Month: January 2008

Senior Runners

On By kingofpotsIn RunningLeave a comment

At the Finish Line of the 2008 Clark Freeport International Marathon, I started talking with runners whom I thought were within my Age Category Group. I seldom talk to other unknown runners before and after the runs/races but at this time, I tried to approach the older runners and start some conversation with them.

I started looking for the guy who overtook me at the last two kilometers and later had a lead over him on the last kilometer of the race and we had a brief conversation. (He is the guy at my back as shown in my picture). I found out that he is from Navotas, Metro Manila, 52 years old, and had been seriously running for a year. His reason for running is that he stopped playing basketball as his knees are more susceptible to injuries due to running & jumping in basketball. The other reason is that he wants to be away from his friends and “drinking buddies” as he would like to maintain a healthy living without any vices and excesses. He believes that physical fitness is a preventive measure from being inflicted with any kind of sickness and running makes him more relaxed.

This guy introduced me to his “running buddies” and I met a 75-year old runner who has a complete denture and was able to finish the 10K Run within the 50+ minutes range and he was confident that he won in his age category. One of their companions requested for a group picture among us whom I considered as the picture among the “senior runners”.

On the parking lot, I approached another senior runner and asked him about his age and time in the 10K Run. He told me that he is 65 years old and his time in the 10K race was 47+ minutes! I gladly told him that he’ll get the top award for the 60+ age category group but he told me that he was beaten by his friend who is 67 years old!

Beside my car at the parking lot was a group of five runners who are in their mid to late-40’s but they didn’t look like competitive runners. I asked them if they are going to run again in the Subic Marathon. One of the guys told me that he’ll skip on the said race because it’s the Birthday of his father but the others did not say anything. I learned later from their conversations among themselves that they arrived at Clark Freeport the night before the race and enjoyed the night in one of the “night spots” up to 2:00 AM. One of them requested the TV cameramen of ABS-CBN to take a shot at him and his companions running towards the finish line as an “evidence” for their respective wives that they joined the said race. It’s really funny that they are using the race as a reason to get away from their wives and from Metro Manila.

It was nice talking to the older runners after the race. They don’t talk about any pains, any complaints, difficulty in the course, difficulty in breathing, and their individual training. They only talk about one thing—they are sure of winning in their respective Age Category Group!!!

My Congratulations to the Masters and Senior Runners!

Globe’s Mobile Connect Fails

On By kingofpotsIn RunningLeave a comment

Globe’s Mobile Connect Failed for the past days here in the Visayas.

 Starting in the afternoon of 15 January 2008 (Tuesday) up to the present (9:00 PM of 17 January 2008), the Globe’s Mobile Connect or Visibility Internet Connection is not available in Visayas and Mindanao. 

This is the reason why I could not access my Internet connection and be able to update my blogsite. Right now, I am in one of the Internet Cafe’s in Iloilo City trying to update this blog.

The next postings had been made from MS Word Document.  I hope the Globe Internet Connection in my area will be restored as soon as possible

Monday: 6 Miles @ 57:02

On By kingofpotsIn RunningLeave a comment

14 January 2008 (6:00 PM-7:00 PM/Evening Run)

I am back in Jamindan yesterday afternoon after finishing the 2008 Clark Freeport 10K Run in the morning. I was in a hurry to be back in Manila to catch my plane trip back to Capiz scheduled to depart after lunch.

The Commanding General of the Philippine Army arrived early this morning (6:30 AM) in Roxas City to visit my Division Headquarters in the mountains of Jamindan. From my camp, I had to fetch him and his party from Roxas City Airport using two Huey Helicopters of the Philippine Air Force. It was his first visit to my Command Headquarters since he assumed the highest position of the Philippine Army, four and half months ago. This visit was his fourth attempt as the previous scheduled trips had been cancelled due to sudden and more important commitments in Manila. After visiting my camp and talking to my troops, he visited also two major units under my command in Dingle, Iloilo. He and his party left the Iloilo Airport for Manila at 3:00 PM.

Instead of using the Huey Helicopters back to my camp, I opted to ride my service vehicle/van from the Iloilo Airport back to Jamindan. The trip took me at least three hours for a distance of 160+ kilometers due to bad roads and more roads under repair along the way.

Immediately after I arrived at my quarters, I changed to my running attire and ran 6 miles or 9.6 kilometers along the two-mile route inside the camp. It was an easy & relaxing run with a time of 57:02 minutes, with an average pace of 9:30 minutes per mile or 5:56 minutes per kilometer.

Elapsed Time—57:02 minutes

Time In Zone (135-165 HR)—46:54 minutes

Maximum HR—157

Minimum HR—91

Average HR—140

Total Calories—671

I expect to have more miles/kilometers to run this week before the 2008 Subic Half-Marathon this coming Sunday.

Training Journal (07-13 January 2008)

On By kingofpotsIn Jogging, RunningLeave a comment

07 Jan 2008 (AM)—10 miles 0r 16 kilometers

07 Jan 2008 (PM)—5 miles or 8 kilometers

08 Jan 2008—7 miles or 11.2 kilometers

09 Jan 2008—5 miles or 8 kilometers

10 Jan 2008—7.5 miles or 12 kilometers (Massage @ Marco Polo Cebu)

11 Jan 2008—No runs

12 Jan 2008—No runs/Massage @ Olympia Reflexology

13 Jan 2008—6.2 miles or 10 kilometers (Clark’s 10K Run)

Total Distance: 40.7 miles or 65.2 kilometers

Sabal Beats Buenavista…But..

