One Month

Today marks the beginning of the month-long countdown before the Milo Manila Eliminations.

Whenever I tell friends - runners and non-runners - that I am preparing for a race abroad, I usually get enthusiastic reactions.

Since March however, whenever people would ask, I would always answer that I am preparing for the Milo Eliminations. To be honest, that gets a less enthusiastic reply.

image nicked from TBR

Not that I blame them. What is Milo anyway? Years ago, it was really a big thing since it was one of the few (if not the only) full marathon event in the calendar. But nowadays, we have a full every two months or so - they are even bunched up at the end pf the year. If you want to run a full marathon, you need not be stuck with Milo - there are a lot of other more “glamorous” and better publicized races.

But as every serious runner knows, Milo would always be different. Not only is it the longest running racing series in the country, it is also the most stringent in terms of cutoff times(more on this and their new system in another post). It is really a competition, with the requisite Finals-qualifying cutoff times and elimination rounds. The top Filipino marathoners(like Buenavista) almost always begins their rise to the top by ruling Milo. It is practically our Boston Marathon. What the heck, it might as very well be our national marathon.

I know from experience the wonder and glory of running large marathons overseas. But as a Filipino runner, I would simply feel incomplete if I won’t ever be able to run in the Finals even just once.

I know that not everybody likes the Milo system, in particular its cutoff. Post-race, I’m sure, some would argue in blogs or forums, how elitist it is or how it denies almost half of its participants with even a mention in its finishers list.

While it will make life more difficult for me, personally, I am for Milo retaining its standards. It is one of our last remaining bastions of excellence in the sport, inspiring athletes nationwide to do their best, push their limits, and work hard.

With the proliferation of a dozen other events, the more that Milo should stand its ground: leave the feel-goodery to other events; separate those who would pushed around by a challenge to those who will push back.

On July 4, A-games will be brought, gloves will come off, limits will be pushed. Because for the Filipino runner, all roads lead to Milo.

Tags: 34th National Milo Marathon, Manila Eliminations

Effects

Like many others who have been racing for more than a year, the rise in registration fees changed my racing and training routines:

1. On Overracing.

Even Dr George Sheehan in his book, “Dr. Sheehan On Running” identified overracing as something that athletes must be constantly on the lookout for. Overracing brings either injury or even worse, burnout.

Before, it wasn’t unusual for me to race three times a month. Looking back, it was really just a matter of time then before overracing hits me. And it did: I hobbled on my way to the finishline at the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon.

As I discovered, exorbitant registration fees are a good deterrent to overracing, maybe even better than fear of injury. What I spent on three to four races before is now just good enough for one or two, so I now choose my events carefully. This means that I rarely join anything shorter than a half marathon, but I guess that can’t be helped(I do plan on returning to shorter distances post-Milo).

2. On Discipline.

Unlike others who join races for the photo-ops, or those who classify their races as A, B, or C, I always make it a point to go all out(partly because I’m a big cheapskate). Thus, I got away with not including speedwork in my training: after all, my frequent racing made up for that.

Since my number of races decreased, I didn’t have that luxury anymore. I have to consciously include speedwork in my training repertoire - if I don’t, I won’t be able to go fast on race day. It wasn’t easy - I discovered that going fast is easier when you are running with other people also going fast - such as in a race. When you are in a place where most people are taking it easy - such as the UP Acad Oval - it becomes a different story. You really have to will yourself to go fast. I even had to impose a minimum pace using the GF405 in the beginning. But I think the disciplined training regimen pays off - I’m logging more fast kilometers now than before.

At first, not being able to race with the same frequency as before did bother me. But looking back, all in all, I think that it coincided nicely with(and even contributed to) the (relative)maturation of my race preparation routine. Not to sweet-lemon or sugarcoat, I guess something good did come out of those sky-high registration fees.

Tags: Dr. Sheehan on Running, George Sheehan, injury, registration fees, Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon

Kilometer 815: San Mig Coffee Bay Run Dash for Health 2010

One word to describe my second and last race for the month: hot. In two words: very hot. Can’t we just fast-forward to June?

