Marathon #3 - The Subic Internation Marathon - 27 January 2013

The Subic International Marathon (SIM) has one of the toughest road race courses in the Philippines. It is held within the vicinity of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA). It starts in the center of town right in front of the fairly new Harbor Point Mall, goes past the Subic Airport then goes through the forest where you make a U-turn right outside Ocean Adventure and go all the way back where you originally started from.

Subic Marathon 2013 Course Map

Sounds easy enough, but once you enter the forest, you will need to go up steep ascents that can go on up to 120m and that seemed never-ending. 

The Preparation

By this time, I've learned my lesson about getting proper training before taking on these long-distance races. So I signed up for the 5th season of the Milo APEX Running School.

Milo APEX Running School Season 5 42KM group

I also joined several races like the 8KM Immuvit Challenge in Nuvali which was a semi-trail, semi-obstacle run (much like the Tough Mudder)

Marathon #2: The 36th Milo Marathon Manila Eliminations - 29 July 2012

The Milo Marathon event is the longest running and, by far, one of the cheaper races you can join in the Philippines. In the last 2-3 years, when RunRio took over directorial duties for the race, the volume of participants during the Manila elimination leg have dramatically risen. Race organizers have had to quickly cope to be able to accommodate a very large group that can reach up to almost 40,000 runners who've signed up for one of these events: 

• 3K (for kids below 18 years old)
• 5K
• 10K
• 21K
• 42K

An seemingly endless sea of runners in the 5KM event

Every year, starting in the month of June until the month of December, Milo hosts an elimination leg in several major cities around the Philippines. Except for Manila, all the other provincial legs don't have the 42K as a running event.

In the provincial races, runners who finish the 21K race within the qualifying times set for their respective age groups, get the chance to run in the 42K finals happening every 2nd Sunday of December. Since 2012, runners in the Manila eliminations leg can run either the 21K or the 42K to get qualified for the finals. Before then, you can only qualify if you run the 42K in Manila.

Proceeds from all the Milo races help fund their advocacy to distribute new pairs of shoes to children who attend school in marginalized areas. In 2013 they were able to give away a record-breaking 34,200 pairs!

Milo Marathon's advocacy

Take Two!

After having run my first marathon earlier in 2012, I felt unsatisfied about my finish time. I knew I can do better, especially if I run a race on my own. Since I was still very much part of the Milo APEX Running School community back then, I decided I will run my next marathon during the Manila elimination leg of the 36th Milo Marathon and also sign up for Milo APEX's season 4 to prepare for

Marathon #1: The Bull Runner Dream Marathon - 18 March 2012

If you're a runner in the Philippines, you would have heard about a lady named Jaymie Pizarro, also known as The Bull Runner.

Jaymie and Jim Lafferty thought up the TBR Dream Marathon and brought it to life in 2009. It's a marathon designed for first- and second-time marathon runners. They've developed a 5-month long training programme to prepare aspirants for their first full marathon. Getting a slot in the race nowadays is a test of patience and very fast fingers because they run out in a matter of minutes! The number of participants are limited to the several hundreds so that the training team can make sure that everyone get the most out of the preparation and the experience of their first ever (or second) full marathon.

The Dream Marathon has only one event: the full marathon. And it's the only race in the world where everyone who crosses the finish line is a winner. You are very well taken care of from the moment you receive your training kit until race day - and when I say, well taken care of, I mean very well taken care of. 

Having heard about this running event within the running circles I belong to, and having convinced myself that I should try marathon running, I couldn't think of a better venue than TBRDM. The race also has a leisurely cut-off time of 8 hours, so there's not a lot of pressure, considering that I was able to manage to finish all of the half marathons I ran in under 3 hours. 

So on one fine day in September, I was glued to my computer, waiting for the exact time that reservation opened and signed up for the race without blinking. Several days afterward, I got

The Beginning

I started taking running seriously in 2010. I didn't mean to when I started trying it out, but it... grew on me.

I've been an athlete for most of my life and running is usually part of our training programme so I didn't think much about it. So I didn't quite understand the growing fascination about it. You see, that was the time when the running craze in the Philippines was brewing (it would eventually explode within the next two years). So my initial thoughts were that I was going to get bored of it easily and will quit it after a short time. Well, I was very wrong in thinking that wasn't I?

The First Time

I think it was around February of that year when it occurred to me that I was spending too much of my spare time doing mostly nothing. It was all getting into my head and I just needed a good distraction or else the inactivity will eventually drive me crazy.

So I unearthed my old pair of rubber shoes (those weren't even proper running shoes), put them on, and went out to run. And it felt good.

I ran from the condominium I was staying at until the entrance gate of the compound and then back - that was around 3 KM. I would do it again in the morning in the following days and try to beat my time