On By kingofpotsIn RunningLeave a comment

Sgt Cresenciano Sabal of the Philippine Army beats Sgt Eduardo Buenavista of the Philippine Air Force in the Inaugural Clark Freeport International Marathon which was held yesterday, 13 January 2008.

But the presence of a Kenyan runner, Hillary Lagat, frustrated local runners from seeing a duel of the two best Filipino Marathoners at this time. Instead of Sabal and Buenavista racing towards the finish line, the race was between Lagat and Sabal up to the last two kilometers of the race. Lagat finished in 2:26:29 hours while Sabal placed second place with a difference of 19 seconds from Lagat at 2:26:48 hours.

My congratulations to Sgt Cresenciano Sabal!

Pictures: 2008 Clark Freeport 10K Run

On By kingofpotsIn Pictures, Running2 Comments

13 January 2008

The following pictures were taken at the finish line of the 2008 Clark Freeport 10K Run:

dsc05185.jpg      dsc05184.jpg

50:36 Minutes

On By kingofpotsIn RunningLeave a comment

This is my unofficial time in the 2008 Clark Freeport 10K Run held this morning. I was able to improve my time for the said distance by 1:31 minutes since my race at the 27th RUNNEX Executive 10K Run held last 02 December 2007.

The following were the data taken from my TIMEX Zone Trainer Digital Heart Monitor Watch:

Time Elapsed—50:35.36 minutes

Time In Zone (145-165 HR)—48:42 minutes

Maximum HR—173

Minimum HR—124

Average HR—166

Total Calories—797

I hope to improve my time for the 2008 Subic Half-Marathon this coming Sunday as compared to my last Half-Marathon race in Los Angeles last 02 December 2006. Breaking the 2-hour time will be a nice goal to attain.

D-Day: 2008 Clark Freeport 10K Run

On By kingofpotsIn Races, Running2 Comments

13 January 2008 

I woke up at 3:30 AM to shave, take a shower, brush my teeth, eat a half-cup of oatmeal, wear my running attire and start my trip to Clark. At 4:00 AM, I was already on the road coming from my quarters at Fort Bonifacio.

I arrived at the Start Area fifteen minutes before the start of the 10K run. After a brief warm-up and stretching, the race promptly started at 6:00 AM.

I could feel that I was running at a very fast pace after running 500 meters. I was trying to control my pace and run comfortably. I was trying to find out if there were kilometer markings along the way but I was frustrated to see nothing. How I wished these detailed distance markings should be a “must” in races like this. Such markings are good references for a runner’s average pace.

It was only when I reached the turn-around point (5K) where I found out that my average pace was a faster pace than what I planned. My time at 5K was 23:07 minutes and I was running at 4:37 minutes per kilometer!

After the turn-around point, I realized that the first 5 kilometers were all downhill. The next 5 kilometers were all uphill and my pace came naturally at a slower pace. Between the 6th and the 8th kilometer points, I slowed down and maintained my pace with a lady runner and a male runner who is within my age category. On the final 600 meters before the finish line, I was able to maintain a lead from these two runners.

I finished the race in 50:36 minutes. So far, this is my best PR time since the last week of October of last year when I started to seriously run again.

To my fellow runners, see you next Sunday’s 2008 Subic Half-Marathon!

Buenavista or Sabal?

On By kingofpotsIn Marathon Race, RunningLeave a comment

Sgt Eduardo “Vertek” Buenavista of the Philippine Air Force or Sgt Cresenciano “Volting” Sabal of the Philippine Army?

If these two top marathoners of the country will run/compete tomorrow at the 2008 Clark Freeport International Marathon, I predict that Sgt. Cresenciano Sabal of the Philippine Army will win the race.

Time Stealer

On By kingofpotsIn Running2 Comments

It took me some time to analyze and decide to post in my blog regarding another “weird” experience I encountered during the 27th RUNNEX Executive 10K Run held at UP Campus last 02 December 2007.

After getting the printed overall results of the 10K race, I found out that there was a big discrepancy on the time registered on my Casio Pathfinder Watch and my time registered on the printed results. Based from my watch, my time in the 10K race was 52:07 minutes but the printed results appeared that I had a time of 52:36 and the runner next to me had a time of 52:39 minutes. Another runner, who finished ahead of me had a time of 52:06 minutes. It appears that the runner who finished with my unofficial time (?) was ranked # 21.

I was expecting that my name should appear as the runner to have finished with a time of 52:06 minutes but it was a name of another runner.

On the published printed results, it is impossible that another runner was behind me with a difference/distance equivalent to a distance covered within 3 seconds. It could be seen in my pictures, which I posted in my previous post, that there was nobody running/chasing me behind me within a distance of 50 meters. I was sure that I was Number 21 because one of the Race Marshalls counted me as ranked # 22 at Km # 6 among the 10K runners. At Km # 7, I was able to overtake one runner and increased my lead over him for about hundred meters.

I could not think of any reason why some runners do this kind of cheating. If these “cheater/s” think they are taking advantage over other runners, they are wrong! They cheating their own selves!

If somebody had stolen the race number and timing “chip” of my daughter during the 2006 City of Angels Half-Marathon, I had also the sad experience of somebody stealing my race/finish time during the 27th RUNNEX Executive 10K Race.