Best Weekend for the Gang

With all of us participating in different races this first weekend of August, it takes Run Ma to glue all the accounts together -- and what a weekend it was. Article written by Ting Pascual - our Run Ma.

The start of August 2008, considered by some to be a ghost month seems to have started well for the Running group of Run Ma. It was a weekend of firsts and new PR (personal records) for everyone. Of course, as I write did, I did nothing more than watch again from the sidelines, sigh…

August 2 was a big day for Rico. He did the Olympic distance triathlon event at Subic. Olympic distance is 1.5k swim, 40k bike and 10k run. Timing was not so good for Rico since he injured his thigh and shoulder from a bike accident the weekend before the big day. Nonetheless, he ended the event with a new PR of 2:56:42!!! He placed 23/71 runners while Fernando Zobel was 24th. Rico who normally goes up the podium for most tri events with age group 46 to 50 was complaining since the age group at Subic was 40 to 29. He should have ended a podium finisher if it was the usual age group.

On August 3, the group was split into 3 run events – Fun Run in support of autism at Fort Bonifacio, the Milo Marathon at Manila and the SF Marathon at SF, USA. Dante participated in the Fort run and did broke his PR of 0:29:03 for a 5k run to finish at 0:25:14!!! What a run!!! Time to move up to 10k Dante! Dante said the rain and the flat terrain helped make this major improvement in his 5k performance.

Dante and Bayantrade Running Gang

On the same day, August 3, the gang was surprised to learn that Ed participated in the Milo Marathon. Not for the 10k event but for the full marathon. He prepared for 5 weeks only! Very aggressive considering he has not even participated in any half marathon event. He attempted to register twice for a half marathon but this distance seems to be elusive and he was not able to do both so he decided to move on to a full marathon. His determination and training paid off, he completed the 42k distance in an official time of 5:02:52! What a feat for a first time marathoner.

Ed's First Time Full Marathon Experience!!

Too bad, the rain was too strong for Run Ma to take any photos of Dante nor Ed. (Photos of Dante from Bayantrade Gang were given after article was submitted. Moy also sent me additional photos of Ed later.) Rain was very welcome though as it helped improve the time of both runners as you can see from the results.

At San Francisco, Johnny sent an SMS message to Run Ma to complain about how cold it was during the SF Marathon event. Full documentation of the event is on his blog with matching photos. What an experience for Johnny to be able to participate in a run abroad. Another PR set!!! From Johnny’s 0:37:41 best 5k time to 0:34:19 and he was not even ready for the super cold weather during the run.

What a good weekend for everyone. Results would have made any mom proud!