo. It was beautiful. (Painful, but beautiful.)

He dragged me around at an 8:30 min/mil and was kind about all my complaining. Hey, the guy runs 40mpw! I doubt I've run 30 miles in the past month...

Good times. It was a great way to end my trip in Laguna. After hitting the showers, we headed back to Manila...

Dreading it for 5 miles

I have happily been in the same place for five days in a row now. A much needed respite to all the traveling in general but particularly, the madness that is Manila.

Despite living approximately 5 miles from UP Diliman and Ateneo, travel time there would take at least an hour of life threatening maneuvering.

Enough said, right?

For once, I am truly appreciating suburbia and my ability to get some work done. (But since this is more of a running blog, I won't go there right now.)

I'm pretty sure that my failure to get my scheduled miles in have contributed to an unusual threshold of impatience regarding the heat and traffic. Despite the cleaner air out here, however, I've opted to run on my cousin's treadmill.

And don't think I didn't crank up the air conditioning. Because I did.

5 miles | 45:33 time | 9:06 min/mil

Did I still sweat like hell, you ask?

You bet your ass I did. Because it's effing humid out here DESPITE the air conditioning.

Trust Yourself

In a world where reason and logic seem to get you where you need to go, it's easy to ignore those feelings that sit at the pit of your stomach.

Despite the effort. Despite the sincerity. Despite the love. Sometimes, the world is just as it should be when things are not right. Sometimes, the-best-in-you is not inspired by the circumstances. And the bigger person in you will always let go.

It's times likes these that allow us to be grateful for the relationships and moments in life that are in place. That do bring out the best in and inspire us. And that hopefully equip us with the tools to confront the difficult in life.

Through it all. Despite any pain and disappointment. I must always trust myself.

Reality Check

I've given up the fool's errand of a sub 2:00 half marathon at the Rock N' Roll in Virginia Beach. I knew going in that a significant chunk of my training would take place in the Philippines but my notorious ambition ignored this slight obstacle. It won't get me down but with about 4 weeks until race day my new goal will be to just enjoy the festivities of the race and to not get too competitive with LCT :)

Below is a summary of my runs since I've been in Asia. It's painful to record here but hey, part of this blog's purpose is to keep me honest so...eh, here it goes:

July 3 2007 - Run with cousin MCP
2.0 miles

Jul 6 2007 - Solo run in Taiwan
2.1 miles | 18:05 time | 8:36 min/mil

Jul 8 2007 - Solo run in Taiwan
2.16 miles | 18:27 time | 8:31 min/mil

Jul 19 2007 - Run with LNJ
2.09 miles | 22:01 time | 10:30 min/mil

Jul 20 2007 - Run with LNJ
3 miles | 27:27 time | 9:56 min/mil

Jul 25 2007 - Solo run in Phils
3 miles | 26:48 time | 8:59 min/mil

Jul 31 2007
4.16 miles | 37:29 time | 8:59 min/mil

Aug 1 2007
3 miles | 26:19 time | 8:50 min/mil

Total : ~ 18 Miles out of my scheduled 87 miles!!

Holy !@#$&*!!!

To be fair, however, I'm proud of the fact that I've gotten my ass out of bed as much as I have given the fact that both in Taiwan and the Philippines at around 5am, it's a 'cool' 85 degrees and humid as all hell! Also, despite a crazy aerobic adjustment of running in some serious smog along the river banks, I've managed to keep up my base level of fitness...definitely not race ready but good enough if I keep things up or increase my mileage until I head back to the U.S. just in time for the half.

Damn this blog and 'keeping me honest' crap...

As they say around here: Mabuhay!!