The Walker Has Left the Building…

…more than that, the Walker has moved…to a different site. The Walker, you see, can’t stay in one cramped place for a long time…she needs a place that’s big enough for her to walk around in.

Now she has a place all her own.

So visit her at http://thewalkerootoo.blogspot.com …the Walker’s new home.

Urbanite Run Delight!

This is going to be my next race, the Kenny’s Open ’09 Urbanite Run!

Set for Aug. 15, 2009, Saturday, I’m all excited about this for a number of things…

1. It’s at night 🙂 My first time to race at night…cooler temp, lights around for a different race ambience…hopefully some glow in the dark stuffies…and perhaps a more festive air 🙂

2. Post race gimmik! 😀 I’m hoping there’s going to be some post-race LCLP or videoke!

3. I hear there’s a concert by Tribo Manila? 🙂 This ought to add to the light and bubbly race mood 🙂

4. Knee high socks! 😛 My first time to race in knee high socks, too…just a little fun-knee thing some Takbo.ph peeps thought of doing to add spice to the run…tuloy ba ito? Sabagay, I don’t mind being the only one in knee high socks in case you guys chicken (mind you, that’s Kenny Roger’s Roasters chicken!) out 😛 Bwahahahah!!

5. Nice and easy 5K run 🙂 No pressures for me…my goal for this race is to run the entire 5K without walk breaks…no matter how slow my time 🙂 But, if I can’t hack that, I don’t care 🙂 I’m running for the fun of it 🙂 Though, I might have to hurry…don’t want to be late for the LCLP! 😛 hahaha!!

6. The timing chip! 😀 My first ever encounter with that cute little gadget was at the Globe Run For Home. Needless to say, the post-race reporting was very interesting 🙂 Sure it had some glitches here and there, but over-all, this cutesy wootsey time chippy is definitely a helpful addition to races…it’d be nice if all races had this little thingiemajigsie 🙂

Details? Oh, I’m sure you guys already know…you’ve all probably registered already, too 🙂 If not, well, just click here (Takbo.ph details), here (Kenny Roger’s Page) or here (Gingerbreadman’s Report) .

Oh, yeah, those two guys from the Amazing Race…(lemme think for a while…) yeah…Mr. Marc Nelson and Mr. Rovilson (I’ve forgotten your first name…sorry…it ain’t you…it’s me) I hear are gonna be there…so I’m sure lotsa girls are quite excited about this, too! 🙂

The Longest Run of My Life

Today is July 29, 2009, Wednesday. Today I ran the longest run in my entire 34 years. Got to do an entire 3 kilometers running, without any walk-breaks, including uphills. I must say, I never thought I could ever, EVER do anything like this. The longest I could run before May of this year was maybe 1 minute…and that’s with difficulty. Now, I’m running almost 30 minutes straight. When I started this running thing, I was wondering when and how the improvement would come. I was honestly getting all frustrated. I’d reached 100 kilometers, and yet I couldn’t run for more than 5 minutes yet. I was just about to throw in the towel, call it quits and give up, thinking I’m not made for this. But friends kept telling me to hold on for a little while longer, be more patient, place no pressure on myself…and I’m glad I did. The improvement just came so suddenly. From running no more than 5 minutes straight, I could suddenly run a little over 1 kilometer without stopping to walk. That happened at BHS just last week. I was prepared for just an easy walk-run…no pressures…and I just found myself running, slowly, but still running…waiting for the time I’d start to lose my breath…but it didn’t come. Then yesterday, I ran 2.7 kilometers without any walk breaks, too…and like the previous run at BHS, I was anticipating the usual chest tightness and difficulty breathing, but, again, it didn’t come. Add to this was the relative ease with which I ran the uphills. I’m still wary about pushing myself…I don’t want to suddenly get an asthma attack…but I’m sensing I’m really improving now. I had to stop in the middle of running the second round’s uphills, but that’s alright…I knew I had other days to conquer it, so I let it go and walked to the top. Today, I did more than yesterday…conquered two rounds of uphills and ran an additional 600 meters. I noticed I run better and longer when I’m relaxed…when I’ve no expectations from myself or others…when I’m not pushing myself to achieve anything, when I just run for the sake of running. Today I ran the longest run of my life so far. I hope it’s not the last. For some reason, though, I’m quite certain it ain’t… 🙂

