(Note: Thanks to Angelo’s Photography & Team CB)
I am back! Thank you for those congratulatory wishes and positive messages on the conduct of the 2nd BDM 160 Ultra Marathon Race. Now, I can assuringly say that, “Nothing Beats The BDM 160 Ultra Marathon Race” as the longest single-stage running event in the country and Southeast Asia. Definitely, it’s “More Fun Running An Ultra Marathon Race in the Philippines!” (Note: Philippine Sports Commission & Department of Tourism, are you reading my blog?)
Some Finishers of the 1st BDM 160 asked me if they can volunteer as Time Station/Route Marshals for the 2nd edition of the said race. I was happy with the said gesture as finally, finishers in our ultra events are sharing their time as volunteers.
Chito Carreon and Mel Severino, finishers of the 1st BDM 160, “volunteered” as Time Station/Route Marshals. Rene Villarta aka Jazz Runner, a runner-blogger also “volunteered” for the race in the company of Chito Carreon. George Dolores, another Finisher in the 1st BDM 160 also offered his services and time as a volunteer and he made sure that every runner was informed that they have another 10K to finish as they reach the Gate of the Capas National Shrine. He also assisted me in the Awarding of the Finishers’ Belt Buckle and other Swags at the Finish Line. John “Jepoy” Avellanosa, a BDM 102 Finisher, “volunteered” also as the Official Photographer of the Event. These guys did an excellent job during the race. Thank you very much!
I hope the Finishers of the BDM 160 will share their time as volunteers in the future BDM Races. We need more involvement of the past Finishers as volunteers in future BDM Races as well as in other ultra running events
Days after the conduct of the 2nd BDM 160, I’ve been receiving a lot of feedbacks and suggestions in order to help the participants in their needs during the race. One item that had been brought to my attention was a request for runner-participants to be allowed to run without any support vehicle and support crew. My staff and I tried our best to provide an Aid Station every 20 kilometers during the 1st edition of BDM 102 in 2009 but to our dismay, almost all the runners brought with them their support vehicle and crew with their respective nutritional & hydration needs. Our food and hydration preparations were snubbed and it was a waste as most of the food were not consumed. With this experience, we removed the Aid Stations and we left to the runners to provide their own. However, it is a “must” for them to have a support vehicle and crew if they decide/apply to join the BDM 102 then.
Now, there are some runners who would like to try to run the futre BDM 102 and 160 without support vehicle and support crew. And for the past days, I have been thinking about this proposal and trying to find out the best course of action to answer this concern.
As of present, I can count at least fourteen (14) Running Teams/Groups who are actively fielding or supporting their runner-members to ultrarunning events and to the BDM Races. These are the teams worth mentioning: (1) Team BORING; (2) Team CB; (3) Team UNGAS; (4) Team KAMOTE; (5) Team INTENSITY; (6) Team CLARK; (7) FAIRVIEW Running Club; (8) HINGS; (9) Team Frontrunner Magazine; (10) Team KB; (11) Team USB; (12) Team SMS; (13) HOB; and (14) Team AFP/PNP.
If only each of these running teams would volunteer as Aid Station in the BDM Races where they could serve foods; drinks; water; and others FOR SALE to each of the runner during the race, maybe, I would be convinced to make the BDM Races and the other ultrarunning events without any support vehicle and support crew for the runner-participants. This would be a nice way where the running groups themselves would volunteer not only for their respective team member but also to the whole runner-participants of the BDM Races. It’s up to the decision of the Running Group to serve meals/foods and drinks FOR SALE or FREE for the runners. Their mere presence as Aid Stations is already a big help to those runners who would like to finish the BDM Races without any support vehicle and support crew.
Let me know your thoughts about this proposal. You can also make a comment if you have any suggestions on how we would be able to help runners (without support vehicle) join and finish the BDM Races and other ultrarunning events. Thank you.
See you at the Starting Line!
