The night before I left Seattle, I was in my friend’s birthday party. While at the party, I missed answering an unexpected call from Coach Rio! I was wondering why he was calling and how did he get my US cellphone number. I called him and found out that he will also be running the US Half Marathon as preparation for Fresno marathon.

Saturday, I was rushing to the airport only to find out that my flight to San Francisco was delayed by 1.5 hours due to the fog. I arrived in San Francisco Airport and took the BART from the airport to Embarcadero to meet up with Wayne. It was nice seeing Wayne again after last year’s VSO and New Balance Power Race. We stopped by my hotel first to drop off my things before meeting up with Dennis, Per and Rio for lunch at Fisherman’s Wharf. After lunch we then headed to Sports Basement to pick-up our race packets and do some bargain hunting .

Race day, Coach Rio and I jogged from the hotel to the starting line. After a few minutes, everybody from the “Philippine contingent” started to arrived. At 7AM we were off – Coach Rio and Wayne at the front while Dennis, Per and me at the middle. Since I wasn’t in good shape coming into this race and is treating this race as part of my marathon training, I decided to help out Dennis in pacing Per for a new PR.

It was fun running with Dennis and Per, we would stop at some points and take photos. As with my first marathon, I brought my camera and took a lot of pictures especially of us running on the Golden Gate Bridge. Everything was going fine until we got down the bridge. I started cramping first on my right leg and then on my left. It was about 5km from the finish line but it felt like I still need to complete 21 kms more. Dennis was kind enough to accompany me and give me his extra GU and Sport Beans. I was alternating between brisk walking, running,and stretching on the sandy trail. Reaching the Marina, I told Dennis to go ahead and catch up with Per. I reached the finish line with Coach Rio, Wayne, Dennis and Per cheering me on.

hard earned medal

Running the Golden Gate Bridge is one of my awesome running experiences. Thank you to Dennis, Per, Coach Rio and Wayne. Hopefully on my next races, I will bump in to my other friends from the Philippines.

some photos c/o of Dennis. more photos here

Summer has been beautiful here in Seattle. It’s only in the last 2 weeks that we had rain which is the usual Seattle fall weather. According to a weather forecast here, the last heavy rains we got were remnants of typhoon Parma. After leaving the Philippines this typhoon decided to visit Seattle huh?

For the past 3 weeks, my runs were limited to 10Ks every Saturday and Sunday. And last Saturday, I still ran despite the rain. I love running in the rain but here it’s a different story. Fast forward to Monday. I woke up feeling heavy and tired. Only  two hours after I started working I was already feeling drowsy and could barely keep my eyes opened. I decided to leave the office after lunch and work from home.

I woke up Tuesday not feeling any better. One of my officemate sent me a link to symptoms of seasonal flu and swine flu via instant messenger. Not swine flu please. Not this time. US Half Marathon and Seattle Marathon (and Friday night hangouts…hehe). These were the thoughts running through my mind. Going home after work, I dropped by a market to buy pho soup and NyQuil. I was knocked down 30 minutes after taking NyQuil.

I woke up this morning feeling a lot better. I was supposed to do a Thursday run to catch up with my training but would skip it to fully recover. US Half Marathon is 10 days away. Guess I would say goodbye to a 21K PR and just take it easy.

- US Half Marathon and Amica Seattle Marathon

- Two races for November. US Half Marathon on Nov 1 and Amica Seattle Marathon on Nov 29.

- US Half Marathon would be my second race outside Washington state. It will be my second time to visit the city of San Francisco as well.

- Amica Seattle Marathon would marathon number 2. Marathon #1 was also here in Seattle.

Get ready for this year’s hottest running event!  Don’t miss “Time is Running: The 2009 Timex Run with Coach Rio and Piolo Pascual,” a 3km, 5km, 10km, and 21km run on November 15, 2009 at the Bonifacio Global City (beside NBC tent).  Get a chance to run with everyone’s favorite running guru and one of the hottest male actors of our time.  Beat the mad dash for these limited and highly-coveted slots.  Only 3000 race kits will be up for grabs, which includes a singlet and timing chip, complete with professional actions shots by Photovendo and Runpix analysis

Regular registration is from October 4 to November 1 at Timex shops (SM North, SM Megamall, SM Mall of Asia, SM Southmall, and Glorietta 3), Nike Park Bonifacio High Street, The Trion Towers site showroom , Robinsons Land Corporation grand showroom (Robinsons Galleria), and AmiSa showroom (Robinsons Place Manila).

