Congratulation to all finishers!

Source: www.baldrunner.com

Below is the race detail from the organizer:

In celebration of the prestigious Kaamulan Festival of Bukidnon, we are holding the 1st Mt. Kitanglad International Ragged Mountain Race” Run by Altitude” on the 27th day of February, 2011 to be held on the trails of Mt. Kitanglad starting and finishing at Sitio, Intavas, Impasug-ong, Bukidnon.

Registration fee: Php 1,200/pax.”Register Early Limited Number of Runners Only” Package includes: Mt. Kitanglad Park Entry through training pass ID, event ID, souvenir shirt and items, certificate of the participation, snacks on trail during the race, dinner for cultural night and socials, transportation from accommodations to venue during the event and vice versa.

Proceeds of this event will benefit the Kitanglad Guard Volunteers (KGV) and Porters by funding their skills training seminars to hone their abilities in rescuing climbers, tour guiding skills, and outdoor safety. They will also be supplied with equipment they will need in their profession.

How to get to Mt. Kitanglad Range Natural Park:
It will just take you less than (4hrs) from Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Manila) to Mt. Kitanglad Range Natural Park (Bukidnon) Via Cagayan de Oro Airport.

There is a multitude of ways to get to Impasug-ong/Malaybalay City:
From Cagayan de Oro City: proceed to Agora Bus Terminal
From Davao City: proceed to Davao City Bus Terminal

For Inquiries contact:
Mr. Benjamin T. Maputi, Jr.
email: ben.eco@hotmail.com
Mobile number 09278157592

frontRUNNER Magazine proudly presents 2011 King Of The Mountain 145 (BAD ASS OCHO)

Start/Finish:  Burnham Park, Baguio City – Burnham Park, Baguio City

Elevation Start/Finish:  5,100 feet (1,500 meters)

CATEGORIES:

*SOLO: 145 Miles. 60 hours.

JUNE 10 (12:01 am) –JUNE 12 (12:01 pm), 2011

*TEAM(Mixed or Same sex): 145 Miles. 48 hours.

JUNE 10 (12:01 am) –JUNE 12 (12:01 am), 2011

LIMITED SLOTS ONLY

ROUTE:

*1st LOOP (Baguio-Tuba-Pugo-Tubao-Agoo-Aringay-Caba-Bauang-Naguilian-Burgos-Sablan-Baguio)

-Burnham Park to Marcos Highway (Pugo/Tubao Junction) 33.5KM

-Agoo (Maharlika Highway) 14.36KM(TIME CHECKPOINT)

- Bauang Junction 22.8KM(TIME CHECKPOINT)

-up the whole stretch of Naguilian Road to Burnham Park  44.27KM (TIME CHECKPOINT)

sub-total of 115kms CUT-OFF TIME 30 HOURS(SOLO)* 24 HOURS (TEAM)

*2nd LOOP(Baguio-Tuba-Pugo-Tubao-Agoo-Santo Tomas-Rosario-Tuba-Baguio)
-Burnham Park to Marcos Highway (Pugo/Tubao Junction) 33.5KM

- Agoo (Maharlika Highway) 14.36KM (TIME CHECKPOINT)

-Rosario/Kennon Road junction 22.64KM(TIME CHECKPOINT)

- Kennon Road -turn right at Military Cut off Road towards South Drive/ Baguio Country Club, right at Outlook Drive, turn left to Mansion House then Leonard Wood Road, Baguio Convention Center then all the way to Burnham Park via Harrison Road.

sub-total of 117 kms

GRAND TOTAL: 145 (s)miles * (232kms)

Race Director: Rosario “Che“ Alberto

Support Group: Cool City Running Club

For more information, please call 0922 822 9342 or 975 6228

Email: frontrunnermag@gmail.com

Because of its impact on the trails slots are limited to a combined total of 20 slots per branch for all distances.  Registration is until August 20, 2010 or until the slots are filled up (whichever comes first) and costs P500 (Metro Manila, P350 Provincial) for all distances.  You may register at the following sites:

The North Face
SM City Cebu; SM City Cagayan De Oro; SM City Davao; SM City North EDSA; SM Mall of Asia; Shangri-La Mall; Glorietta 4; SM Megamall

ROX
Bonifacio High Street; Ayala Center Cebu

Res Toe Run
Dumaguete; Ayala Center Cebu

REMUS FUENTES died of multiple organ failures as result of heatstroke secondary to severe dehydration two days after he ran the 21K in the recent 34^th Milo Marathon last Sunday, July 4, 2010.