Ultrapat’s Solo Journey to Tagaytay

Winceth aka Patrick aka Pat aka Ultrapat came here to Tagaytay from Imus last Saturday, July 25, 2009…on foot (32 kms). He left Imus at around 4:30 am, and I started seeing his orange form bounding the uphill stretch of Aguinaldo Highway around 8:30 or 8:45am. We took a few pics (hmmm…I forgot to include myself in the pictures…dang it… 😛 ), had breakfast at Chowking, and I proceeded to my clinic, where I had 3 patients waiting na pala (the nurses’ fault…I told them to inform as soon as a patient arrives…they forgot)…got to take a look at Ultrapat’s optic nerve pa (how cool is that? I was curious to see if the secret to endless cardiovascular endurance and ultramarathoning success lay in the very depths of the eye…seems I’ll have to look elsewhere 😛 ). Syempre, di pa nakuntento si Ultrapat…nag-LSD ulit the following day sa Sta. Rosa Cardiac Hills naman! Lupit mo Ultrapat!! 😀

Delayed Gratification: Of Twilight and Running For Home

I just finished reading the book Twilight.  I’m sad.  I’d been reading it in installments just to prolong the nice “kilig” feelings 😛  Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not a Twilight fan…obviously…otherwise, I’d have read all four books in the series three times over by now.  And before you close this page and move on to another blog about running, this ISN’T going to be about Twilight the book or Twilight the movie, or some kind of book review.  It IS going to be about running, but you’ll have to be a little bit more patient…this is after-all, all about DELAYED GRATIFICATION ;D  So, going back…I just finished Twilight the book this morning.  I liked it.  The book, I mean.  I thoroughly hated the movie…okay, so that’s a little too strong…I didn’t like the movie…I found it cheesy and mushy and mucky and the leads had these weird expressions on their faces all the time, and…yeah…this isn’t going to be a movie review, too.  Okay.  Thing is, though, I was curious about the book…books are always better than the movies…so I decided to try the book out, give it a chance.  It was nice! 😀 I found that I hadn’t wanted to end the book too soon…so I read it in installments.  Now, though, I’m done, and I’m craving for the next one.  Last July 19, 2009, Sunday, I ran 5K at the Globe Run For Home.  I blogged about how bad I felt in that particular race in A Little Step Down…. The race started bad for me, and ended worse, with a perceived 5K time of 46 minutes. Fast forward to July 23, 2009, when the results came in. I wasn’t that excited, but I had this little twinge of hope that maybe I was looking at the wrong timer and had gotten a better time that I’d initially thought. So, in spite of myself, I checked the results. I wasn’t in it. My last name wasn’t listed. Just my luck. I needed my bib number…which was tucked away, crumpled (I told you I wasn’t feeling so good about that race) in a bag somewhere in my cluttered room here in Tagaytay. Great. That time I was checking my results, I was in Manila. I deliberated on whether or not to use up some load to call home, instruct lengthily to the helper, and use up some load again to call after a few minutes, all just to find out my race number. What the heck. I’d already been through the heartache anyway, confirming my suspicions wouldn’t be so bad. AND if for some unfathomable miracle I did make a mistake of looking at the wrong timer, I wanted the pick me upper at once, right then and there! So I finished up my load calling twice home, got my number and inputted it into the field. What do you know? All my self-bashing, lost confidence and self-pity that Sunday at the race were all for naught! I WAS looking at the wrong timer! 😛 I did do better that I’d expected! It was actually even a PR run for me! 😛 Instead on the 46 minutes I was crying over, I ran my 5K in 38.15 minutes 😛 I suddenly felt sooooo stupid, but in a very good way 😛 Sometimes they say it’s alright to be so down…because, then you’d have nowhere else to go but up 🙂 I couldn’t believe that more than on that particular day when I found out about my results and my happy mistake. I’d actually been mulling over quitting, or sticking to lower distances…and I couldn’t believe how nasty your decisions can get when your mind is so muddled with defeat and loss. So was this delayed gratification? You bet it was! This was even better than all the “kilig” I got from Twilight 😛 Lesson learned? Push on…believe in yourself, don’t run for the time, run to run, run because it’s fun, run because you can…because you STILL CAN…and lastly, look at the damned correct timer!!

As with the book, Twilight, this delayed gratification thing has got me craving…for more runs and more races! 😀 See you at the Urbanite!

My race result here 🙂

It’s funny that the results say, “you passed 3 runners…” then it goes, “289 runners passed you…” Hahaha!! I’m that slow! 😛 Still happy! 😀