A Message from New Balance – UPDATED

***UPDATE***

New Balance and eXtribe, the race organizer for the Power Run decided not to push through with the scheduled race tomorrow. The much-awaited race was rescheduled for Novermber 29 instead. See Jaymie’s blog post about it here – http://thebullrunner.com/2009/09/26/new-balance-power-run-postponed-to-nov-29-but-im-still-running/.

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Here is New Balance’s initial announcement regarding tomorrow’s New Balance Power Run Race (many thanks to Jaymie, thebullrunner for sending it to me via SMS) :

“We may postpone race because weather condition’s making it difficult to set up run. Race Director (is) exploring all options. Final call (will be) by mid afternoon.”

Will keep you posted guys in case an updated announcement is received.

Again, many thanks to Jaymie for the advise.

 

Praise for the NB Power Race

The New Balance Power Race is one of the much anticipated race event of the year. Gladly, the whole event itself did not disappoint. Although there were some boo-boos – race starting late because of the long queue to the start area entrance and awarding mistakes - the many great things about and in it more than made up for these.

With only two hours of sleep, Art and I are looking forward to having just a decent 10k finish. Two hours because me Art and our running friends, Aljo, Mayen, Mikey, Tin, Pen and Abby all agreed to just travel to Clark in the early morning of race day itself (read : 2am). Travel was fun though with Mikey providing comic relief – not me because my kulit mode was turned-off – and making sure that nobody will doze off to sleep. Talk about Kuya Germs, Mikey’s battlecry was “WALANG TULUGAN!”.  So much for my plans of having even a short nap.  

We arrived at Clark a little over four a.m. wherein we saw that some runners have slowly converged in the race area. Some of the early runners we saw were our dear friends and training classmates Lito and Carmen, runner blogger Dindo (DATC), Wayne, Coach Jords and Coach John who was with Doc Liboro who will be running the 25k. After getting their RFID timing chips which they were able to do without any hassles, our group proceeded to do our warm-up run and stretching exercises. 

upon our arrival @ Clark

At around 5:30 a.m, after emptying our bladders, we started to make a beeline to the Starting area wherein the 25K runners were ushered in first. They started at around 5:50 a.m., some 20 mins late from the original 5:30 am scheduled start time. At around 6:12 a.m., we the 10K runners were off.  I ran the race without much expectations except for the hopes of finishing it.

and then we were off!

At the onset, the race was being run on a fast pace that after about 400 meters, I decided to lower my pace and run with Art while Mayen and Tin slowly vanished from view. I have always been a slow starter but this assures me that I will have enough energy to still finish and also try not to give early pressure to my shins which can hurt uncomfortably. At the 3km mark, I started feeling a need to pee. This is a real problem since I cannot see any place I can go to be able to relieve myself. Bobby who i have started running with at this point is telling me to do just what the other guy runners do – either go behind a big tree or pee in the bushes. Shuddering at the thought, I tried to psyche myself that the need is not urgent and maybe, just maybe, doing it can be done after I cross the finish line. But then, a few meters before the 4km mark, I saw something that will make me dash for it. A portalet no less! Whew! What a relief, I was able to remove the excess fluids that wanted to escape my body from early on.

taking it easy on my way to tackling the uphill climb

The race course was generally hilly with a lot of downhill and uphill climbs. I tried to take advantage of the long downhill parts by running fast, sometimes running in sprints when I feel like I can. Reason why when I crossed the 5km turn-around for the 10K runners, my time registered as 35 mins, 3.41 minutes early from my 5KM best time. The last half was to be a real challenge because the originally long downhill roads now reverted into long uphill climbs. It took a toll on my shins which really started hurting. During this time, I started to do a slow jog, and fast walk combination and stopped making fast runs. At the last 2.5 kms, I found Tintin walking. I walked/ jogged with her until the last 300 meters or so wherein we sped up our running trying for a strong finish. I crossed the finish line happily with a time of 1:21:08 according to my Suunto. This is surprisingly over 3 minutes less than my 10K PR. Meaning this NB Power Race 10K exceeded my standard expectations! Huwaw! PR na naman. hehe!

