The cycle had to stop and I was the only one who could put an end to it…

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A few months back, Jinoe asked me to send in my “before and after” pics, coupled with a story of how running changed my life. I mentioned in that short write-up that I have what I call a “weight cycle.” It’s a cycle where I start off with normal weight then I balloon, followed by a period where I shed all the excess weight again… Only to be followed by another period where I gain everything back again. It’s really an awful cycle.

NOTE: photo courtesy of TAKBO.PH (2008 Running Yearbook)

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Before I started running, I was at my peak of being overweight in 2006. It was the most unhealthy period in my life. I found myself at 215lbs with a waistline of 38″. Looking back, I attribute that period to all those late nights studying, being inactive due to very tight schedule in law school, and a poor or improper diet. Living in a condominium for almost 2 years, I didn’t have the luxury of having a full length mirror to realize I was increasing in size, up until I found myself with one pair of jeans left to wear. When that lone pair couldn’t fit anymore I decided it was enough.

NOTE: Photo courtesy of Ralph Doval-Santos. Taken at Room 200, Malcolm Hall, UP College of Law

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My first real race was the ADIDAS-GK RUN FOR LOVE in October 2007. I ran-walked-ran-walked-walked the 5k. It was probably the first time I had joined a real race. Little did I know that it was going to be the start of my “running story.”

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Come November, I was already really desperate to lose weight. I’d jog around the Ateneo Campus after class and kept myself active. I even went on a vegan diet for a period of almost 3 months starting with the month of December. To most people, it would’ve been the hardest time to diet – Christmas! BUT I was really determined to lose weight. I had also quit smoking (and have maintained it too!) so that I could breathe better when I ran. Come January I had amazingly lost 25 lbs. I had broken the 200 lb barrier.

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Feeling good about myself, I started the year by joining the ICTUS Century Run (Jan. 13, 2008). It was my first race for the year and I did 5k. It was my “pre-Subic” run which was held the Sunday after.

The Subic International Marathon was my “running turning point”. It was also my first 10k run. My offical time was 1:15.26. Not bad for my first 10k… or so I thought. It was at this juncture that I decided to take running seriously. Never did I have the discipline to wake up really early for something (not even school), nor travel hundreds of kilometers just to attend an event that would last for less than an hour. There was just something fascinating about the effort that I put in, the preparations, the crowd that I was with, the thrill of being part of something big. It was a feeling that I wanted to experience over and over again.

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TO BE CONTINUED…