(Anyway, did anyone see Coach Rio running along side a Kenyan early on in the race? Would’ve made for a great photo-op: “The African and the Afroman”.)

One thing I particularly didn’t like about the race was the placement of water stations. They placed most of the stations on just a single side of the road, so on the way to Luneta, most of the time, runners had to cross the road just to drink. Unfortunately, those were really wide roads. Not only did the process took up precious time, it was dangerous as well since crossing the road meant going counterflow to the returning runners. Most found it too much of a hassle, and simply didn’t stop to drink. Not a very good thing to do in these temperatures.

Also, maybe I’m already being whiny here, but, it would’ve been way better if they just had joint Pocari and water stations, rather than in separate stations located alternatingly.

Anyway, water issues aside, it was an okay event. The clocking seems to be okay(we’ll know for sure once the results come out). The distance of the map-stated route was correctly predicted by the Loony Runner to be off, but they made adjustments, resulting in what I measured to be 14.93 kilometers. Not bad.

I clocked in at 1:14:36, Garmin time. My official time should be a few seconds more than that. My PB is at 1:14:34, set at the Urbanite Run. The Urbanite route was actually tougher than this run’s, since it included McKinley Hill. But considering the temperature difference(the Urbanite Run was a night race), I’m still pretty happy with the result.

Race bib

***RACE SUMMARY***
Event: San Mig Coffee Bay Run Dash for Health 2010
Date/Time: May 23, 2010, 5:30am
Venue: Mall of Asia - Roxas Boulevard
Length: 15 kilometers
Time: 1:14:36(unofficial)
Racer/Bib Number: 0359

Tags: 15K, Kenny’s Open 2009 Urbanite Run, San Mig Coffee Bay Run Dash for Health 2010

Grassroots

Sometimes I wonder whether it’s possible to have a true “For the People, By the People” Race. I mean, not just a cheap race, but a truly free race. A “grassroots” event.

What does a race need anyway?

With lots of people owning a GF305 or 405 - an accurate distance reading should be no problem.

As long as there won’t be too many participants, a simple stopwatch and a mindful finishline marshal should suffice for the timing needs. Nothing fancy but that should work - accurately, even.

As for the water, the participants themselves could bring the water. And no, I don’t mean water bottles that they would carry while racing. It could serve as the “registration fee” - like, one person, 1 Liter(and 3 plastic cups?). The very same water would be used to supply the water stations.

The same would go for the race bibs, the participants would have to bring their own waterproof paper(or buy one from the registration personnel), and the organizers would simply write the designated number.

As for the marshals, well, obviously, there has to be volunteers. People in the past have volunteered in profit-driven races - why not in a race where only their fellow runners would benefit?

The only problem I have yet to figure out is the race route - whether one could be used for free. It might be possible inside large villages.

If the race route problem would be solved, I think a truly grassroots race would be possible. Okay, it won’t exactly be free in a sense that you don’t have to bring anything - as I said, water and bib paper may be required - but there would almost be no cash involved. In essence, what you would use, you would bring.

It definitely won’t be a fancy event. There won’t be much fanfare. There would be no freebies. But it would have the makings of a true race: accurate distance and accurate time. What the heck, even expensive ones sometimes miss those.

An already organized group could pull this off - something like Takbo.ph or a Takbo.ph “chapter”. At the very least, it would be interesting to try. It would also make for an interesting(and cheap) group or club activity - an alternative to group runs.

What do you think?

Tags: fun runs, GF405, grassroots race

Out of the loop

I must admit, there are times when all the running related commercialism is beginning to get to me.

Running-racing is clearly is big business nowadays, and everybody wants a piece of the pie.

I know that big businesses and the well-established brands will always be part of our life. I am not advocating that we all go to Marikina to have our running shoes custom-made or to the neighborhood tailor for our running attire. But I do miss a certain “purity” in the sport.

I go online and what do I find? Race ads(which are okay, as long as they’re not repeated over and over and over - if you know what I mean), product announcements, race or product-related contests. Hey - isn’t running supposed to be about, you know, running?