2012 Bataan Death March (BDM) 160K Ultra Marathon Race, January 28-29, 2012, Mariveles, Bataan To Capas National Shrine
| Rank | NAME | TIME |
| 1 | Juny Rex Carreon (Champion Overall) | 21:07:56 |
| 2 | Benedick Balaba (1st Runner-Up) | 21:50:22 |
| 3 | Jose Randy Duenas (2nd Runner-Up) | 22:39:14 |
| 4 | Noel Hernandez | 23:20:58 |
| 5 | Alfred Delos Reyes | 23:46:47 |
| 6 | Robert Patrimonio | 23:55:45 |
| 7 | Keshia Fule (Champion, Women) | 23:56:31 |
| 8 | Benjamin Gaetos | 23:57:24 |
| 9 | Edilberto Yonson | 24:35:03 |
| 10 | Roberto Delos Santos | 24:44:15 |
| 11 | Randy Rubio | 25:33:55 |
| 12 | Reginald Santos | 25:38:27 |
| 13 | Bert Camangonan | 25:40:36 |
| 14 | Bob Castilla | 25:40:37 |
| 15 | Graciano Santos | 25:54:31 |
| 16 | Frederick Gabriel | 26:42:12 |
| 17 | Wilfredo Parcon, Jr | 26:43:52 |
| 18 | Jose Lorenzo Mina | 26:51:01 |
| 19 | Meljohn Tezon | 26:53:02 |
| 20 | Terence Chen | 26:54:53 |
| 21 | Rain Ordonez | 27:00:47 |
| 22 | Albert Salazar | 27:10:12 |
| 23 | Chito Vegim | 27:14:27 |
| 24 | Paolo Osmena | 27:28:15 |
| 25 | Dindo Diaz | 28:03:04 |
| 26 | Gilbert Gray | 28:03:53 |
| 27 | Sandy Alentajan | 28:07:13 |
| 28 | Samuel Narcise | 28:12:46 |
| 29 | Marcos Lontoc | 28:33:51 |
| 30 | Haide Acuna (1st Runner-Up, Women) | 28:42:58 |
| 31 | Allan Bandiola | 28:43:35 |
| 32 | Ferdie Cabiling | 28:44:46 |
| 33 | Bong Bernadez | 28:48:58 |
| 34 | Lemuel Narcise | 28:50:20 |
| 35 | Michael Fabian | 28:52:25 |
| 36 | Victor Ting | 29:02:54 |
| 37 | Jimmy Ong | 29:03:58 |
| 38 | Vans Camannong | 29:08:39 |
| 39 | Francis Andrew Santiago | 29:13:55 |
| 40 | Mark Hernandez | 29:22:35 |
| 41 | Jag Irasga | 29:27:04 |
| 42 | Sherwin Tommy Botabara | 29:28:31 |
| 43 | Anthony Mark Alindada | 29:29:49 |
| 44 | Emma Alvarez (2nd Runner-Up, Women) | 29:30:42 |
| 45 | Jonel Mendoza | 29:32:20 |
| 46 | Mar Marilag | 29:34:22 |
| 47 | Barry Red | 29:35:16 |
| 48 | Junar Layug | 29:36:14 |
| 49 | Mark Anthony Rodica | 29:36:23 |
| 50 | Blas Ople Tiangco | 29:41:37 |
| 51 | Carlos Kharl Ocampo | 29:46:22 |
| 52 | Carlito Buenaventura | 29:47:39 |
| 53 | Benedict Meneses | 29:48:51 |
This is where the tricky part for all the runners. Capas, Tarlac! Once you pass the Capas Public Market, you have to continue running along the MacArthur Highway up to the Y-intersection where you can see on your right, a Highway that goes to Concepcion, Tarlac and the left Highway is the continuation of the MacArthur Highway that goes to Tarlac City. On the middle of these two Highways is a CALTEX Gas Station.
Take the Highway on your RIGHT and you will surely pass by the McDonald’s Fastfood on your right. Continue for about 20 YARDS and you will see a road junction on your left. TURN LEFT on that road and in about another 20-30 meters you will see the Old Railway Terminal Building of Capas, Tarlac. There is a BDM Kilometer Post and a Shrine/Monument on the right side of the road.
Follow this road and ultimately, you will cross the MacArthur Highway. Be careful in crossing this Highway. After about one kilometer, you will hit the road that goes to Camp O’Donnell and on your left is a CEMETERY. Turn right on the road that goes to Camp O’Donnell and you still have about 14 kilometers to the Finish Line.
Once you reach the Gate of the Capas National Shrine (BDM Shrine), you still have 5 kilometers to go to reach the Turn-Around Point infront of the Philippine Army’s Training & Doctrine Command. The distinct marker for the Turn-Around Point is the DPWH Kilometer Post #118. Once you reach this Km Post, you have to turn-around for the last 5 kilometers of the race.
The Finish Line is inside the Bataan Death March Shrine which is after the last pair of Flag Poles lined up along the wide approach towards the Shrine’s Obelisk. The Raceclock will be beside the usual simple BDM 160 Tarpaulin/Arc. And the RD will be there waiting for you to experience the RD’s BDM HUG!
Remember, the cut-off time of this road race is 30 Hours. Only runners who could cross the Finish Line within the prescribed cut-off time will be declared FINISHERS. This time, there will be NO Unofficial Finishers. Which means that the RD and its staff will no longer wait for runners to reach the Finish Line after the cut-off time had been reached or elapsed. Those who insist to Finish the race after the prescribed cut-off time will be declared DNF (Did Not Finish) on the Official Result of this Race which will be listed soon with Ultra Signup.
If you want to review what happened during the First Edition of this Race, you can read it HERE.
