While browsing on the Facebook Page of Mayor Michael Keon after watching his Live Interview with Pinoy Athletics in the past few weeks, I found this particular post or story on the Mayor’s FB Page. This story answers the question why he resigned from the Project Gintong Alay.
My snappy salute to Mayor Michael Keon for his conviction for the good of the Philippine Sports during those days when the Project Gintong Alay was at its peak and success.
Please click on the link below.
The International Association of Ultrarunners (IAU) invited the Philippine Association of Ultrarunners (PAU), the National Ultramarathon Federation of the Philippines, to join the 2020 6-Hour Global Virtual Solidarity Run which was held last August 29-30, 2020. This event was attended by more than 40 member countries with a total of 426 athlete-runners throughout the world.
Team PAU was composed of 9 Male and 9 Female runners coming from the different regions of the country. Due to the Covid-19 Lockdown restrictions, all the runners were advised to do their running in their place of residence, whether on the outdoors or indoors (on treadmill machine). Team PAU represented the country in this event.
Here is the Video of Team PAU during the event:
Thank you for watching. Cheers!
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Seven months before I retired in the military service, I started to write my stories on running on WordPress. Since then, it has been 13 years that I have posting my running experiences and adventures to my readers. Those past years were great where I was able to inform, share, and inspire others to start running as part of a healthy lifestyle. I hope this blog had contributed to what I have intended to do since then.
At the present, writing my stories in this blog is my way to motivate myself to go out in the outdoors to maintain my physical fitness through running and hiking and to maintain a healthy mental fitness/attitude by writing my personal stories and other information/stories that I would share to everybody. As I grow older, writing is becoming my daily habit to exercise my brain and thinking ability. And since last week, I have extended or expanded my stories to any information that are happening around me and to the environment.
Thank you, WordPress for this opportunity to share my stories as told by an old and ordinary average runner. Thank you also to my subscribers throughout the world, a gratitude coming from a blogger in the Philippines!
Cheers for more stories in the future! Thank you for reading this blog. Stay safe always!
Months before the conduct of the 2020 London Marathon Race, it was announced that the scheduled April event will be held despite the Covid-19 pandemic situation and it will be held on October 4, Sunday, with the participation of selected world elite athletes coming from selected countries. Most significant in the announcement was the participation of the two of the fastest marathon finishers in the world: Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya who is the reigning world record holder in the marathon with a time of 2:01:39 hours in the 2018 Berlin Marathon and Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia who is the world record holder and Olympian record holder in the 10,000-meter event with a time of 26:17:53 minutes and second fastest time in the marathon with a time of 2:01:41 hours which he set in the 2019 Berlin Marathon, two-second slower than Kipchoge’s time.
Aside from the World’s Men’s Elite runners, the World’s Women’s Elite runners were invited to join the race. This is to include the Elite Marathon Runners from Great Britain. The rest of those who are supposed to participate and had been picked in the lottery to join the 2020 London Marathon had been asked to join in a virtual run and be able to complete the run within a period of 24 hours. Unfortunately, I registered for the third time in this marathon event and as usual, I was not been able to be picked up in the lottery.
In the months, weeks, and days before the London Marathon, there were so many information on the social media and printed media about this “duel” of the two fastest marathon runners in the world; Kipchoge and Bekele. With its hype, I tried to research on the Internet on the past competitions where these two great long distance runners had joined and competed with each other. Bekele was already a World and Olympic “Star” in the 2000s while Kipchoge was trailing behind him in the Oval Track Competition Races. However, during the 2010 and later years, both runners had shifted to road running on marathon races. Kipchoge started to shine and perform consistently in Marathon Races in Europe. However, Bekele had also his winning races on the road until he was sidelined with some injuries. Bekele is 38 years old while Kipchoge is 35 years old. But, these two runners had been always pushing the bar for the world record in marathon up to this time. The sub-2:02-hour time in the Marathon Race are being held by these two greatest runners in the world.
In my past blog, I posted and predicted that Eliud Kipchoge will win over Kenenisa Bekele in the 2020 Virgin Money London Marathon. However, I was still confident to predict that the winning time will be within the 2:02-2:03-hour range knowing how the place looks like when I had the chance to visit London in 2018. The London Marathon was held along the streets surrounding the St James Park near Buckingham Palace which is a loop-course covering a distance of 1.33 miles for each loop. Runners have to complete 19+ loops to finish the Marathon distance of 26.2 miles while is completely flat.
Two days before the race, Bekele announced to the media that he was withdrawing from the race because of an injury on his left calf muscle which he got two weeks before on a sprinting session. With this news, I was confident that Kipchoge would win the said race.
I watched the LIVE coverage of the London Marathon in the evening of Sunday, October 4, 2020 (Manila Time) after I found out that Brigid Kosgei of Kenya won the Women’s Championship with a time of 2:18:58 hours. She is the current Marathon World Record Holder with a time of 2:14:04 hours which she achieved in the 2019 Chicago Marathon Race. Worthy to note in the women’s race is the “sprint run” of Sara Hall on the last 50 meters to pass Ruth Chepngetich to the finish line winning the race as the First Runner-Up in 2:22:01 hours. This is Sara Hall’s Personal Best in the Marathon.
