Wednesday, January 16, 2008

The Clark Challenge

"There ain't no shame looking at a good runner's back. Now, if the runner sucks, that's something else entirely…

~ The Rage, Training Tips "Comeback "~

event streamer

The stage for the awarding ceremony.

track

START-FINISH line after the event. Organizers are still waiting for 42 km finishers.

Me and five more friends headed to Angeles City, Pampanga for the 2008 Clark Freeport International Marathon. We left Quezon City at around 3:25 am and arrived at the CDC Staff House, the assembly point at 5:00 am. At that time, the 42 km runners were already starting and immediately, we spotted long distance veteran and two-time Olympian Eduardo Buenavista, 29. He currently holds the Philippine record for multiple long distance events. His best marathon record holds at 2:18:44 hours.

At around 5:45 am, we checked in and got ourselves ready for the 10 km run. Four of my colleagues (Arni, May, Eric and Alex) have been participating in this event for awhile. This is my second run, while Dan’s first. Arni is way at the top of our league since she’s already a triathlete and would be joining the Ironman Triathlon in China. In a way, joining this local event serves as a good training for the coming tough challenge.

women's finisher

The mighty Jho-an Banayag getting near at the 42km finish line. She finished it with an official time record of 3:02:51 hours. She is the first finisher in the women's division and 15th in the overall category. A tough lady to beat!

congratulatory remarks

Fellow runners congratulating the first 42K finisher from Kenya, Hillary Lagat. He takes home $7,000 with a running record of 2:26:29 hours. Huwaw!

Hillary Lagat

He seems happy that a lot of Filipinos look up to him. Afterall, running the 42 km is no JOKE.

the group

Meet my running group: (L-R) Dan, Alex, Arni, and Eric. May and I should be in this photo. :-(

At the strike of 6 am, we heard the gunshot and headed for the 10 km run. While most of the runners were aiming for the huge prize ($7,000), we're there to improve our running record. We heard another gunshot, this time for the 5km run.

After 15 minutes, the 5km runners were heading for the finish line. Leading the pack was the 22-year old, Ducusin with a record of 16:29 minutes. Thirty seconds after, the 10kmrunners were heading for the finish line. Leading the pack was the 20-year old Ronoh, a Kenyan with a race record of 31:57 minutes. For the full marathon (42km), another Kenyan won the challenge, Hillary Lagat, 30 with 2:26:29 record. The first 42km female finisher was Southeast Asian Games veteran, Jho-an Banayag with 3:02:51 running time.

Looks like the Kenyan runners kicked the asses of our Filipino best runners!

I was quite disappointed about the turnabout of Buenavista’s run. He was leading during the first 20 km only to quit due to exhaustion. :-(

I got what I came there for, to improve my running record. I was hoping to run the 10K for 1:30 hour (for security reason, hehehe!) but I finished it for 1:04. That is good for now.

We are bound for the Subic Marathon 2008 this Sunday...

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11 comments:

haggis basher said...

RUNNING!!!

Not a hope in Hell you'd get me doing that.

I'll sit on the side lines cheering you on while I munch on Shawarma for breakfast!

Anonymous said...

Wow! Congrats on your record! I feel guilty when I read your post. Haven't been running for a long time. Anyway, hope you enjoyed yourself at the marathon!

Anonymous said...

Andyan ka pala?! Haha. Funny because while we were in Boracay, one of the blogger, Fernando was monitoring the event. He was one of the organizer of the run and was relaxing with us.

Galing naman! Anong time mo sa 10k? Dapat nga kasama ka sa picture :P

Balita ko nga dumayo pa yang mga kenyans na yan a few days before from Indonesia just to compete here. Sana manalo tayong pinoy next year

Anonymous said...

Tena koe ehoa
Great result Rayts and good on you for bettering your time.
This series of images is great look at your local sports event.

my gulch said...

@mike:
well i can imagine you watching and cheering me on. there's good in everything that we do, whether it's running a mile or as simple as sitting in a corner munching a Shawarma ;-)

@tien:
thank you. i will be joining at least 3 events this whole month. there's a whole line-up of running activity here in Manila alone. the advantage of course is that we get to improve our time record every now and then. the disadvantage is that i hardly done anything much this week, except to increase mileage. thus, making it a bit difficult to blog.

@Ferdz:
talaga? katuwa naman pala. masaya siya, ang daming nag-participate! Having the Kenyans around sort of added the "international" flavor to the event. tapos nanalo sa 42km at 10km parehong Kenyans pa. balita nga namin, makikita na naman namin sila sa Subic Marathon this weekend. baka sila na naman mag-uwi ng $5000. ang ninipis nila pero ang bibilis tumakbo grabe.if you look at the top 10 world long distance runners, nangunguna ang mga Kenyan, kaya di na nakapagtataka na kina-career talaga nila ang pagtakbo. running time ko pala sa 10km ay 1:04.

@ndiginiz:
thank you...and nice to see your commet here. been awhile.

Diong said...

Congrats!Di ko alam yur into running... gusto ko maging marathon runner... pero body ko sabi... ayaw. hehe

Anonymous said...

Congratulations on the record ate! I'm proud of you!

Hopefully you'll run the Subic Marathon better too. All the best ha!

(:

As for Batanes do take your time. It's already a big favor of you sending it to me and I truly appreciate the thought. Honestly.

pieterbie said...

Hey wow, terrific.
I wish I cold run again, hope the knee will permit it some day again.
Great shots, your buddies look like great people.

my gulch said...

@diong:
kaya mo yan! tiyagaan din lang ang running saka siyempre endurance. iba ang dicipline in ini-impose sa mga long distance runners. unang kalaban talaga 'exhaustion' hehehe!

@Kyels:
hi there! no worries. i've been looking forward to send you this movie myself. i checked every now and then at the lvideo store so hopefully, it will get to you soon. by the way, a friend of mine spotted Ken Zhu at the mall and realized that he is really a tall guy. ;-)

@peter:
thanks. take it easy on the knee. yes they are good people. if there's one thing we all have in common, it's the "passion for running and the will to improve". ;-)

Anonymous said...

it's not only that you have a kind heart rayts, you also have a healthy heart din pala. :P

Toe said...

Wow, congratulations Rayts! :) You should have done the Angkor Wat half-marathon... meron ding 10K don.

Galing... what happened kaya sa Subic marathon?

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