Good luck, ladies and gentlemen! Go! Go! Go! Brave Warriors of BDM 160!
(Note: BDM 160 Briefing & CLP will be held, tomorrow, 6:30 PM, Thursday, January 26, 2012 at the AFP Officers’ Club, Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City for the Registered Participants Only. Runners are advised to bring with them their LandBank Deposit Slip (Payment of Registration Fee) for Confirmation. Runners will get their Race Bib/s and Support Vehicle Tarpaulin. If a runner intends to bring his/her Support Crew & Pacer, an additional fee of P200.00 per person shall be paid for the food & drinks.)
I’ve witnessed how the Japanese run in the Jeju International 100K Ultra Marathon Race (South Korea) and in the Soochow University 24-Hour Endurance Run (Taiwan) in 2010. In the late 70s and whole of 80s, I’ve seen on TV and documentary films how the Japanese long distance/marathon runners dominated the world’s best and popular road races including the Olympic Games. Now, there are also emerging as one of the best in ultrarunning events in the world.
I have the belief that we could also emulate or learn something from them because we have the same built and the same attitude in life. Although long distance running training and competition had been with them for almost 90 years and took them 30+ years to come up with their first Olympic Gold Medal in the Marathon, I have the positive outlook that we can attain such goal in the coming generation of younger runners.
I have discovered an article that had been published in the Running Times Magazine and written by Brett Larner with the detailed description on the history of running in Japan.
Enjoy your day and be inspired by this article: Handing Off The Tasuki by Brett Larner.
Race Report: Trail Running 101 10K & 14K @ Dinalupihan, Bataan/January 21, 2012
To some (or most?), organizing a running event is a business affair. I will not tell you the indicators if you want to know if a running event is being organized for the purpose of raising some funds for a certain cause or charity but only to realize that it is simply to rake one’s money for profit. If you are a runner who had been in such races for the past years, you probably know or smart enough to find out what I am talking about.
The conduct of the 1st Taklang Damulag 100-Mile Trail Endurance Run last December 2012 brought me some observations and lessons to be learned. It gave me the opinion that our road runners are not yet fully skilled and exposed to trail running. It is for this reason that I came up with the idea of coming up with a “graduated” exposure of trail running of those who are interested to experience the “outdoors”, meaning, the mountains and other areas outside the city and urban environment.
I want my ideas done and implemented immediately as there is no need for a corporate entity to back me up. In the first place, corporate entities take a lot of time to decide, not unless you are talking to the owner of the company! Who needs them anyway? (They will always tell you to wait for the signing of the contract and keep you waiting even if they have given the contract to another event organizer without even giving the information that they “dumped” you!). Basically, the participation and interest of runners would be enough to support the implementation of my idea.
So, yesterday (Saturday), the Trail Running 101 Series was born! There were six (6) runners who registered for the 16K distance while two (2) runners in the 10K category. Out of the eight runners, one is a lady runner. All of them finished the run and I could see on their faces that they were happy to experience trail running along the vicinity of the “Brown Mountain”, my training “playground” in the mountains of Dinalupihan, Bataan. The following were the results:
14K Run
1. Freddie Mercado—1:43:47 Hours
2. Jael Wenceslao—1:53:15
3. Noel Miano—2:05:12
4. Reginald Tan Bueno—2:43:00
5. Maria Stephanie Atutubo Zamora Hefti—3:19:12
6. Benjh German—3:23:54
10K Run
1. Elmer Oropieza—1:14:45 Hours
2. Igne Pablito—1:15:06
3. Jael Wenceslao—1:33:12
*Jael Wenceslao ran the 10K event after he finished the 14K run.
The next event of the Trail Running 101 series will be on February 26, 2012 with two distances: 16K and 21K runs! The venue/location is still the same but will have the start time to be earlier at 5:30 AM. The registration details will be posted soon in this blog with limited slots for both runs.
Going back on the title of this post, we have proven once again that we simply have the passion to share to everybody the ideas we would like to be implemented for the benefit of the running community. We don’t think about the money we gain or lost, we simply want to share what it is like to run on the “outdoors” and enjoy the beauty of the mountains & be able to commune with nature!
Thanks to all the runners; BR’s Staff; Volunteers; and to John “Jepoy” Avellanosa for those nice pictures!
See you on the next edition of the Trail Running 101 Series!
Whenever you are asked to eat some more in parties or in family lunch or dinner, your probable answer would be, “Thank you, I am full”. It means that you don’t have enough space in your stomach for the additional food being offered to you. Your stomach is already “stuffed” with the mixture of solid foods and drinks that you have ingested.
The problem now among us is how to determine if we are already “stuffed” with food after our meals. Sometimes, most of us would loosen our belts and allow our stomach to bulge to the fullest when we say that we are “full” already. Others would simply eat the right amount and have the discipline and consciousness to eat the right amount of food without being “stuffed” or without their stomach “ballooned” to a bigger size.
