Running in Philippines

I have now done 3 races in Philippines on my assignment there.  Who knows, there may be more.  To give the Filipinos (Pinays/Pinoys) a lot of credit for some of the uniqueness I appreciated about the races in philippines - I thought I wanted to drop a short note on some of the most appreciative things I had encountered.

1. Top one - last Thursday, I received a SMS from Vince Mendoza, from www.finishline.ph - they were the organizers of the Greenfield City Run in Laguna (see last blog post).  He SMS blasted to inform that some 21k runners may not have received their medals, and for those who did not to SMS bib number back to him.  This was what I received roughly :

Vince - "Some runners may not have received their medals for 21k Greenfield City Run, if you have not please sms your bib number and we will send it to you"

Myself - "Bib number 7883, thanks, it was a great race"

Vince (less than 5 mins later!) - "Thanks May.  Where should we send it to?"

Myself (very surprised he addressed me by name) - "

... btw where can I see the photos especially those on the route?"

Vince - "Sure, no problem, photos at www.photovendo.ph"

Wow - this is true customer service!  The organizer having a conversation with an individual runner!  Great job, Vince!  I will definitely join more races if I have the opportunity in the future.  I liked the free bus service, by the way.  And if the medal does come in the post a few days later, I would be so impressed!!

Many credits to finishline team, who not only setup a portal for running, organize races, but also personally answers questions and queries on the comments, and personal mobile.  No race organizer has had the patience or courtesy to entertain in such a personal manner.

2. Second one - I love the signup processes allowing bib, and event t-shirt to be collected at Nike stores.  Despite this may not be the most far-reaching approach, I preferred this and online rather than some weird location somewhere, where not many can get to go to signup.

3. Third one - Enthusiasm.  Just like the bloggers community here, the blogging community for running is crazy in philippines.  I have just yet to convert and start pinging all of them, but I am so impressed with these guys.  They are mostly not very old, and just new runners all.  

A few notable ones are :

www.takbo.ph (first forwarded to me by Ellen from SMART, apparently takbo, i guess by now, means run)

www.bullrunner.com

www.finishline.ph

www.runrio.com (one of those young dude coaches around)

4. Fourth one - Race results.  Ok, on the bib there is a slip to tear off the bar code when you finish.  The "tear-er" person slings this on a hook.  But 2 days later, the results are out for the race, where did the automation come from!??  I am so impressed, because it comes out published in an excel, with race finish time, pace, and where did the automation come from?  Why can't the local races in Malaysia do something similar?

5. Fifth one - the race and the runners itself.  Damn hot.  Guys, I respect all you crazy pacers - running in the early morning sun is not easy, I have a lot lot of respect for all you fellow runners, despite coming from a tropical country myself, the philippines summer is not easy for running in exposed barren lands...! 

Greenfields Run, Laguna, Sta Rosa (Philippines) 19 April 2009

All photos as taken from photovendo.ph site - thanks - just posted here for illustration

Photo 1- see we are at a banana plantation :-) (greenfields of lallang and banana- though the plantation portion was actually decent running track as there were no cars!)

Photo 2-the scorching sun @ the barren lands!!!

Photo 3-this was near the starting line - the greenfield city was quite a "designer" city at some areas where nice rich apartments were built.

Photo 4-Greenfield was on the way or near Tagaytay (home of Taal volcano, the first tourist place i visited in philippines... it took us 2.5 hrs to get to tagaytay the last time!)

Photo 5-The start/finish shot

Who would've imagine I would get up at 2:30 am for a 21k run?

This would be the last 21k I would run in philippines, for the time being. We signed up for this a few weeks back, but JS could not make it because she had injured her knee.

The race starts at 5am, and unfortunately after I had signed up and the subsequent weeks after, up to yesterday, I found out the location was very far away, in fact on the way to Tagaytay (the Taal Volcano trip we went on our first weekend in philippines) - that trip took us about 2.5 hrs to reach tagaytay! With a lot of reservation, first I tried car hire, then taxi booking, both were a bit unsuccessful, so finally since I was the only person going I decided to signup for the free shuttle bus service - luckily for me the shuttle bus was still available the day before even though the signup had closed two days ago!