His death was the result of fatal mistakes, incompetence and negligence in the event organized by Organizing Team.

My son, 37-year-old Remus ran the 21K together with a running buddy when he collapsed at 19.9 kilometer mark. There was none of organizer’s ambulance nor marshals to respond in the incident. Policemen hailed for a taxi and they, together with his buddy, assisted in bringing him to the nearest hospital, Ospital ng Maynila. At the ER, the diagnose was suspected heart attack. My wife and me, upon being informed by his younger brother, Roy Fuentes, who also ran the 21K, rushed to the hospital and saw that Remus in coma, had seizures and struggled breathing in spite of hand-pumped oxygen and dextrose attached. His body temperature was 40 degrees C and when asked, the medical attendant told us he had fever. She introduced paracetamol intravenously twice at interval of about 15 minutes. Remus continued having seizures even until the arrival of Medical City doctor & ambulance attendants that we have arranged for his transfer. The Medical City doctor attending said his status was unstable, contrary to the earlier advice to her by the Ospital ng Maynila ER doctor. They rushed him  with the ambulance to Medical City at about 11:30 AM. There, a  series of tests were done, including blood chemistry, CT scan, etc. Cardiologist told us his heart was strong and no intervening medicine was necessary. Blood Chemistry results showed positive findings on creatinin level, an indication of  kidney failure. They suspected liver failure too. To stop his seizures, Remus was put on full sedation for 12 hours. Kidney functions further deteriorated after 36 hours. Blood pressure and heart rate went erratic. Doctors attending him in the ICU asked our permission to do dialysis and blood transfusion to stabilize his blood pressure.  Seven hours later, ICU nurse woke us up and asked us to rush to the ICU. We saw 18 medical people around him, several taking turn doing the CPR. Failing to revive him, the doctor asked our consent to stop the CPR after 15 minutes. We begged them to continue hoping for a miracle. 30 minutes further, doctor told us again that all numbers in the monitoring board “were bad” and asked again the consent to stop the CPR. Finally, we relented. Few minutes later, his heart rate monitor went flat. All these happened in front of his mother and me. We lost Remus 48 hours after he collapsed into coma which he has never recovered. His young wife and his eight-year old son took the news very badly.

About Heatstroke:

It usually happen in extreme sports like basketball, football, boxing and marathon.

Heat stroke is a life-threatening medical condition. The person’s cooling system, which is controlled by the brain, stops working and the internal body temperature rises to the point where brain damage or damage to other internal organs may result. The body temperature, usually at normal 37 C, goes up during the exertion of effort as result of the increased heart rate. When it reaches 40 C, the person is in danger of getting heatstroke. Above 40 C and mostly at about 42 C, the person can collapse into unconsciousness.  If nothing is done within few minutes, he can slip into coma and brain damage may occur. The proven first aid response for heatstroke is cooling the body rapidly in whatever means to the level of below 40 C before bringing him to a hospital.  Ice and water is the best way to do this, the same way it is done for a child having high fever who has convulsion.

Another way of understanding heatstroke is comparing it to the performance of car engine. At idling, the engine temp is low and safe. At sustained high speed, engine temperature increases rapidly but because of the cooling system, the heat is continuously dissipated in the radiator and safe temperature level is maintained. But when the water in the radiator is gone, Undissipated heat will rack up the engine temperature and ultimately exceeds the safe limits. At this condition, engine breakdown will occur in minutes starting with broken piston rings, rods, pistons, etc.

With the human body, perspiration cools down the body so hydration by drinking water is essential. Without water, perspiration stops and body temperature goes to critical level and into heatstroke and then organs and brain begin to fail.

Big obvious difference between human body and car engine is that you can always overhaul the engine but you cannot do that on the human body.

Why Heatstroke is More Dangerous in Marathon than in other Extreme Sports?

In basketball, the player exerts extreme effort only in bursts, stopping or slowing down intermittently which slows down heart rate and cools down the body. At timeout, they drink to replenish lost body water hence you always have the waterboy. Heart stroke is rare but ask any PBA player what they do when a player collapse. They don’t move the body but cool them off with water or ice before bringing him to the hospital.

The same is true in football and in many similar sports.

In boxing, in between rounds of three minutes, boxer rests and drinks water. We can only wonder what will happen if the rule of the sport is drastically changed and will only end when one is down and out.