We always do this whenever we are invited to parties and other events where the host would prepare a lot of mixed selection of foods. This is a chance for us to eat the foods which are not normal or ordinary in our daily meals. This is a chance and opportunity for us to stuff our belly with such served foods. Much more when we are invited when the food being offered are in buffet style!
For a runner like me, I would say that I could easily burn the calories on those foods for 1-2 hours of steady run the following day and I could revert back to my usual foods for the days to come. But for others who are not consistent with their running workout and for those who are not involved in any kind of sports, such foods “stuffed” in their stomach would be converted to fats and I am sure that this will result to some additional pound/s in their body weight. And when they see that their weight had increased, then that the only time that they realize that they have to exercise or go out for a run/bike/swim. It is sad to note that it is faster to add more pounds to your body weight than the time needed to reduce one’s weight!
So, how do we find out if we are already “stuffed” or “full” when we eat? The technique that I would recommend is to make a rating of fullness from 1-to-5 scale. If your rating is 5 on the scale, it means that you are about to loosen your belt and remove the upper button of your pants! If your rating is 1, then you need to eat some more! So to be safe, a rating of 3-4 on the scale would be a good gauge to say that you have stuffed the right amount of food which you could easily burn while you are doing your regular daily activities.
Remember, the rating 3-4 on the scale whenever you eat in parties or in buffet lunch and dinner so that you can still maintain your running performance weight in every running event you would want to join.
Good luck and see you at the Starting Line!
If you have been joining road races for the past months and years and had never tried running on mountain trails, then this is the time to start a new experience.
I have come up with short distance runs on where I had been doing my trail runs for the past years and it is about time that you have to try to experience what it feels to run on mountain trails.
These trail runs will be done every month where the distance will be stretched from 10K to a Marathon distance of 42K. So for the month of January, there will be two distances of trail runs to be conducted this coming Saturday. The shorter distance will be a 10K and the longer one is a 16K distance.
All these trail runs will be an “out and back” runs. In the 10K distance, one has to run 5 kilometers up to the mountain and then back to the point where one started. The same goes to the 16K distance, 8 kilometers up to the mountain and then back to the starting line. Very simple!
The two distance runs will start at the same time at 6:00 AM of Saturday, January 21, 2012. It will start at the “Basilica” Church of Barangay Sacrifice Valley in Dinalupihan, Bataan and ends at the same place. There is no cut-off time for the event. This will encourage the “newbies” to enjoy the scenery and to experience the simplicity of trail running. It is simply running with nature without so much “distractions”.
There will be Aid/Hydration Stations every 2.5 Kilometers. Runners are advised to bring their hydration bottles so that we will adhere to lesser use of plastic cups in trail running events. In addition to the aid stations, there is flowing stream/spring along the route where one could drink the fresh cool water of the mountain.
If you are joining the Subic International Marathon on Sunday, you can drop by for a 10K easy trail run on Saturday morning and then proceed to Subic Freeport after the trail run. Barangay Sacrifice Valley is 15 kilometers away from Olongapo City and the Subic Freeport.
Registration fee/s for the 10K event is P 500.00 and the 16K is P 600.00. ARC Store is presently accepting registration for this event. Registered runners will be given Commemorative T-Shirt for the event and a post-race meal at the Finish Line. Whatever proceeds we get from these trail running events will be used for the support of Elite Bald Runner Team in their participation to international running events. Two of my elite athletes will be participating in the Hongkong 100K Trail Endurance Run in the middle of next month with the objective of qualifying for the Western States 100-Mile Endurance in the coming years. It is unfortunate that we have yet to receive favourable approval of support from corporate entities whom we asked for assistance.
There will be registration On Site, provided that runners will arrive earlier than the announced starting time. The run will start promptly at 6:00 AM.
As in my past events, we will start the race even with 2-3 registered runners!
See you at the Starting Line!
(Note: It is advisable for all the participants to read the “rules of the game” (protocols/etiquette/rules and regulations) in trail running which I published in my previous post)
Now that you are ready to embrace trail running, there are some rules and regulations; protocols; etiquette; or “GMRC” (Good Manners & Right Conduct) things/actions that every runner should know and follow. These rules boil down to the preservation of the environment and “common sense” in treating our co-runners.
The American Trail Running Association (ATRA) offers a list of “must” to be followed in trail running activities and events. For the benefit of everybody, our trail runners and “would be” ones are encouraged to read this list on the “Rules On The Run”. Please read the link below:
http://www.trailrunner.com/news/trail_etiquette.htm
It is imperative that every trail runner should follow these rules and regulations.
Good luck and see you at the Starting Line!
Bald Runner 
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