On the last loop of the Marathon, Eliud Kipchoge could not react on the blistering pace of the faster runners and he did not win as I had predicted. Tola Shura Kitata of Ethiopia won as the Overall Champion of the 2020 Virgin Money London Marathon with a time of 2:05:41 hours. He was the First Runner-Up in the 2018 London Marathon where Eliud Kipchoge won as the Champion. Eliud Kipchoge finished the race in 8th place with a time of 2:06:49 hours and he said in his post-race interview that his ears got blocked during the last loops that he could not concentrate and focus with his run. However, he was gentleman enough to accept the result of his performance. Kipchoge and Bekele will be back!
Thank you for reading. Have a good day and week ahead of us.
As of October 2, 2020, after 201 days since Lockdown was declared in Metro Manila and to the rest of the country, a total of 316,678 confirmed cases were reported. For this day, there were 2,611 new confirmed cases. There were 56 deaths today and 416 recoveries. The country has now a total of 5,616 deaths and total recoveries of 254,617.
As more Covid-19 test centers and testing capability in key cities and local government units, there had been an increase in confirmed cases of positive to the Covid-19 virus. However, there is no additional data as to the number of asymptomatic cases as compared to the more serious cases which are being admitted in Covid-19 health facilities and quarantine areas with serious symptoms with the virus. Most of these asymptomatic cases prefer to be quarantined in their respective homes/residences. It is my personal belief that these new confirmed cases have their Covid-19 tests being reported or registered without knowing if they are asymptomatic with the Covid-19 virus or not. However, the data/tabulation below would show the number of Total Active Cases which is 56, 445. Just the same with the confirmed cases, it is hard to find out which of these cases are manifesting serious symptoms of the virus (and should be under the care of the hospitals and other health facilities focused on the treatment of such patients) and to those who are asymptomatic with the symptoms of the virus who are most likely on their own personal quarantine method or confined in their respective homes.
The tabulation below would show the total of 2,611 new covid-19 cases from the different places in Luzon and Visayas: NCR/Metro Manila; Cavite; Iloilo; Bulacan; and Rizal Provinces. Just the same with my personal observation, these new Covid-19 cases are combination of those asymptomatic and those with serious symptoms with the said virus.
In the context of World Statistics on the number of Covid-19 cases, the Philippines is now ranked #20 and ranked #1 among the Southeast Asian countries. The increase in the number of confirmed cases in the country could be attributed to the increase and aggressive conduct of “free” Covid-19 tests being conducted by key cities and local government units. From the slow progress and testing rate in the first 3 months of the Lockdown period from March 17, the country was able to speed-up its testing capabilities to the point that we are one of the top countries who have conducted testing to the populations. As of October 2, we have tested 3,800,150 persons, higher than Pakistan and Indonesia which have more than twice our population of 109 million+ persons.
As per percentage of deaths, the Philippines is scoring very low as compared with other countries. We have 51 deaths in every One Million in our population. Our total number of deaths of the latest report is 5,616.
After 201 days or almost 7 months of Lockdown or movement restrictions, I think we have to live with the Covid-19 virus within the country. We have learned a lot already about the virus and we should practice preventive methods and protocol like: wearing face masks; wearing of face shield; washing of hands with soap and/or alcohol; strictly observe social distancing (at least one meter apart from other people in public areas); no talking in enclosed areas; and proper ventilation in enclosed areas. Additionally, we have to boost our body immune system by exercising outdoors or indoors (running, biking, stretching, swimming, and other calisthenics exercises); exposing the body to natural sunlight, at least, one hour a day; eat healthy foods; hydrate or drink more water and fruit juices, and sleep at least 8 hours a day.
Always stay safe and healthy! Thank you for reading this blog!
(Note: Tabulations From Philippine Star & Department of Health)
There are two important sports events that will be happening this weekend. It will be the second game of the NBA Finals for LA Lakers against Miami Heat on Saturday morning (Manila Time), October 3, 2020 and the London Marathon Race in the afternoon of Sunday (Manila Time), October 4, 2020 where the Top 2 Fastest and Greatest Marathon Runners, Eliud Kipchoge and Kenenisa Bekele will be competing with each other with the rest of the Elite Runners entire the World. On the Women’s Category competition, it will be a fight between Brigid Kosgei and Vivian Cheruiyot.
On the NBA Finals, LA Lakers won in the first game with a score of 116-98 where the game was played in Los Angeles, California. I would predict that LA Lakers will win again in the Second Game.
On the Virgin Money London Marathon Race, I would predict Eliud Kipchoge to win the race with a time of less than 2:03 hours with the route of 19.6 laps along the streets around the St James Park in London, England. On the Women’s Category, I will predict Brigid Kosgei to win.