Maybe that is part of the reason why I had been quite of “out of the loop” lately. Or at least not as “updated” as I used to be. What the heck, I didn’t even know about the Adidas micoach till just a month ago! I just don’t have the motivation to read a dozen articles daily anymore, not when most of them are just trying to get me to buy something. Not only do I not have the need or the money for those stuff, I simply don’t have time.

So I’m leaving the task of knowing each and every product that’s in the market to the “armchair runners”. As for me, I have miles to run.

Tags: commercialization

Men’s Health All Terrain Race(2010 Edition - Nuvali)

Some might think of this as a weird choice considering my previous event was the TNF 100: so that made it two trail races in row. But I joined this race’s edition last year, so what the heck. And besides, I had never been to Nuvali, and I heard some wonderful things about the place, especially as a local racing destination.

The first kilometer or so was just plain road - no problem with that. The initial trails were also very manageable - I had to be more mindful of my footing, but maintaining speed wasn’t a issue. It wasn’t long before things got interesting. I was a bit shocked when I saw the river. I had never been to Nuvali before, so I really didn’t have any expectations. We traversed the river so many times, I already began to lose count. I tripped on a huge rock. Sand and small stones made their way inside my shoes. It was the Sacobia nightmare all over again!

After the river section, runners emerged on a road, which led to a fork. The runner ahead of me was no longer in sight, and when I saw runners coming from the road at the right, I thought that there was a U-turn there. I started down that road.

I must admit, I sensed something was wrong early on: as fast as I ran, I just couldn’t catch up or even see the runner in front of me. There was also no one behind me.

Finally, after more than a kilometer or so, I came upon a security guard who told me: “Sir, hindi po dito, bumalik po kayo!”

And that confirmed it: NALILIGAW AKO! Apparently, the people I saw earlier coming from the road were runners who got lost themselves, and were on their way back to the right path.

I didn’t waste anymore time. I started on my way back. I did reach the fork in the road eventually.

It wasn’t easy finishing the race - the extra kilometers screwed up the original nutrition strategy, and by the time I was covering the 16K-exclusive looping segment, the sun was already shining strongly. Far from ideal racing conditions. It was tough, but then I did make it to the finishline somehow. I crossed the line at around 1:47, with final covered distance of 18.8 km(!). It was a so-so time for 16K, but considering the extra distance, I guess it’s okay.

All in all, it was pretty well-organized event. I did get lost, but that was no one else’s fault but mine. Oh, the medals and the free food were nice touches as well. (Uhm, I usually eat more than twice that amount, I must admit.)

Ack, I need a road race.

***RACE SUMMARY***
Event: Men’s Health All Terrain Race
Date/Time: May 16, 2010, 5:40am
Venue: Nuvali, Santa Rosa, Laguna
Length: 16 kilometers(trail)
Time: 1:47:00(unofficial)
Racer/Bib Number: R16-016

Tags: 16K, Men's Health All Terrain Race, Nuvali, trail

The Difference

A few posts ago, I wondered why the TNF100 which was handled by Runrio last year, was handled by Pinoy Ultra Runners last month.

As I said before, it was an interesting scenario since major events rarely change organizers: Condura and Mizuno are with RACE, Run for Home and Greenfield, with Finishline.

Anyway, for whatever reason that the organizers changed, it was an opportunity to compare “organization styles”. Granted, TNF100 events are notoriously hard to compare with each other(due to differing terrains), but I think it’s still a better comparison(TNF100 2009 by Finishline vs TNF100 2010 by Pinoy Ultra Runners) than say, comparing two totally different races by two different organizers(like Milo vs. Run for Home).

I must admit, at first I thought it would shed some light to the question “Could we have good races with cheaper registration fees? Is the additional cost really necessary? Is is it worth it?”. Unfortunately, however, the registration fee for TNF100 2010 is even greater than that of the 2009 edition: 2000 vs 1800. So much for the cost comparison. I don’t know whether or not  there was a “Finishline price” for this race, or whether they were even considered as the organizers. I am not privy to that information, and I will not speculate.

