My First Official Trail Run at the Salomon Xtrail Run 2013

The Salomon Xtrail Run 2013 is an annual run organized by the top brand for trail running parapernalia, Salomon Philippines. This year, they promised to be the most technical trail run of the season. On March 23 at the Hamilo Coast, Pico de Loro, Nasugbu, Batangas, I joined this event as my first official trail running event.

Pre Race

I shunned trail runs because of the possibility of getting myself and my shoes dirty. (Ewww, putik) But last year, I had no choice but to run in the trails of Wilmington, Delaware. So I grown an appreciation for trail running and I even bought myself trail running shoes. The longest I ran on those running trails was 10k. It was difficult and my body was aching all over the following day but the trail made me stronger. I wouldn't leave road races but I opened myself up to joining trail runs. (Ibang usapan yung mud/putik run, magsolo na kayo duon. Cheerer na lang ako!)

Arriving at Pico de Loro

When my friends invited me to join the Salomon XTrail Run, I was easily swayed to registering since I'll be running with them and that should be fun. We even registered together para sunod sunod ang number sa race bib.

PRC at Pico de Loro

Sunod sunod... YEY!

At the beach

Timex Endorsers

Unfortunately, pre-registration lang pala ang onsite registration so no race kit when we registered. A few days before the race, we saw ads in Salomon's FB page and we claimed our race kits in ROX at sunod sunod naman ang number sa race bibs. (YEY!)

Actual Race

The race venue was a 3 hour drive from Manila and with a gun start at 5am, we left Manila at around 1am. We rented a van good for 10 people and headed to Batangas armed with an Iphone 5 GPS app. I was seated on a seat not suitable for a nap so I chatted with Lee and KC the whole trip. This was my first official trail run and the first running event with very little sleep (nakatulog ako ng 1 hour before heading to our departure point). Since Bata was running 24km, we arrived there before the 5am gun start. We used the time to take some pictures and have a pre-run snack (Buko Pie na prinamis ni MJ 1 year ago). At 5:30am, it was Kay's turn to her 12km gun start. We then took more pictures at the beach since the sun was already up at that time.

Sama sama sa muna

One Goal, One Nation: Batangas Leg

 

The Batangas Leg of the One Goal, One Nation will be held on April 14, 2012 at the Plantacion Meridienne, Lipa City.

For more in about this event, check out this blog post.

Anniversaries Celebrated

Honestly, I am blogging this as a homage to the bloggers who inspired me.

Anniversaries are great events.

In this day, you celebrate lasting longer than majority of couples out there (says a bitter amplaya).

In this day, you celebrate your love together lasting for a year (says the idealistic kid).

In this day, you try to seal the deal or reseal it again (says a hormonal boy).

For me, Anniversaries are a great excuse to do something out of the ordinary. Go out of the country, out of town. It is a celebration of your love, and an opportunity to escape the woes of daily life with (who else? but ) the love of your life...

So what did we do?

1st Anniversary: Tagaytay

During that time, we had busy schedules that the only way to go on an out of town trip was go to a nearby go-to-spot, Tagaytay. It was a simple day trip. Early in the morning, we boarded a bus to Olivarez and had breakfast in a trendy restaurant.

We, then headed to Picnic Groove to enjoy the try the zip lines and fly a kite.

Lunch was at Leslie's where we encountered rain, which was a good thing 'coz we got to rest for an hour.

Afternoon was spent in the Zoo, where we met a tiger.

We capped the day with a dinner in a pizza place and the purchase of our ring... (♪Put a ring on it ♪)

2nd Anniversary: Kuala Lumpur

Our 2nd anniversary was our first out of the country trip. We went around Kuala Lumpur and even ventured to Genting Highlands and Sunway.

I fell in love with the country so we'll be heading back there soon...

3rd Anniversary: Batangas

We were all set to spend the weekend in Batangas but due to sudden schedule conflicts, we went for a day trip instead.

We went early in the morning. The commute was mighty crazy that we arrived in the resort around lunch time.

We had a sumptuous lunch buffet and we went for a swim in a infinity pool.

Then, we relaxed at a hut before heading to the beach to do some kayaking.

The resort people told us to go home early as it is difficult to get a ride to the city so at 4pm, we rushed to a merienda buffet and headed back to the city. It was tiring but the 5 hours of relaxation was worth it.

What about for our next one? Hmmmmm....