Jaguh overseas ... PB in Condura Run 2009

I'm pretty good at this by now... I actually run better and faster overseas!

Condura Run 2009 - Philippines ... was my first run this year, I am serious! Well, it must be good to trigger a bit more blogging back from me?

2.41 for 21km - I am pretty happy - this is one of my better times - this is better than all my KLIM attempts. I think the first attempt I did in 2006 21km I was around that time? I am not sure, but for the moment, I will claim this to be my 21km personal best.

This run was really fun... Personally I found nothing so fantastic about running on the famous "Skyway" which is like a huge NPE. The only difference for the locals was probably that they never get a chance to run on the highway. The other pretty cool thing was that it was good race with the route pretty flat, and despite the sun here rises ahead 1 hr than Malaysia = baked by 7am (1.5 hours), the usual race euphoria is just such a great feeling!

The fun thing about running overseas - especially in Philippines is that I almost felt the urge to race up to most people who looked like they could chat, and said "this is my first race in philippines".

Next week 10km - men's health run.

Oh year, I love the sign up process. Bibs on the spot. Results out within 2 days!!! Check out www.condura.com

21km Condura Run (Philippines) - the skyway or my way....?

Yup, I confirm the fire is still in me to run.  I am currently on work assignment in Philippines, and just did my first run in the philippines - the Condura 21km race.  I have just joined the running scene !!!

Let me just go through some thoughts I had pre-run and later I will write about the run itself.

1. Sports gel - Power Bar, you guys must do a better job at getting your gels into the Philippines.  Last week, I went looking for gels and they stared at me like I was speaking some foreign tongue - the locals and pharmacies have hardly heard of gels!  Then I surfed and found out the gels were in Fitness First, and I ran to Fitness First to look for them, but they were out for the month!!!  That is so shocking.... I am sure there must be a better supply chain for gels.  I am wondering how runners here survive without gels... 

2. The Fort - this has got to be the coolest running practice zone - can you imagine running 1km+ round and round this huge shopping mall - apparently this is such a good running zone that the locals train here every night.  We took the opportunity to try this out last Sunday and boy, was it hip - it felt like a people watching scene.  One mistake was to start too late to train - because the sun here is almost 1hr ahead, as such starting at 745am meant almost 845am equivalent = very hot.  But two 6km sessions here was all I had for training for my 21km...

3. Running distances and speed - My other runner colleague and I realised that runners here are pretty casual, the distances on races are mostly 3km, 5km, 10km at most.  In fact 21km races are rare, and marathons even more rare.  I suppose this is the same as in KL, but in KL, most of the starting distances are 10km or single distances - so it can be pretty unforgiving.  Generally I also found most people ran slower here - part of the reason could also be that there are not that many places to run or train.

4. Signing up for a race - this is pretty cool - the bib is given on the spot on payment, and there is typically distribution via Nike outlets or alternatives.  In general, this is better than taking a trip to collect the bib a day before the race.  The bib is also given in an envelope, and has a barcode for recording when you finish the race.  Cost of signing up for the race is slightly more expensive than KL - it cost approx RM 40 equivalent for the 21km Condura Race, for a t-shirt and the race itself.

5. Running portals - this is also pretty cool - most of the running portals are quite established, and teams prefer to run in their own group.  Some of the portals includes : 

www.takbo.ph

www.bullrunner.com

and a few more....

Well, I survived condura.... dare I to submit the registration form for KL Marathon now?  More on the race details in next blog... have been too busy to blog even...