I slept at 1040pm - this is really a trying one for me to getup at 2:30am. The bus schedule was assemble at 3:30am, leave around 4am, and ETA around 440am - I was a bit worried about this, as the various people had said this place was between 1hr to 1.5hr away despite it being wee hours in the morning....

I somehow managed to get to the bus assembly point at 330am, right on time - and found the bus (in the strange darkness) - got on the bus, it was full, and luckily one more spot left. The trip there was in silence with a Singapore Marathoner sitting next to me, and tried to catch some sleep, despite the bus was really cold.

Got to the starting line with 20 mins to go, the bus left at around 345am, and had time for a toilet stop, which was a must because the bus was SO COLD!!!

Greenfield City, Laguna was indeed another attempt of the local government to create a "holiday" looking vacation city close to Tagaytay on the outskirts of the Makati city center. The race starts at Paseo Greenfield, which was a outlet mall, so already it had a very american feel even as we assembled in the starting area.

The race started promptly at around 5am. This was when it got interesting. Suffice to say that this race, I really really regret not training for it, I only did one 20km @ bukit aman, and 2 6km spans one each week. Regret also because I am terrible at waking up early, and for such a small race, the lack of pacers really bogged me down.

At about 10km onwards, at 630 am, the sun was scorching hot. This is so different from Malaysia runs. The other problem I had was the route was barren - we were running next to literally "green fields" - they were fields of green "lallang"... and no cover for sun. Stretches of long barren land in the blazing sun was not easy without a pacer. I took off my shades on the return route from 14km onwards. The shades made me feel shorter due to the optical effect, and my stride felt heavier. I guess when I reached around 17 km, I was almost done and started to walk. All in a very very bad time, not my worst but still not good. But good training under the blazing sun...

Some observations :

1. Everyone started rather casually on the starting line - no one pushed forward. I guess because it was 21km, nobody was really rushing. Moreover, there was perhaps around less than 150+ people for 21km. Again, I got a bit worried...

2. Unique for the event was the route, before dawn (dawn was around 515?), the route on the first 5 kms was lit with torches (interesting huh... like a tribal function...)

3. Another unique for the event was the eagerness of the organisers to be a running event for runners - music pipping from loud speakers in non-residential and stretches of the road for the first 10 kms, some even with a bit of zen like music!!!

4. The provision of rush (electrolyte water like 100plus uncarbonated) was a good call, I survived on rush. Water stations aplenty.

5. They ran out of medals - I was not happy, but too heat treated at the end of the race to even bother too much.

6. The photovendo guys who offered free photos at end of race, and a long line to do so - that was not smart, and not cool.

7. Between starting so early and having such a closely starting time for the race meant some people sat around and waited for the 21km runners. I guess it is just difficult to cater for everyone (2k, 5k, 10k, 21k - what a range!)

8. The route - flat, nice countryside running - but VERY VERY hot... sigh....

9. Providing ransport is good, but they could've got the bus to run on the return trip earlier. Everyone was really tired when the bus left... (3 hrs after i finished 21km!!) - and the shops were not open!!

10. I did love the scenes of families bringing their kids for the 2k run, and getting up early for a family day. This is one great thing about running in philippines - its good family affair - and not just for avid runners but social runners as well

Lepak @ Orange Run 2009

I have been having a fascination with Nikon D700 recently.  Trying to figure out the power of full frame photos vs investment...

Anyway, this morning, I decided to spend the time doing the 

photographer's act at Orange Run at the Curve.  The funny thing is that I have NEVER run the orange run, despite it is so close to my house, and I've always wanted to run the BU neighbourhood... well this time it was because when I got back from Philippines on 3rd Apr, that weekend itself they had already announced all numbers were already given out!  Imagine 3000 bibs, gone one weekend before.  