In Marathon, the risk of heatstroke is much higher for the following reasons:

1. The long distance runner aims for shorter time as a goal and therefore motivated to keep a sustained effort, not unlike cars at high speed in the highway.
2. Furthermore, the target minimum time set by the organizer adds more to the motivation to run faster. The cut-off time added more pressure to the marginal marathon runner, meaning if you are used to run above the target time, the tendency is to do better time, probably at pace unproven by your body in practice. (Milo Marathon set the target for 21K medal at 2 ½ hours or less. Remus collapsed at near 20^th km. with time of 2 hours 10 minutes when his previous record was 2 hours and 27 minutes. ).
3. The more critical factor is that the hydration management is not in the control of the runner. He has to rely on water availability at the water stations provided and planned by the organizer along the route. ( In this 34^th Milo Marathon, several runners including Remus brother, Roy and Remus running buddy asserted that practically there was no water to drink in the last 2~3 kilometers before the finish line, a fatal failure for Remus by the organizer when they changed the route resulting in merging and over-traffic near the finish line. There were record 28,000 runners on that day and the organizers failed to anticipate the complexity of hydration management. Milo’s last year marathon participants were well below 10,000 runners.)
4. The correct life-saving response for heatstroke depends on few knowledgable people who may happen to be around the person. To mitigate this, the organizer deploys ambulances with water & ice for cooling heatstroke victims and is expected to respond within minutes. In addition, marshalls are provided along the route to assess runner situations continuously. (Obviously, the organizer failed again on this aspect because Remus was helped by policemen and his buddy instead. By this time, Remus is probably already brain damaged as evident by his seizure at the hospital. No Milo people knew of Remus case on that day until Roy, his brother, sent an email informing the organizer of the incident in the next morning)
5. The Sun Factor adds to the danger in Marathon. Running under the heat of the sun in tropical country like ours cannot be underestimated. To minimize the effect of the sunheat, Marathon run is planned to finish in the early morning avoiding the heat at later time. Organizers usually take this into consideration. (Milo organized the 21K to start at 5:30 AM , a departure of common practice of  other marathons which started at 5:00 AM.  Remus collapsed at about 7:57 AM. Roy, who is a better runner than his brother Remus, complained that it was unusually hot that morning even if he was able to finish it earlier in 1 hours 45 minutes )

Clearly, Marathon is an extreme and dangerous sport even to the young, healthy and trained runners. This is not the “fun run” many people confused of.

The organizer has clear life-and-death responsibility to make sure that the conditions the runners will run under item 3, 4 and 5 above are done properly. Obviously they did not do their job properly in the 34^thMilo Marathon. In my opinion, being the father of Remus, Milo Marathon Organizer have failed my son. It is their incompetence and negligence of their duty that results in the death of Remus …an unneccesary death.

About Remus:

At the time of his death, he was an IT project manager of Hewlett-Packard (HP) responsible in computerizing big companies like Unilab, Coke,  etc. including installation of hardwares (servers, etc.) and software system. He used to work for Intel for 10 years before he moved to HP 3 years ago. He graduated in Computer Engineering. He left a housewife, Takako and two children, Raphael, 8 years old and Therese, 4 years old. Raphael is enrolled at La Salle Greenhills. He played basketball with his brothers regularly on weekends. He has been running since his high school days in Lourdes School of Mandaluyong. He has run many 10Ks and two 21Ks before these, the “Freedom Run” in June 13 and “Nature Valley” in May 20 only this year. He has no history nor complaint of illness and he lived clean.

My Questions for the Marathon Organizer:

