My early morning Sundays are usually most often than not reserved for running or mtbiking activities with friends. This morning became almost an exception. ”Almost” because I woke up at 4am at the sound of the alarm but feeling sleepy and lazy, decided to sleep a few minutes more - resulting to me waking up and panicking at 4:50 am, giving me and Art a little over an hour to prepare and travel to the Fort for Robinson’s Fit & Fun Buddy Run. If I have not thought that this is Art’s anniversary run (he first tried running at last year’s buddy run because I needed a buddy to run with!) and also, joining this run means we will be in the company of many of our good running friends, I might have not woken him up and just returned back to sleep. But NO, this should not be the case since we both have looked forward to running this Sunday. So wake him i did and we moved at a record time of 45 minutes and was lucky to have arrived at the race venue a few minutes before 6 a.m.

pre-run photo with Vince, Miguel, Jaymie, Mariel, Bobby, me, Jun and Ipe

with "running classmate" Marcia Gokongwei who we dearly miss
It was a great decision really because runners were blessed with a good morning weather to run and as expected, friends were there to make the day brighter.
The race did not start exactly at 6 a.m. which gave us enough time to meet Bobby and Mariel who will be running the 5k too – they together with JunC, Aljo and Tin already ran a few laps earlier around the area. The 5k will supposedly be the last lap they are about to do for the day.

running with Bobby and Mariel (with Art taking our pic)

along Old Lawton Ave infront of the American Cemetery
It was fun mainly because Art and I made it our objective to just run at an acceptable pace – with no pressures on achieving any PR nor conscious of a particular target finish time. Bobby and Mariel run with us all throughout the route with Mariel’s solemate, Jun taking on the 10k distance together with the rest of our friends Vince, Jaymie and Miguel. The 5k route was relatively flat with only a portion of Lawton Ave (up to Essensa) providing the elevated challenge. We finished at a fairly acceptable time (acceptable for a “kulit” runner like me, lol!) and with our hands full with a lot of goodies upon exiting the finish chute. We looked like as if we went grocery shopping with our heavy loot bags and many other give-aways.

post-run pic with Art

with Bobby, Mark, Tiffin, Aljo, Tin, Ben, Mariel, me and Ipe
Post-race was characterized with the usual photo-ops, chit-chats and then capped by the usual breakfast at Pancake House. During breakfast conversation varied from future Finishline race schedules, Garmins, the Nike Sportsband 2.0 which Jaymie and Miguel already both have
, the upcoming Globe Run for Home race, the Runnr Store’s launch and also a lot of other running and non-running related topics. It was really fun, fun, fun!

Breakfast at Pancake House with our friends
Oh and of course, we finally got our very own copy of the second edition of The Bull Runner magazine (with Drew Arellano at the cover) straight from Jaymie, The Bulll Runner herself. The magazine has greatly improved as compared to its predecessor – print is better (colors are more vibrant) and pages have almost doubled – meaning more running items to read and learn/discover. I am happily keeping (and safely at that!) my copies since these serve as my “running handbook” – what with all reliable facts about running training, form, nutrition, gears, race schedules and running directory. I am even planning to create an index of topics that can be found in the issues for easier reference whenever the need arise. My favorite part of all will always be the cover feature. Why? Because it not only provides a “get-to-know-our-cover-runner-better” info but most of all the article gives me inspiration to love running more. So whenever I feel too lazy to run or even think of running, I will definitely turn to the articles to help me get out of the no-running rut that I am in and try to rekindle my interest. I know it will work, i just know it will.
Haven’t secured your free copy of the magazine yet? Check out Jaymie’s blog post about the magazine’s second issue for information on where and when to get one.

my TBR magazine copies (Issue #1 at the left, Issue #2 at the right)
Art and I went home tired but happy. Our Sunday mornings have taken an all-together different shape (as well as our bodies!) eversince we started running and was acquainted with the friends we have now. But neither of us is complaining. Running provided us treasures we could not have ever imagine getting while we sleep or loaf around. Cheesy, but true!

my kids and I had a fun time checking out the oh so many loot bag contents!
Thanks to Robinson’s Supermarket and to eXtribe for organizing a good race.
More pics can be found here.