My Miracle Run

This is my 100th post and I will write about my recent run, the Men's Health Miracle Run. It's a miracle that I was able to finish the 10K run. I normally wouldn't have a problem finishing a 10K run but not this time. It took me over 15 mins more to cross the finish line than my average finish time. Good thing this run was all about just being able to finish in order for MH to donate P200/runner to the GMA foundation.


But the real question here is "Why did it take me that long to finish the 10K run"? There's only one answer. Blame it on my injured knee. Yes, it's the same left knee that I injured during the rush to infinity run last June 29. After getting that injury, I stopped running to let it heal. Problem is I didn't go to the doctor like I said I would to have it checked. I was hoping it would heal itself and that I would be back to normal by the time I run again which is why I skipped running for more than a month. And a day before the run, I even bought a Phiten UPS Titan Tape roll hoping that it would help prevent any pain.

I was psychologically ready for the run. I woke up early and was at the venue an hour before the run would start. I made sure that I did the proper stretching and was able to do a few laps around the parking lot for my warm up. But even during the warm up run, I started to feel a little pain on that stubborn knee. I would later learn that the pain was only the preview of more pain to come.

I was relaxed and was chatting with Wa when the run started. Since we were positioned at the back of the crowd, we had to walk for a while but eventually started to run when the crowd started to disperse and there was more room to run. I thought that if the pain would reoccur then it would probably be around the 5K mark. But no, my knee has its own mind. I started to feel the pain even before I reached 2K. I had to slow down but that would not stop me from running. I almost reached 5K without walking or stopping. I tried as hard as I can to forget about the pain until I could no longer take it which eventually forced me to walk a few hundred meters before reaching 5K. And it was downhill from there. While the others were running, I had to walk and walk I did for more than half of the remaining 5K. It was frustrating! Nevertheless, I am still thankful that I was able to finish.

A big lesson learned here. An injury cannot heal itself. I have to go see a doctor. I have to run regularly. I have to! I have to!

A big thanks to Wa as well for accompanying me during my walks. Hehe..

Men's Health ATR Results are out!

The 2008 Men's Health ATR results are out!

My official time is 1:20:15 for the approximately 12K trail run. I placed 38 in my age group (31-40) and 94 in the Men's ranking. I was the 108th to finish in the overall rankings. Not bad at all considering that I was in pain more than half of the race! Haha..

I am happy with my time. It can only get better next time.. hehe.. Looking forward to the next Men's Health event.. Urbanathlon!!

Back to Back Runs this Weekend

I have not posted anything for weeks now. Been really really busy with work lately. =( I'm going to blog about my back to back runs this weekend.

We're organizing our 1st ever (hopefully the start of many more to come) team fun run. It's called the Finsys Payment Run. Finsys is our team in HP and Payment Run is something the Treasury folks do in SAP. Haha..

Anyway, it's a pledged run and all proceeds will be going to kythe. The run will be tomorrow (June 14). The runner turnout is not that many but I hope we would be able to generate a good amount of money to give to kythe.

I'm really happy about this run because it is for a good cause. Thanks to Tiano for coming up with this idea.

Then there's the Men's Health All-terrain race on Sunday. This is one of the runs I really look forward to every year because it is a different challenge on the usual road races. It's still going to be held at Timberland Heights and in time for Father's day.

I already have my race kit and I hope I won't be too tired to run.

MH All-Terrain Race 2008

I just got my April copy of Men's Health Philippines and they already have an ad for the 3rd MH All-Terrain Race. It will be on June 15, same venue as last year at Timberland Heights, San Mateo Rizal.

This is one of the races I look forward to every year simply because it's different from other runs which is normally done on road pavements. This one is more challenging because it's on different terrains.

I hope this year men's health gives out singlets instead of T-shirts. Or if they decide to give T-shirts, I hope it's dri-fit type of material similar to the ones given by Mizuno during the Mizuno Run.

Men's Health folks.. I hope you get to read this. hehe..

Meanwhile, there are runs to look forward to in April and May.