Either the neighbourhood has a lot of health enthusiasts or people just love free stuff... well I think it is a more of the first, but the second also just upset me that people took the numbers and did not bother to run, just come to collect the goodies... and those like me have to consider to run illegally :-)

In any case, I got to do another 21km race next weekend, so I better train....

I just loaded a few photos here, it was difficult as I did not have the long lens - my biggest lens was the kit 18-70mm... so shy no big guns, so played with Tey's old camera D40 with a 55-200mm lens for a while, still good and better than my D70s... I am indeed the most underinvested "interested in photography" person around... heheh.  Anyway, I will try to load the stuff to picasa album, meanwhile a few shots from this morning.

10km Men's Health Run 29 Mar 2009 (Philippines)

Men Health Run late run report...

Credits of photos goes to NY, one of our colleagues.

 

This was my second run in Philippines - it was at the university of philippines.  For more pictures, please see my facebook photos. 

Firstly big big thanks to paparazzi NY who joined myself and one other colleague JS in the run.  This was really the first run where I was pampered with someone dedicated to take photos!  (Although our photographer was distracted along the way by the sponsors and organisers.. more later)...

 The run was held in the University of Philippines, Diliman campus.  Though I've been away from studies for a long long time, it was good to see other countries university campus - and what more better way than to run on the campus!

I signed up for the race together with JS (her first run in philippines).  The interesting thing about this race was... it was sponsored by a condom manufacturer - Frenzy (a local brand).  On close inspection of the event vest, the big condom logo is on the back!  So just in excitement, we thought, well, this run will be filled with big macho looking guys... (hahah).  As it turns out as well, on the same day, there was another event which was a women's only run.  Oh well...

The race was supposed to start at 6am.  When we were checking how long it would take to get to the campus, the apartment supervisor where we stayed told us, around 1 hr!!!  And one other local runner told us 45 mins!!!  So, we thought, well, lets play it safe, go at around 445 am?  Guess what... we reached in 15 mins... so we were staring in the dark at 5am +, they were still hanging the starting line stuff, and my paparazzi had time to learn how to take photos on a DSLR!!!!

The race started finally at 620am.  It was two 5km loops around the campus main grounds - the campus was actually a very nicely shaded area, where later I found out many came to run on weekends as well.  The course was pretty decent. the water station a bit poor in manning.  

I had a new pair of shades (my first!!) because of the prior week's condura run, I realised running in the sun was really too glaring for the eyes.  The shades were Rudy Project (sound cool already?) and meant more for cyclists.  After procuring the shades on the day before, when I arrived at the starting line of this race, I realised a lot of people loved to show off shades on their head... haha.  Actually, I was a bit uncomfortable with the shades during the race, there was a distance differential - I felt shorter when I put it on.  So I alternated on and off...

Finally, the story of our paparazzi - during the first loop he disappeared and was busy taking pictures with the girls (the ones selling condoms)...!!!  Its funny, they were selling photos and giving away condom tattoos... etc.

All in, a pretty good race.  Did not train much, and after condura, I learnt to enjoy the new "discover philippines" whilst running... I did 1:07, decent time for a very relaxed race... 

As you would see - not many people in the race... and mostly men!!!

Condura Race Report 21km @ my first race in philippines

All pictures taken from Canon EOS club site member's postings (thanks, I did not copy all the names, but these are among the best photos)

Condura Run was my first run in Philippines.  I have been there for almost 6 weeks on a work assignment, and on the 4th week, I was itching to run in Philippines.

Condura Run was the first 21km event on the Skyway.  Along the way, I found out that the Skyway was actually a big highway... leading somewhere... I never found out where.  But the photos will show it is a big highway.  Apparently the locals were all very excited to be running on the skyway... well I guess I was fortunate to be the "first" to run on the skyway, but seriously, it is like Adidad king of the road running on NPE... 