1. How many died in the 34^th Milo Marathon last July 4? Is it true that there was another runner at 42K who collapsed at 33 km and later died?
2. How many runners collapsed in that marathon due to heatstroke who later survived but now are no longer the same person as before due to partial brain injury? At Ospital ng Maynila, we saw a 2^nd runner brought in unconscious and woke up later but he can no longer recognize his family. Do the Organizers knew this? What happened to him. Are there more?
3. Is it true that another 36 year-old runner, Fidel Camson, who ran the 42K 31^st Milo Marathon in November 2007 collapsed near the finish line, brought to the Ospital ng Maynila and died later of undetermined cause? If true, what did they do to avoid a repeat which apparently did not happen in this 34^th Milo Marathon? If true, why do they still keep the same Marathon organizer for 10 years until now?
4. Do they keep tally of deaths in the 34 years of Milo Marathon? Do they study the statistics and establish how many died of heatstroke, the preventable one?
5. What is the corporate culture of the Organizers regarding its respect of the value of life? Upon knowing the death of my son Remus, A Senior Vice President of the organizing team, who head its Beverages Business Unit went to see me and among other things, he told me that the Marathon is continuously improved and but sometimes “lapses occur and they will learn from these lapses”. Lapse is defined as  a ‘mistake’. People learn from ‘error’, a deviation from being correct but a ‘mistake’ is caused by a fault: the fault could be misjudgment or carelessness.  We learn from ‘error’ but we take action on ‘mistake’ and more drastic action when people die of this ‘mistake’. So death in my son’s case is a mere  learning process for this person? Is this the culture that pervades in their Organization? or only in him?
6. Is the measly “humanitarian” offer to help the family shoulder medical & funeral expense to the family had become an SOP too often? Was it their expectation that as appreciation of this help, the family will keep quiet about the whole thing? Do they really think that the waiver signed by the runners protect them from being liable? Do they know that this waiver won’t apply if negligence of their duty as organizer can be established?
7. What did the Organizers do, if any, to keep the news of Remus death from appearing in the media even after one week? Not one news item of his death appeared in the newspaper, TV or radio. Could  the news  of “ HP Manager Died of HeatStroke during the Milo Marathon” not interesting to the public? Were they afraid that the bigger news is when the subline “Father charged Milo Marathon Organizer of Incompetence and Negligence” which may damage the public image of the company?

The answers to these questions will help enlighten the public whether Milo Marathon is safe or not for the runners. To the runners, their parents, wives and relatives…they all better ask these questions before the runners decide to run in Milo Marathon.

Last Words from Remus Father:

I am not condemning the sport but the organizer who failed to make sure runners will not die of heatstroke, when the risks can be greatly minimized with proper route planning, hydration management and quick medical response. I am condemning the contribution of the apparent culture of the sponsor of diminished value of human life as indicative of its senior executive’s attitude that my son’s death is a result of lapses. My hope is something good will come out of Remus death and as result of improved organizing of the marathon run,  few lives will be saved from heatstroke. My other hope is to get justice and for the Organizing Team to  answer for his untimely death. I am working on it.

Rudy Fuentes, Father of Remus

I have moved to Iloilo from Silang since more than a month ago. It’s exciting to run in this new place. However, I still couldn’t find a nearby trail or mountain to run. The nearest place to hit the trail is to have 15-minute sail to Guimaras island, where the sweetest and finest mango in the Philippines is located.

To all runners in Manila who are in training for Milo42 on July 4, good luck! I wish you all to have a good run, good time. Run strong and finish hard!

Yes, business as usual… I still run, even fly, and jump, hike

I run because long after my foot prints fade away, maybe I will inspired a few to hit the trails, put one foot in front of the other, and come to the same conclusion as I did: I run because it always takes me when I want to go. – Karno.

In all honesty, I cannot tell you for sure how far my feet will take me, but I am sure that where my feet will go, I will be happy the most. – frontRunner, Jonel Mendoza.

Location: Morsea, Negros Occidental

Photography by Gem Castor

Location: Guimaras Island

Photography by Gem Castor

This was planned when Tess, Ivy and I had a 5 hours run from Sta Rosa-Silang-Tagaytay-Silang-Sta Rosa two Sundays ago. Tess wanted to have her last run before she go back to the States.

It was cold that morning when we reached Evercrest. As a matter of fact, Tagaytay was covered with thick fog that morning. Some of us wondered if  we used proper clothes.

We had so much fun that morning. Often times, Tess shared her experiences when she ran the 7 desserts ultra marathons, which is a treasure story for us. We took the old trail heading to the summit and then went down via new trail.

Let the pictures speak how much fun we had…

Evercrest, before the run…

Heading to peak 4

Peak 4

Heading to peak 5

Jump Batulao

Group picture at the basecamp of the old trail

Spotted a little snake

Cross training: gymnastic

Summit of Mt. Batulao

Grass land of Mt. Batulao

Group hydration

Dirty girls

FrontRunner Lunch time. Thanks a lot Tess…

The North Face is inviting everyone to our big event this year, the The North Face 100 which aims to test the limits of human endurance. The North Face 100 this year will be held in Baguio and will be holding 11K, 22K, 50K and 100K races. If you are interested, kindly visit our stores and our partners for registration.