Post race, we lingered on the race grounds/area having the time of our life consuming the many fruit freebies we had – bananas, free taste of DOLE pineapples and papayas, plus the limitless supply of bottled water. And of course, we had more than enough photo-ops everytime we see somebody familiar. Runners really are suckers for photo sessions! (peace and cheers co-runners!)

art after finishing his first 10K

giddy over my first ever finisher's medal with tintin and mayen keeping up with my kulit pose

This NB Power Race organized by Extribe deserves all the praises it is getting/will be getting from all the runners who joined it. From a 10k runners’ point-of-view, I will give them a star because of the following :

1. enough water stations with bottled water and 100 Plus sports drinks for the 10K runners (one near the 2.5km mark and the other at the turn around area)

2. portalet at the 4km distance (yahoo! for me)

3. visible distance markers

4. organized finish lines with properly marked chutes

5. finisher’s medal even for the 10k runners

6. bananas, water, sports and energy drinks given at the finish

7. lots of other freebies (which at some point became difficult to hold already, hehe)

8. photo booth for post-race photo-ops

9. recovery/stretching services handled by Fitness First

10. Free foot analysis by New Balance

my race bib, finisher's medal and photo souvenir

In addition, the skies smiled upon the race organizers and all runners as well because of the superb weather. The sky was cloudy making it more enjoyable to run without the presence of the sun’s heat. hay, I can go on and on with my raves about the race but I won’t anymore? Why? Heck, I still have a lot of pix to post that can equally tell of our NB Power Race experience!

cool down routine

art and tiffin stretching

with my Gold's Gym PT Chinggoy and his friend Mitch who won 1st place in her age group

jay,doray, nina, junc, wayne, coach rio, miguel, jaymie, me, mayen, friend and tin

sitted - yen, coach john and me; standing - art, charwil, bobby, tin, pen and friend

kulitan

joms, yen, tin, me, gold's gym fitness mgr boyet and pt

mikey, coach jords, me, coach john, yen, coach jo-ar and doc liboro

coach john, 25K 1st placer in the age 30-39 male category

students and coaches

doc gigi, yen, me, tin, pen, charwil and art with DON Rio (hehe!)

breakfast at Pizza Hut DAU

mikey - plastado on our way back to manila

view more photos here.

P.S. Special thanks JunC and Doc Gigi P. for some photos and to Aljo for making this NB Power Race possible for us. Next year ulet!

Running Fever in November

There’s a running fever in November! By now, maybe all runners from beginners to elite, old and young, serious and kulit (hmm, present!) may have clearly drawn-up running-related plans for almost every weekend of this month. If I am not mistaken, there is an average of two races happening for each weekend of November. Giving people in the running community a whole lot of choices on which race to participate in.

isang malaking check! done with reg for all three races!

For me and my running “classmates”, we have chosen to join the VSO Bahaginan Kabahagi Ako Fundraising Run on the 9th, the New Balance Power Race at Clark on the 16th (we’ll be running 10k)and the UNICEF Walk on the Child’s Side walk/run event on the 23rd (me, hubby and the kids we’ll be doing the 2k Walk).  Of course this choice is obviously based on the fact that the organizer for the VSO and UNICEF events is no other than our well-loved, kulot and now-SIKAT running coach – Rio dela Cruz. But hey, admit it folks, our coach has a good record in organizing runs so it really doesn’t matter if we chose his races over others right?  And oh, he really is sikat na - proof to this is a one page article about him at the November issue of Men’s Health Magazine (uy, plugging!).

Check out Coach Rio's feature article in the Nov issue of Men's Health Mag wherein he talks about his passion for running

Some of our friends have even taken it to the next level by joining in the 55K Mt Pinatubo Ultra Marathon being members of the Pinoy Ultra Running Group and others deciding to take on the Men’s Health Urbanathlon challenge.

As if this isn’t enough of a treat, there is this one special big event that is being cooked up for the running community. This one too is targetted to be “launched” this November. And what will this be? Hmmm… We’ll just have to wait for official word to come out guys. You’ll know…. Everybody will in time!