It was a very hot morning.  The race started at around 6am (but seriously, 6am = 7am in malaysia, as the sun is up earlier in philippines).  Thus, daylight was peeking out when we started off.  We started off at the fort (Fort Bonifacio), this was the place where I found is a runner's haven for training.  Apparently they run there every night.  I broke my own routine by running there on the friday night before the race!   

I had very little training for Condura, and as such I was a bit anxious before the race.  I only ran a couple of times on a gym, and twice at the Fort, all in maybe less than 20kms within the few weeks leading to the race.  As it is, I was a non-starter in the GE 20km I signed up due to work.  It would seem, I was committing runner's suicide... 

The day before the race, I hydrated myself and got plenty of rest.  On race day, I got there on taxi on when it was still night (the apartment security guy gave me a stare...).  When I got there, I saw there were a lot of people, but 5 mins before the starting, I started to realise how little people were running the 21k,.... wait a minute, there is something not right here... and there were only hardly a handful of ladies....

One of the realisation that had dawned on me way before the race (it happened during our first leisure run at Fort) was that the running community here is smaller, but growing fast, and the cater for many different people factor is serving the masses - ie. the races were 2k, 5k, 10k, and only a handful 21k, and maybe a handful, marathon.  But they called all the races marathons... and seems to have a more family environment, and the middle tier people were more keen on competing and those who competed, some had not run 21k even.  This was a big surprise, though no different from Malaysia, the runners in Malaysia were quite competitive and the turnout to races were quite high, for 21k races, you would find most of them were seasoned veterans and newbies had the guts to take on 21k after one or two races... 

The race ran one loop around the fort and then onto Kalayaan flyover and to Buendia avenue, all the way past my apartment area (Makati Avenue), and cutting through Ayala Avenue and finally to the skyway.  The skyway was around 7 km off the start.  The route was very friendly - very flat, the only steep part it seems was the Kalayaan flyover coming back, probably because everyone was tired.

The route was also pretty simple, 10km to some midpoint on the skyway, then 10km back, the same route.  By the time we were coming back, it was really really hot.  I reckon it was almost equivalent to running at 9am on a highway, when I got to 3km left on the Kalayaan flyover coming back.  The rest of the route was pretty ok, and I surprised myself, I think I ran almost the entire distance, except for 4 drink stops and probably a short 50m walk on the Kalayaan flyover.  I felt uncomfortable when I stopped - this was indeed a new feeling.  

The other thing which helped I believed was the friendly manner with runners - I was at ease to chat up other runners, though I only chatted up 2 persons along the way seriously.  One guy I paced with for almost 30 minutes, and I was pretty proud that he gave up at around 13km, and said he had to walk!!!  Wow, I've never paced faster than a guy before... but then, this fella, and I think probably a handful of people I said hi to have never run a 21km race before (what to do, my pace is so slow, I get all the newbies...).

All in, a great simple race.  The surprise was the results were on the website a few days after the race.  The race signup in philippines is pretty cool, most of the time, you can do it and collect the number on the spot at nike shops.  I liked that as you do not have to go back on the day before to collect the bibs.  The race timing was done via scanning of a barcode torn from the bib (no shoe tag).  Condura was one of the best races of the year, apparently, and true to form, the results as well as the publicity was in one of the newspapers a week after that (shock! - my name was in the newspapers!!!).

One interesting thing when I was surfing for photos - there was not many photographers.  The photos taken by the Canon Eos club members (stolen and pasted here some of them), were the only ones which was interesting, but even that, there was a pattern of cutting off the head of the runners.. and also a habit of taking only photos of the celebrities... what's up philippines photogs?  What happened to your Tey equivalent? Well, I did see a big fella with a big lens all along the way, but I don't know the website.  Oh well...

KLIM 2009

i've signed up!  running my first full in malaysia @ klim 2009.  what a feeling!  now if only i can stop working so hard and start training ....