My marathon journey

Posted on March 25, 2011 by Gail

I remember asking Noelle how she felt when she finished her first marathon, she said something in the likes of, “it changes your life.” At that time, I honestly could not understand how completing 42.2km do that much change in a person. And I never realized how much I have already changed — it took a step on the finish line and a finisher’s medal for me to see what a life-changing journey The Bull Runner Dream Marathon has been.

Allow me to tell you my marathon story, which began in December 2008, when a doctor told me that I can never take part in endurance sports ever again, and that I will forever be relying on an inhaler whether I liked it or not. Continue reading →

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A “podium finish” at the RUNNRs in Love photo contest :D

Posted on March 6, 2011 by Gail

RUNNR recently had a “Love month” contest. Who’d have thought we’d win? But we did! Third place :D This is actually the first time I’ve ever won anything that’s running-related. With my age, weight and lack of professional training, I can only dream of having a “podium finish” to a running-related event. I have one now, albeit just a photo contest! But I’m not complaining. How can I? I got some pretty interesting loot! :D

The photo I entered was of me and my husband Marc at the Mommy Milkshake Marathon last year (thank you so much Janice for taking our pic!!!). The caption I put went like this: Continue reading →

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My running partner

Posted on February 14, 2011 by Gail

Last June, I considered myself a “lone wolf” runner. My husband Marc was the only one I ever ran with. Our one and only run together ended up in an argument, while pissing each other off throughout the 5k race course. Since then, I thought maybe it was because I’m not the type to like company during a run. Well, that changed now :)

After attending two running sessions with my fellow marathon aspirants, I realized that I wasn’t such a loner runner after all.

I enjoyed the group runs. It was fun running at a talking pace, chatting up new friends along the way. Within an hour and a half, I got to learn quite a lot from my fellow runners even if that was the first time we’ve ever met. Marc was with me during those runs, and it was most likely the other people around us preventing us from arguing. I guess… Continue reading →

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I am now officially a half-marathoner!

Posted on February 7, 2011 by Gail

Yep, you read it right: I am now officially a half-marathoner!!! :D “Officially” meaning, my first race where I ran 21k. I’ve done 21k and 30k training runs last December and January for the upcoming TBR Dream Marathon in March, but I have never done 21k in an actual race till the Condura Skyway Marathon.

I still can’t quite believe I really finished 21k. Can’t really believe it. It’s not like I’ve gone through the “usual” race upgrade like most people: join a 10k or 16k race first before going for 21k. From 5k, I jumped right on to 21k! But in all fairness… If I hadn’t been training for the TBR Dream Marathon, race marshals would have had to literally carry me off the Skyway :P

More on my Condura experience on a later post. Recovery and work beckon! Hope you all had fun running the Skyway as much as I had!!! :)

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I’m running in Condura 2011! Are you?

Posted on December 23, 2010 by Gail

The holiday season has been nasty to my diet so far, and yesterday was probably the worst. All my favorite food in one buffet table! That, and the knowledge that I’ll be doing a 45-minute maintenance run the next day, made my defenses go crumbling down faster than I can blink :P I was starting to accept the fact that my diet this holiday is already screwed, and there’s no way to go back into serious diet and training again until after New Year. But Mr. Air 21 Delivery Guy rings our doorbell just in time before I finished planning how I’ll go about another series of dietary sins.

Two packages! One is mine, the other is hubby’s. Guess what’s inside? Continue reading →

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Nine weeks of marathon training

Posted on December 21, 2010 by Gail

Today marks the start of the 10th week of my marathon training. Nine weeks in, and I can’t believe how much training for a marathon has done for me. More amazingly, I’ve been waking up early in the morning like clockwork instead of pressing the snooze button on my alarm about 10,000 times before getting up :P

I woke up at 3am three Sunday mornings ago to start my long run as early as 4am and avoid the sun. It drizzled a bit, but I didn’t mind. I completed more than 10kms in 1 hour and 45 minutes. I haven’t tracked a route longer than 10kms, so I don’t really have an exact distance of how far I ran :P I just knew I ran more than 10kms — the most kilometers I’ve ever ran so far since I started running in December 2009. I was proud of this, and of course I told my husband, “I ran more than 10kms today and I still feel fine!”

He was proud of me, as a supportive husband should, and said, “that’s great! Now you just need to multiply that by four, then you’d be so ready for the TBR Dream Marathon!” That long run three more times???

Then it dawned to me: I’m only one-fourth ready to conquer 42.2kms. Continue reading →

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Losing weight, the marathon way

Posted on November 22, 2010 by Gail

Jaymie’s post last October 22 was probably one of the best I’ve read that day in my feed reader. TBR Dream Marathon participants get a Weight Management Program for FREE!!! Conducted by husband and wife Armand and Mitch Felipe Mendoza, the program was aimed for TBR Dream Marathon aspirants who’d like to lose weight in the process of training — like me! :D

And it’s not simply about losing weight, mind you. It’s about losing weight safely. Of course, there’s no question about it… I signed up for the program! :) Continue reading →

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To fun run, or not to fun run?

Posted on November 3, 2010 by Gail

That is the question.

So many race events popping up here and there — and they don’t come cheap. Almost all the race registration fee matrices I’ve seen for the year don’t really go lower than Php200. Well, probably except for the recently concluded St. Peter’s Life Run (which I unfortunately didn’t get to join because of the colds). They only charged Php50 — singlets and stuff all subsidized by the company or sponsors, with the fee going directly to the Bantay Bata Foundation. If all races here in the metro is like St. Peter’s, I don’t think I’d mind attending a race event every week.

But the thing is, most, if not all races accessible to me and my husband Marc aren’t like St. Peter’s. And that becomes a problem, even if I wanted to join them all. Continue reading →

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