It’s been more than a year since my favorite picture was taken…

[Photo courtesy of Ben Chan]

It was taken during the Nike Human Race (31.08.2008). It was the time when I was at my so-called “PEAK”. It was when I had passed some people I had been training with and it was also when I realized I loved hills! This race was held at McKinley hills. I think it was one of the very first events that used this venue for road races.

Can anyone guess who’s standing next to me in the picture below? (HINT: She’s now a Nike Human Race Ambassador) Yes! It’s Bards Bathan, the Nike Ambassador of Team BananaRunning. She was actually the person who inspired me to put up my first blog after I had visited hers and read her amazing weight loss story.

[L-R: Passion Runner, BananaRunning, DATC, runner, RunningShield. NOTE: I'm sorry, I don't remember the name of Patrick's friend. Photo courtesy of RunningShield]

[L-R: Passion Runner, JunC, RunningShield. Photo courtesy of RunningShield]

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I decided to put up another blogsite… ever since I revamped RUN4CHANGE.COM, I sorta lost my identity as Passion Runner and most of my postings were about events. Rarely did I get to write about my experiences, training or other activities. It may also be perhaps one of the reason that I lost my motivation to run as often as I did. Whatever the case, I am now officially launching my new site… http://run4change.com/passion.

It is also a site that is not limited to running but will include other things that I do, especially my advocacies, whether it be running, iamninoy, Gawad Kalinga, UP, or Upsilon. The new site will be a lot simpler and much more personal. RUN FOR CHANGE has taken a new turn and in order for me not to lose myself, I decided to have a different site altogether.

I hope you guys will visit both

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…

How elusive is an Olympic Gold Medal?

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An Olympic Gold Medal is a world standard to measure not just a country’s athleticism but more of its economic capability, government stability and social support system. An Olympic Gold Medal mirrors a nation’s strength and its citizen’s success.

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How can a country as small as one of our provinces and has a lower economic growth than  ours produce an Olympic gold medal? More than a world record breaking performance… extraordinarily enough to be unbroken for the next 15-20 years.

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Yes folks, we are talking about Usain Bolt. The phenomenal athlete who blazed the Olympic track, won in the most distinguishing fashion for the last 100 years of the games. A guy who literary grew up eating tubers and trained on grassy fields. His mission was clear, win the Olympic Gold Medal in Beijing, no more no less…

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But what do you think could have fueled him to this kind of performance?

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Usain Bolt was well aware of glory at a very young age.

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Something that only a few of us understand, to many Filipinos, the Olympic Gold Medal is nothing but a dream and so it remains to be up to this day. A feeling of need had not sunk into our veins that we crave each day to become champions. If our country is really serious about uplifting the economy, then we ought to look in improving our sports programs along with our education… Sports promotes discipline. Such morals had been so lacking in our society that even our countries top officials do not have it.

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Glory comes from a well instilled mission. Its accomplishment is the only satisfaction you will consider, there is no other direction for us to move but forward. As the games ended let us reflect, our country has been medal-less for the last 3 Olympic Games and since our joining in 1924 we have not been able to get the elusive gold. We are even being surpassed by newly emerging nations in the world.

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China’s rise to the top clearly established itself as the new world power; they had turned the tides which belonged to the western countries for the longest time.

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The Chinese people had instilled the glory of the games to their young ones at the earliest stage of consciousness; their educational institutions developed ways to nurture this goal in order to develop future world class athletes. They had prepared themselves by instilling a culture of discipline for the last 20 years in order for them to emerge this far.

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We are very far behind from what China has achieved and if I will be sarcastic, they are a year ahead of us for every single gold medal they won. But then economic power is not the secret to get a gold medal in the games, but more of a noble spirit filled with guts, passion, pride and focus to achieve this bold feat.

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Usain Bolt made Jamaica proud and lifted his fellow Rasta’s pride. They have the fastest man in the world…

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What do we have?

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Last June 12, as everyone was celebrating Independence day or perhaps starting to enjoy the long weekend, I decided to do a symbolic “INDEPENDENCE DAY RUN” around the streets of Dasmariñas Villag in Makati. This was my 2nd run for the week, with the first being interval training at ULTRA last Thursday.

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As my personal commemoration of our Independence Day, I decided to free myself from excuses for not running, for not watching what I eat, for not exercising and being active… in short, NO MORE EXCUSES. I’ve been out of the running scene since the start of the year and I think it’s taking it’s toll on my health already. My clothes no longer fit and I’m back to wearing the clothes I had already set aside a year ago. I am usually short of breath whenever I walk up the stairs at Malcolm Hall.

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I’ve been pathetically trying to run the past 6 months but my excuses have always gotten the better of me. I need to finish do this or do that, see this person, visit this place and all sorts of other excuses which I know in my head is just really an excuse.

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Those who helped me get back
As I was going through the difficulty of racing, there were people who continually supported me and helped me get back. First and foremost is my favorite “running classmate” and running buddy Doray who always asks if I’d be running a race or would be going to ULTRA to train. We’d give each other wake up calls and make kulit to get up, get dressed and head to ULTRA. Last Thursday, she was the reason that I finally went to ULTRA to run. I did my first interval workout, doing a 5km session after a 2km warm-up and drills.

Passion Runner and Doralicious at Condura Run

Ian is another good friend of mine who has been teaching me a lot of running techniques. He’s also very depnendable whenever I need a running companion. Good thing he doesn’t get angry everytime he ends up waiting for me.. hehe!  I tell him, “Let’s meet at ULTRA, 6am” and then I arrive by 7:30am. Peach Ian!

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Coach Rio, Ian and Passion Runner

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Another person whose been really helpful is Jay, the co-owner of Paul Calvin’s Deli. We met each other at the Men’s Health Miracle Run in UP and we’re both part of the original iamninoy runners. He paced me during my pitiful run during the 3rd AutoReview Run for Road Safety and Courtesy where I did a time of 36 mins for 5k. He did not allow me to walk, jog or stop for a second. He was pushing me all the way and kept on saying, Kaya mo yan! Konti na lang. If it weren’t for Jay, I doubt I would have finished the race running. It was the first race I joined for the year wherein I didn’t walk.