Good luck to LA Lakers and Eliud Kipchoge.
One of the training tips that my Coach had given me when I complained about my knee pains as a result of my long runs in the mountains is for me to try hiking into the mountains instead of doing my easy long runs there. However, he told me that I should carry a weighted backpack with me starting with 10-15 pounds for my first try or experience in hiking to the mountains. This workout of hiking with a weighted backpack should be done once a week.
This advice or tip was given to me way back last December 2019. It was good that I bought a North Face backpack which is made with thick material and does not have so many pockets or dividers inside it. I would use 2-liter bottles filled with water as the weight I would carry inside my backpack. Since then, I have been hiking with a weighted backpack once a week in going to the mountains for a hike of 3-4 hours and steadily progressed on making my backpack weight up to 25 pounds. Despite the fact that I would be enticed to run the downhills, I forced myself to be patient and slow on the downhills. On those hikes with weighted backpack for the past weeks and months, it gave me more strength on my legs and thus, I was able to finish my ultra trail races (local and international) since then up to the time Covid-19 Lockdown was imposed.
During the Lockdown period (past 4 months), I have been doing my daily runs in my Backyard Loop and I would be doing my hiking with a weighted backpack once a week. After I rested for one week of no running, I resumed my hiking with a weighted backpack yesterday with a reduced weight of 20 pounds. However, I did it in my Backyard Loop. After one mile, I started to perspire and after one hour, I was able to hike a distance of 3 miles.
It was good to be back hiking with my weighted backpack again and I am eager to go back to the mountain trails in the coming days and weeks.
Thank you for reading!
Last Tuesday, I was able to run in 61 minutes (1:01 hours) covering a distance of 4 miles or 6.4 kilometers in my Backyard Loop. I started with an easy pace of 16-17 minutes per mile until I was able to increase it to 12-13 minutes per mile. I usually run one loop in my Backyard for 5:30 minutes on an easy pace but I could also finish it in 4:15 minutes in my tempo runs.
I still had my Army Physical Fitness Challenge later in the day which I passed, doing the exercises on the minimum/passing scores of 20 push-ups; 30 sit-ups; and 20-minute 2-mile run along the paved road in front of my compound. Later in the evening, I did my 2-minute forward plank challenge and 100 push-ups challenge.
Yesterday, Wednesday, I did a one-hour hike in my Backyard Loop carrying a backpack weighing 20 pounds of water which were contained in six 2-liter bottles. I was able to cover a distance of 3 miles in one hour. Later in the day, I was able to do my daily “Challenges”.
On the Covid-19 situation in the Philippines, there are now 143,749 total of confirmed cases where 4,444 cases were reported for the day. The following picture shows the latest update from the Department of Health:
The weather had improved for the past two days but it is still cloudy and overcast. The ground condition of the trail in my Backyard Loop has become softer due to the past rains but I am glad that the composition of the soil is more sandy than being a muddy one. My trail shoes had been appropriate with this kind of ground condition. Every step gave me more comfort to my old knees and joints.
Thank you for reading and have a good day!
Today is Monday and it is supposed to be my Rest Day in Running but since I was not able to run yesterday because of the strong rains brought about by Typhoon “Enteng”, I did a 4-mile run in my Backyard Loop which took me almost 1 hour and 30 minutes. I started with the first mile by walking and slowly started to jog at the start of my second mile. Every time I finish a mile, I would change the direction of my run along the loop.
After finishing the run in 1.5 hours, I immediately did my stretching exercises. I usually do four (4) stretching exercises targeting my quadriceps, hamstrings, calf muscles, and my groin muscles. I do each stretching exercises at 3 minutes for each leg.
No Army Physical Fitness Test Challenge for today. However, I still did my Daily 2-Minute Forward Plank Challenge and 100 Push-Ups Challenge. It was my 3rd day for the Forward Plank and 9th day for the Push-Ups.
I uploaded my latest video on my You Tube Channel and I am still learning on how to edit my videos. Hopefully, I will be able to learn more about video making from the other You Tubers. Using my iPhone and my old Panasonic Lumix for the meantime is just temporary. You can watch my video (in Filipino dialect) here.
Thank you for watching and reading this blog.
Today is Sunday and it had been raining the whole day and night in my Playground. I just found out that there is a Typhoon on the west side of the island of Luzon where more rains are expected for the next coming days. I did not run today.
Instead, I have been reading the news through the Internet and these were the significant information.
I am supposed to be on my 15th day of my Army Physical Fitness Test but I was not able to do my 2-Mile Run because of the rain. However, I did my push-ups and sit-ups with passing scores.
In addition to this Challenge, I have been doing two Challenges: 100-Push-Ups Every Day Challenge and 2-Minute Forward Plank Every Day Challenge. These two Challenges will be discussed in detail in my next posts in this blog. These Challenges keep me busy while I am watching my favorite Netflix movies.
This is all for now and thank you for reading.
Bald Runner 
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