Nevertheless, I must say that the Pinoy Ultra Runners guys did a decent job of handling the race, at least as good as how the Sacobia race was handled. There were enough directional buntings, marshals were available even late in the night. Runners’ safety, in my opinion, was sufficiently taken care of. There were enough freebies. I loved the tally system back at basecamp where supporters could keep track whether or not their runner already passed a control point and at what time.

In some ways, they even outdid Finishline, such as with the availability of food(kamote, bananas) midrace. I would’ve appreciated something like the unlimited Gatorade at the Clark basecamp though.

As I said, it was pretty comparable performance.

One thing though that was blatantly different and sorely missed(by me anyway) was the high quality singlet. Finishline singlets are hands down the best event singlets out there, when it comes to design, fabric, and printing(Milo singlets are the worst). What I got in my race kit was the usual singlet - made of coarse fabric, and silkscreened.

Actually, a few weeks from now, I would be racing in the Men’s Health All Terrain Race. Like the TNF100, it was handled by Finishline last year, but not anymore this year. I already saw the singlet, and same case: last year’s singlet was way better.

Anyway, it would be interesting to see how this Finishline “substitute” would fare. I’m hoping that the low quality singlet would be the greatest of my complaints, if not the only one.

Tags: Men's Health All Terrain Race, RACE, Runrio, singlets, TNF 100

Across borders

A few days ago, I got curious about what the TNF100 races in other countries are like.

There are 6 countries in the TNF100 series, but as of the moment, only four are “active”: ours, Australia, China and Singapore. Japan and Thailand are in the list-of-6, but I don’t think they held the event in the past two years.

(These all refer to the 2010 editions.)

The Australia race resembles our race, with the exception that there is just one big 100 K loop. There are no requirements for entry. The cutoff is 28 hours(2 less than ours). One cool thing about this race is that they give away buckles for the finishers(think Badwater), and the kind of buckle differ with the finish time. Way cool.

The China race features a non-looping point-to-point course. That is, the starting line and the finish line are different, and there is no basecamp unlike in our races. China’s a very big country anyway, so I guess they could afford that. Also, unlike our TNF100 where there are no entry requirements and anyone who pays could run, they are a bit more demanding:

i. 100KM Result Certificate from The North Face 100® 2009 Beijing Changping Outdoor Endurance Challenge Run;
ii. Or at least three full marathon result certificates (including one result better than 3 hours 45 minutes in past two years）
iii. Or at least three long distance running events (longer than 40KM) result certificates with good results

Wow. I don’t know about requirement 1, but I certainly won’t qualify via requirement 2: while I have the number of finishes, there is that 3:45 hurdle. I’m assuming they mean ultramarathons in Requirement 3, so that’s no good either. I have just one -  also, would 100 kilometers in 28 hours qualify as a good result?

There are supposedly area cutoff times in this race, but I can’t seem to find them in their website.

Now the Singapore race seems to be toughest TNF100 of them all. Strictly invitational, runners who want to “get invited” must meet certain qualifications(proofs must be submitted):

i. 84km ultra-marathon within 10hrs
ii. 50km The North Face 100 within 7hrs
iii. Other 100km races in less than 17hrs
iv. Completion of any official race > 100km
v. Or any other equivalent race

The cutoff for this race? 18 hours. Now, considering there would be trails, that’s tough.

As for qualifying, the easiest would be via Requirements 4 and 5, although I must say, they seem to be poor indicators of fitness for this race. I mean,  technically, finishing BDM102(requirement 4) or a Philippine TNF100(requirement 5), would do, but if your finish time is 18 hours or 30 hours respectively, finishing the Singapore TNF100 would be really really tough.

I guess we could say that our TNF100 is in fact more lenient than others, at least when it comes to entry requirements(we practically have none) and the cutoff time(longest of all with 30 hours). Nevertheless, that does not paint the whole picture, since the difficulty of the terrain should also be taken into consideration(just imagine imposing 18 hours in Baguio). Another interesting stat to know would be the “finishing rate” of all the races(ours stand at roughly 50%).

