Surely 2008 was a memorable year for many of us.  It was the year me and many of my friends started running, and it definitely changed our lives.

August 08, 2008 (08/08/08): it was the night of the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, and it was the day of my first race ever: Men’s Health Miracle Run.  Little did we know that that 5K would change our lives for good.

After our first race we still weren’t that active with running.  Although we enjoyed it a lot we just waited for races to come our way—we didn’t really lift a finger to seek races.  At that time we didn’t know yet where to get information on races.  Little by little we were exposed to fellow runners’ blog site until eventually we found out about thebullrunner and takbo.ph: sites that really helped us a lot (and still do).  These sites eventually inspired me to put up a running blog site of my own to also help fellow newbies like myself.

October marked the start of joining consecutive races.  The most interesting races I joined for the month were the adidas King of the Road, my first 10K and the Halloween race Isuzu Shake Rattle and Run.

November, my birth month, was the most packed month I’ve had with five consecutive weekend races: VSO Bahaginan Run, my birthday run, just two days after my birthday, my first sub-25 minutes 5K (self-timed) and sub-55 minutes 10K; Men’s Health Urbanathon, a mix of almost 10K run and obstacles; Race for Life and Unicef Walk on the Child’s Side, my first back-to-back; and the 32^nd National Milo Marathon, the largest race I’ve joined so far and the first one with a full Marathon.  This was also the month I formally launched this site, runningpinoy.

December was a very leisurely month compared with the previous month, only three races but with another back-to-back: Nokia Recycle your Phone and Run, my first absolutely free race and my first race with sub-5:00/km pace; and Yakult 10-Miler, my longest race so far and first beyond 10K; and the UP ICTUS Centennial Run, the run that finally completed my 100K.  It was unexpected for me that I reached this mark before the year ended and I was thankful that I was able to.

Another good thing that happened to local running this year were the free running clinics: those offered by Bald Runner, and Nike Philippines, both held at the Ultra, Pasig and the latter having an extra session at Bonifacio High Street.  Being a participant of Nike Running Clinic I could attest that it really helped a lot especially for beginners to improve our runs.

Injuries—one of the things nobody wants to suffer but is a part of life.  Despite being a great downer it could also be educational and helpful if you learn from it.  But it’s probably better not to learn about it the hard way.  I did have my fair share of injuries, in fact I almost didn’t complete my 100K because of it, and hopefully I learned enough to minimize it in the future.

12 races, 100K, some injuries, free running clinics, a blog site, many new friends, and tons of memories—these are some of the things that this year gave to me, and hopefully this year was worthwhile for all of you as well.  I had fun sharing my running experiences and other “miscellaneous” accounts with everyone, and I hope you did as well.  Merry Christmas everyone!  Run Safe and have a more fruitful New Year ahead!