Registration Sites:
TNF Stores (Metro Manila- SM Mall of Asia, Glorietta, SM Megamall, EDSA Shangrila and SM North Annex)
(Provinces- Cebu, Davao and Cagayan de Oro)
RTR Stores (Glorietta, Trinoma, Gateway, Robinsons Galleria and Robinsons Place Ermita)
Recreational Outdoor Xchange ROX in Bonifacio Highstreet
Travel Club in SM City Baguio

For foreigners who wish to register for our grand event, they may email us their information through inquiry@thenorthface100.ph. The information needed are as follows:
Name : Last and First and Middle Initial
Gender: M or F
Jersey Size: XS,S,M,L,XL
E-mail address:
Contact Number: Cellphone or Landline
Birthdate:
Age:
Complete Address:

Registration fees will be Php2000 for 100K and 50K runners and Php500 for 22K and 11K runners.

Congratulation Haide! Welcome to the club 102! And to the BDM102  dreamers and maybes, this “…would separate the men from the boys, the posers from the hardcore.”

…

Note: For the first time the Marathon Foodie is posting a race recap in two voices. The perspective of the runner and the support crew have been merged to make a comprehensive report. The entries in blue italics were written by Eugene Cabusao who was my “one-man crew” at the BDM.–

Just before midnight of March 6, 2010 the Marathon Foodie along with 142 men and women braved one of the toughest if not the toughest solo running event in the country — the Bataan Death March 102, an 18-hour ultramarathon covering 102 kilometers from Mariveles, Bataan to San Fernando, Pampanga.

BDM 102 is a race like no other. No frills, no sound system no lights at the starting area, no water stations, no cash prizes, yet it attracts a cult-following among hardcore runners because it is much more daunting than the standard marathon distance and because it is running at its purest form. The BDM is said to be a true test of person’s character and mental and physical toughness.

I signed up for the challenge just to see how strong I was. I was seduced by the fact that out of 82 who joined the first edition, only five were women and only two of them survived. I said to myself, if only women believed in their physical capacities more, they’d make good endurance runners. I am woman, and knew I could make it.

Since runners are only allowed to participate if they have their own support crew, I recruited my husband Eugene. His role was to make sure I follow my race pace of 6 KM per hour and that my hydration and nutrition intake were on schedule.

Being support crew is not an easy task. Being my first time to do it, I had the usual clumsiness and difficulty adjusting to a new task. To add more difficulty to an already critical job, I did it alone.

I showed up at the starting line backed by two marathon experiences and four months of training. I did two 50K’s and one 66K and trained under the heat of the El Nino sun. I knew I was ready physically. What I didn’t know was if I trained well enough to fight the demons in my head when I reach 70 kilometers and beyond.

The bull horn was sounded at 11:30 PM and all hell broke loose.

Learning from the online journals of those who ran the BDM’s first edition, I tempered my exuberance and stuck to my goal of 6-7 kilometers per hour. I brisk-walked the steep portions of the route especially the zigzag pass in Mariveles — a deserted uphill road with elevation similar to Busay in pitch black darkness. Without a light, you would either slam into the mountain wall on one side or fall off a cliff as high as 400 meters on the other.

Although I found myself alone for long stretches in the darkened highways and towns that were fast asleep, it never occurred to me to be afraid. When running in the dark you learn to engage all of your senses. I shut my MP3 and listened for any sound of oncoming danger – a truck, a bus, ferocious stray dogs, and drunks along the route.

At night a runner doesn’t feel as thirsty as when running under the heat of the sun. You can get dehydrated and not even know it. So Eugene and I made sure to make hydration stops every two kilometers, whether or not I felt the need to drink or not.

The word “crew” by definition is “a group of people working or associated together in a common activity,” which means there’s no such thing as a one-man crew.

That meant I had to multi-task in order to perform my mission as support – drive, hand out drinks and food, take pictures, apply liniment and massage Haide’s legs, refill water bottle, spray water/pour ice water on her to cool her down. I also had to make sure she’s following the race plan and adjust the race plan if there are changes in timing.

I gave encouragement and/or threatened her when needed, and held the malong around her when she needed to piss (which reminds me – you owe me a new pair of Sanuk!!!).