Another conclusion? Wherever the TNF100 is, it’s one hell of a race.

Tags: TNF 100, ultramarathon

Another era

When I was reading Dr Sheehan on Running a few weeks ago, one of the first things that came to my mind was “This book won’t sell well if it was released in this decade.”

Aside from the fact that his essays could be quite long(too long for a blog post anyway), he also goes against what has come to be the “prevailing” running philosophy. To prove my point, early in his book(Chapter 3) you will find:

Why is running not the best exercise?

Only 10-15% of people are natural runners who will stick to it. Others who are more athletic and muscular will run only as part of another sport. Those who tend to be more broad than long will not run at all. Sport to them is walking, cycling, skating skiing or swimming.

How will I know if running is my exercise?

If you ran in school, tend to be narrow rather than wide, have small wrists and weigh in pounds twice your height in inches, you will probably like to run…

Compare that what to John Bingham - one of the most popular writers about running today - said:

If you run, you are a runner. It doesn’t matter how fast or how far. It doesn’t matter if today is your first day or if you’ve been running for twenty years. There is no test to pass, no license to earn, no membership card to get. You just run.

I guess the runners of old really lived in a totally different era back then.

Tags: Dr. Sheehan on Running, George Sheehan, John Bingham

TNF 100 2010: Retrospect

Credits

I have a confession to make.

I hate being anywhere near sentimental in race reports. I actually cringe a bit at my first few full marathon race reports. I’d rather have my races be mainly about time splits, game plan executions, attack patterns and finisher rankings than anything else.

But I think I’d make an exception with this one. Because whether I like it or not, be it embarrassing or not, I really owe a lot of people for this accomplishment.

Well, there’s my base camp crew, and my dad, who opted to accompany me for the night leg.

There’s Miss Rashell, Mark and the guy-from-UP-Los-Banos-whose-name-I-did-not-get, the people a few places in front of me when I made my back to Base Camp for the first loop.

On the non-racers, there’s Miss Rashell’s husband who gave us ice candies, and Sir Resty, who might as well have been the unofficial photographer of the TNF 100. Oh, and there’s also the guys who gave food to the runners near the mandatory gear inspection point. Believe me, seemingly small acts of kindness take on bigger proportions in an event such as an ultra.

Among the other runners, there were, of course, the other bloggers and “classmates” - there’s Bards and Carlo - man, you’d really appreciate a familiar face during the night leg when all of Baguio seems to be sleeping. Of course fellow finishers Sir Jonel and Dennis who I shared the last 5 kilometers or so with.

And the 22K runners who congratulated(a bit prematurely then) that guy-who-can’t-seem-to-wait-get-to-the-finish line-and-sleep(that’s me!).

To everyone who helped in anyway, and I may have forgotten here - thanks! Sorry for forgetting, it was, after all, almost 30 hours of staying awake and running and walking and climbing hills.

Remembering Sacobia

It was obviously, a tough race. What the heck, it is my toughest race so far. It started off great, but my inability to stave off blisters obviously almost did me in.

Just like the TNF 100 last year, or maybe like all TNF 100s all over the world(there are 6 countries with TNF 100 races), this race is not just about power, but also about knowledge and experience, and guts.

To borrow and modify what a fellow runner said about the marathon - “Hindi biro ang TNF100″.

But I went to Baguio with a mission in mind: to finish and somehow “avenge” Sacobia. Looking back my battlecry for this race was really “Remember Sacobia”. It took a lot of help, a lot of suffering, but now I could proudly say: Mission Accomplished!

So would I do it again?

Well, I still prefer the road over the trail. By a huge margin.

And while I believe in getting out of your comfort zone once in a while, I think one ultra is enough for this year.

I must admit, my main concern right now is recovering ASAP, and training for July, not when or where the next TNF 100 or ultra would be.

And with that, I close the TNF 100 chapter. Well, at least, the 2010 edition.

Tags: Baguio, TNF 100, trail, ultramarathon