The good news is, for the second straight year we've been nominated to the Philippine Blog Awards under the Best Sports Blog category. And the kicker is this year we finally made it as a finalist wohoo :) Not sure who were the other running sites nominated, but best of luck to you my friends. Thank you so much for your support and for continuing to enjoy my material. The bad news is that my site is acting up, of all times geez. Something went awry with the coding and it's not displaying the articles on the home page properly. Ugh. The worst possible thing would be for the fancy PBA judges to go through my site and see one miserly, zero comment article there along with a shaky layout. Smirk. I'm just hoping for the best. Awards night is on December 12 at the Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium at RCBC. I'll keep you guys updated as things progress.
Is this our year?
- Congratulations to all those who finished QCIM, level uppers and PR pounders alike. I ran the course last year, had a horrific time with parking and traffic but was memorable nonetheless for being my first sub-2 hour 21k. It also had the best medal of last season IMHO. Although I had completely no issues against it, the common gripe last year was that there was a lack of hydration. Apparently, there's always an angry mob. This year, the word out on the grapevine is all about inaccurate results and distances aside from the deletion of a Facebook page. This has spurred a hotly contested debate on this Takbo.ph forum thread. Register if you can't read it haha. Pockets of vitriol (albeit unrequited) are being spewed towards the path of Runnex and long-time Takbo.ph denizen Rene Villarta, better known in the general blogosphere as the Jazzrunner. With emotions running high, some of these interjections are better off left unpublished. As someone who has similarly been on the receiving end of these snide online remarks, I can only empathize. It's fair to state one's opinion, it's a free country anyway. It's another to degenerate into name calling and group bashing, specially in a public forum. We're all mature individuals aren't we?
Being interviewed at QCIM 09'. Whew it's been a year already.
- Stay.Away.From.The. Ham.
- And Krispy Kreme. Krispy Kreme = Bad.
- I am the only one having trouble getting up in the morning to run, with this pseudo-Baguio cold and all? Got to love that holiday lethargy. Run = Bad. Krispy Kreme and Holiday Ham = Good.
- Another note on QCIM, I would like to personally congratulate my good friend Marga Baula for finishing her very first marathon. I've known her since her very first race, and she's come a long way. She is a shining example of that other, non-competitive but just as blood and guts side of our sport. While she may have come in at last place about 9 hours after the starting gun, her steely resolve and determination to finish in light of unspeakable odds is truly an inspiration to us all. Read all about her heartfelt account here.
Marga rocks.
- Brooks' Green Silence is probably the coolest name I've ever seen for a running shoe. It name suggests that diabolical nuclear weapon that dictators keep in their back yard. Cool.
I just realized it's not er, green.
- I received a late, red-blooded invite to the Nike Run Manila gig at Fort last Sunday. Kinda ironic because I handle Adidas ANR Ortigas, but what the heck seems like a fun gig. Oh the loyalty. Figured that since the plan was to do a brick workout anyway, might as well do it in a competitive race environment away from the crush at QCIM. The funny thing is, I've been away from the races for so long that poor lil' ol me doesn't even know how to use a D-tag. Boo hoo. Good thing I ran into race director extraordinaire Ian Alacar while trolling the grounds, thanks for helping this ignorant fool out buddy. Not too many people, was estimated at around 2,500 give or take. Field was stockpiled with fast varsity runners after strong tie-ups with schools. Rio (patiently doing his Obama-plastered smile while being snapped up for autographs and pictures ) did a patently good job with this . I struggled with a 22:34 time (good for only 81st out of 2,344 runners, testament to a strong field) about a minute and a half off my best time but the result was otherwise satisfactory. I had to rely on a furious challenge from some ultrafit varsity gals towards the end for that final push. Thanks gals, give one to the old guy. Was nice hanging with blogosphere heavyweights Jaymie/TBR and Vimz/Kulit Runner after, as well as with TPB bud Mark Mulder who finished 59th. Go to Vimz' site for the full results, I'm a lazy slob to post it on here. People were hyped over the Nike + doll that they gave away in lieu of a medal, I thought it was awesome. In related news, my Nike + doll is now the property of Ultramarathoner Abby :P
Till next week folks, congratulations to everybody on an awesome race weekend. :)