I’m pretty used to multi-tasking, since it’s part of my profession, but then again I received training for most of the stuff I have to do in my work. This was a new kind of experience. Doing each task mentioned above quickly and correctly takes more than a few seconds for one person, but doing everything properly alone took a lot of time – valuable time which the runner could have used for running instead of staying at the pit stop.

I reached the only aid station at KM 50 in Abucay town at around 7:30 in the morning. After a quick change of clothes, shoes and hurried breakfast, I put on a brave front and braced myself for the El Nino sun. This was where the real race began. KM 50 and beyond would separate the men from the boys, the posers from the hardcore.

I didn’t think of the double digit distances. This would only make the suffering seem more interminable. Chopping the distance into bite sizes made me less tired and more efficient.

At the beginning of the run, Haide stayed at each stop for about just about half a minute. She could easily make up the time with a burst of speed. This was okay for about the first 50 km, but then she started slowing. We were both adjusting to the new routine because we didn’t practice beforehand. A minute might not seem much, but multiply it by the number of stops, it balloons and soon that unnecessary delay will bite you when you need most.

Sure, Haide practiced her long runs and building up endurance, but I didn’t practice the myriad tasks I had to do, nor did we practice the sequence of her coming and going, and the price we paid was extra time spent at the pit stop, which could have been used for running and covering more ground.

At first the goal was to run-walk 1KM every 10 minutes. But by noontime I was overheating and could hardly make it past 900 meters. We were 6 kilometers behind schedule and my legs felt twice as heavy. By the time I reached KM 65, I felt I could not go on anymore and begged Eugene to just call the race director and quit even with still more than five hours to go. Then he told me — “Death before dishonor!”

Haide hit her first wall at KM 65. When she reached the pit stop she just sat by the roadside, started to cry and begged me for a ride. Bare words of encouragement like “kaya mo yan” and “marami pang oras” would not make her get up from the sidewalk and resume the race. She said she needed proof that it wasn’t mathematically impossible to make it to cut-off at her current pace. So I crunched numbers.

Eugene came up with the brilliant idea of chopping the distance further into 500 meter intervals run at 7:00 minutes per kilometer pace followed by a one-minute complete stop at the back of the car. Those sixty seconds of rest was spent for eating bananas and hydrating (10 sec.), massaging the legs and back with liniment (30 sec.) and sponging the head, armpits and groin with ice-cold water (15 sec.). The pit stops had the precision of a real F1 team. We used this strategy until KM 87, just before the road construction in Guagua town. Looking back, I think this strategy was the key to finishing the race.

I think we finally got through the learning curve after about Km 68. The shorter 500-meter distance intervals made her run much faster. Haide found her second wind and we covered lost ground. Had we not made adjustments to the original race pace plan, the wasted minutes could have cost us her finisher’s trophy and medal.

The controlled pace at the first 50 kilometers paid off. I had no cramps and the knees still felt strong and stable even after more than 14 hours of running. The only painful parts of my body were my two feet and my abs. I thought I had it in the bag, but then the demons came.

From out of nowhere at KM 97, the pain on my feet seemed to have been magnified a hundred times all of a sudden. It was so unbearable that death seemed the easier choice. I don’t know what came over me but I seriously just wanted to jump off the small bridge just after Bacolor Elementary School. and just end it all here. At least when I’m dead, there was no need to explain why I didn’t make it to the 18-hour cut-off.

This was the lowest point of the race for me. I was so near, but the waning minutes seemed to tick away faster than it should and the distance seemed so interminable.

But then I thought of all those who worked hard to get me this far. I also thought of people back home in Cebu, I didn’t want to let them down. It wasn’t about wanting to finish anymore. I just desperately wanted to live.

During the Carboloading Party, Sir Jovie warned me that runners become very stubborn as they near the end of the run. I should have listened to him because, at about Km 95, Haide refused to drink liquids, eat food or even stop to be doused with ice water. She started getting bitchy and ordering me to leave her to inform the organizers that she was near the finish. She managed to run the last 7 km without hydrating, but she also ended up frying her brain.

When I reached KM 100 with 40 minutes to spare I told myself this was the biggest race of my life and I had to finish it in style, running on empty I raced the last 2 KM at 6:45 – 7:15 MPK. I reached the finishline in 17:40:08 and ranked 88th out of 104 finishers.

I immediately collapsed from heat exhaustion after touching the tape.