Late registration is from November 2 to 9 at the Timex shop SM North Edsa, and Trion Towers Mckinley parkway Cor. 8 ave, Bonifacio Global City

Part of the proceeds goes to the Timex-UNICEF school in Masbate.

For online registration, visit www.runrio.com.  For more information, call 7031736

Yey! My blog has turned ONE (actually I forgot about it).

Thanks to this blog, I’ve gained friends who share the same passion as me. Here’s to another year of running, blogging and gaining more friends!

Work has been crazy this past few weeks and I haven’t had the time to look for a bike. I guess I will Tri some other time.

Three of my officemates have signed up for the Kirkland Triathlon. I’ve mentioned a couple of times my desire in doing triathlon but I fear that the Kirkland Triathlon is too soon. I know that I can run and bike. Swimming? Uhm..I don’t think so. Sure I can swim but I find it hard to complete just one lap on the pool.

This weekend (or next week), I will give swimming a try. If I do good, I might sign-up for the sprint triathlon. If not, there is a Tri-IT (1/4 mile swim instead of 1/2 mile) or duathlon (bike and run). We’ll see how it goes.

Torchlight Run – July 25 Downtown Seattle. It’s is part of Seattle’s Seafair – the month long summer festival. This will also be my first race after my first marathon.

-

US Half Marathon – November 1 San Francisco. I will be invading SFRunner’s beloved city. Running Fatboy and Per will also be running.

-

Seattle Marathon – November 29 Seattle. My second marathon and I would be taking a shot of finishing in less than 5 hours.

-

]]> http://vballrunner.wordpress.com/2009/07/16/next-races/feed/ 2 ibetlacbay torchrun_2009 US Half Seattle Marathon http://vballrunner.wordpress.com/2009/07/07/run-radio/ http://vballrunner.wordpress.com/2009/07/07/run-radio/#comments Tue, 07 Jul 2009 17:03:32 +0000 ibetlacbay http://vballrunner.wordpress.com/?p=958 ]]>

For the past few years, running as a sport has increasingly become popular among Filipinos, leading to the prevalence of road races around Metro Manila. The aforementioned races has become a congregation not just of people from all walks of life united in their love for running and resolution to lead a healthy and fit lifestyle. From elite athletes to weekend warriors, from multisport enthusiasts to the weight-watcher, running has become an integral part in the public’s efforts to keep fit.

With running at its peak, the idea for producing a viable medium to promote and sustain the sport’s presence in the public eye came, hence the idea to produce Run Radio.

 Run Radio will be a 60-minute radio show featuring the following segments that both newbie and serious runners (and to an extent, non-runners too!) would find interesting — product review, advice segment (docs, coaches, nutritionists), power songs (to pump up your adrenaline as you run!), hitting the wall with our guest runners (from celebrities to running groups), and the 5k challenge where non-runners from all walks of life will transform into a 5k finisher in a matter of 6-8 weeks.

The show will be hosted by Jaymie Pizarro, a known catalyst for influencing people to take up running as a lifestyle choice, and Jay Nacino, a former Ateneo track team member who has rekindled his love for running. Both hosts are known figures in the running circuit through their blogs (http://thebullrunner.com for Pizarro and http://prometheuscometh.wordpress.com for Nacino) where they give detailed accounts of their training, their races, and running in general.

 Also to be featured in the nutrition, coaching, and injury prevention segment would be premiere race organizer and running coach Rio dela Cruz, nutritionist and triathlete Dr. George Bodegon, and ultramarathoner and orthopedic surgeon Dr. Paolo Punsalan. They are among the many other experts who will give the running public advice on how to keep healthy while training for higher mileage.

 Moreover, our resident product tester would be shoe expert and ultramarathoner Hector Yuzon, founder of the Second Wind running store.

 The Nike+ 5K Challenge aims to dare non-runners to make running an integral part of their lives. For this season, our challenger is an MBA student who seeks to combat the unhealthy , sedentary lifestyle. Ten Outstanding Young Students awardee and Ateneo de Manila batch valedictorian Patrick Echevarria will be trained by the Nike Running Clinic for eight weeks until he starts running his first 5k race.

 Run Radio will start airing on July 24 at NU 107, and will continue to air every Fridays, 9-10pm.

 Run Radio is made possible by Nike, Print Avenue, Botak, Finishline.ph, Pinoy Ultra Runners, Second Wind Running Store, and RUNNR.

 For the latest updates please visit http://www.nu107fm.com/profile/runradio

This is so cool! I didn’t know that they would have a video of you crossing the finish line. Seattle rocks!

link to video here