After her dramatic finish, she collapsed and had to be dragged over to a shed. She started asking for help in finding a taxi so she could go home (she must have thought she was still in Cebu). When asked if she was with anyone, she said no. She didn’t even recognize me! She was suffering from heat exhaustion.

After removing some of her running clothes and shoes, about 15 minutes of rest, water, a bottle of Gatorade, several wet towels to cool her off and a protein drink (Recoverite) that Bards Bathan and Mesh Villanueva gave her, Haide started asking if she was going to be able to receive her finisher’s medal. That meant she was feeling better and back her former self. I realize that I should not have left her at Km 96. I could have stayed all the way to KM 101 and still make it ahead of her at the finish line.

When I woke up, I didn’t even know where I was. I thought I was in a school sports fest and the two ladies who kept asking me to drink water and Gatorade (whom I later realized were Bards and Mesh) were school nurses. I kept seeing the letters BDM all around me and couldn’t recall what it was. BDM. BDM. Why was it so familiar? I saw Eugene and asked him where I was and what day it was.

It was only when I saw my dust covered legs and swollen feet did I realize that I must have run and finished a road race called the BDM 102.

After the dust has settled only 104 survived 9 of whom were women. The only other Cebu-based runner at BDM 102, Bro. Carlo Bacalla of Don Bosco also survived at 14:38 placing 17th.

It’s been days after the BDM and I still can’t believe I did it. I put my BDM trophy and medal on my office table where I can see it everyday, to remind me just how strong and weak I can be.

I needed a while to write. Running the BDM has shaken me to the core, its effect too profound for words and too personal to share in this blog.

I don’t know about the others, but the BDM took so much out of me and it feels as if a part of me died and got left behind that tortuous route, only to be replaced with something that is hopefully a much better version of the old. (Think: the old Nike Free “Reincarnate. Leave your old self behind.” ad)

Or maybe I’m just shell-shocked.

It is when you’re dying from inexplicable pain that you feel truly alive. Now that the blisters are gone, I will probably do it again.

Self-doubt saddled Haide while she was out there running, but I had no doubt in my mind that she would make it. She has nerves of steel and she’s stronger than even most men. I’m truly proud of her.

Post Script:

I share my BDM success with Eugene. There was no way I could have made it without him. He was on top of everything and anticipated all my needs even before I knew I needed it. No one could have done it better. It was pure labor of love.

Thank you too to all the support crew that helped me in the last 7 kilometers, especially to Sam the Running Ninja and his support team from Takbo.ph.

I’m forever grateful to Bards Bathan, Mesh Villanueva and Ray Abenojar of T2 Running. They revived me when I passed out and took care of me until I could be on my feet again.

To Jonel Mendoza who selflessly shared his resources and made sure we had a place to stay in Mariveles and whose guidance made me make all the right moves at the BDM. I can only hope to repay him by paying it forward and teaching and guiding others run their first BDM.

Finally, to the Bald Runner, without whom there would be no BDM. I understand now why this race is run like a guerilla war – meaning no corporate sponsors. The BDM is sui generis – a class of its own. Commercializing the BDM would surely leave a bad taste in the mouth. It is first and foremost a tribute to the men (and some women residents who died helping the POW’s) who perished 68 years ago. They will never be forgotten.

]]> http://highaltitude.wordpress.com/2010/03/14/bdm102-would-separate-the-men-from-the-boys-the-posers-from-the-hardcore/feed/ 2 HighAltitude http://highaltitude.wordpress.com/2010/03/10/the-4th-all-terra-king-of-the-mountain/ http://highaltitude.wordpress.com/2010/03/10/the-4th-all-terra-king-of-the-mountain/#comments Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:03:14 +0000 HighAltitude http://highaltitude.wordpress.com/?p=930 ]]> The 4th ATKOM will again feature a 10K trail run, a well as an 18K cross country mountain bike race through the roads and trails of Timberland Heights in San Mateo. This event is made possible by SUBARU and TIMBERLAND HEIGHTS, in association with Mang Inasal restaurants!

Date: Sunday, March 28, 2010

Venue: Timberland Heights, San Mateo

Races: 6:00AM Trail Run (10K) and 8:00AM XC Mountain Bike (18K)

Reg fees: P350 for Run, P550 for MTB both inclusive of shirt/singlet, energy gel and meal stub for BBQ

Reg sites: All Terra Libis & Ortigas, Bike King, Bikezilla, John Wilkie, Knobbies, Second Wind, & ROX.