How does a running community celebrate its anniversary?  By running of course!

Takbo.ph held its first Runfest to celebrate the occasion last Sunday.  It was the last race I signed up for before I got injured, one of the rare few that charged below P500 as registration fee, and definitely one of my most anticipated races for the year!  Unfortunately, the gods of running had other plans for me.

Since registration fees became ridiculously expensive for my budget and my knee was injured signing up for races had been the last thing on my mind, and as such became out of habit.  Running still is, but racing?  I’m not going to set new PRs with my knee anyway so there hardly any motivation to race.  And since it was no longer a habit there’s a natural tendency to overlook something.

Ten hours before the race I realized something—I had completely forgotten to bring home my race kit from the office!  There were three options then on my mind: (a) get my kit from the office, (b) run without a race bib, or (c) none of the above!

It seems anomalous to be in the office on a Saturday night, not to mention all the time I’d lose in the process, so it’s not very inciting.  Running without a race bib, a.k.a. “bandit” seems to be the more convenient option.  I’m registered anyway so I’m “eligible” to participate but people won’t know that since I won’t be wearing my race bib.  I don’t want to encourage anyone to run “bandit” on any race, particularly on a race celebrating running, so leading by example I discarded that idea.  So what’s plan C?  Sleep it off :(.  Sure I can still join the celebration as a volunteer but I knew I’d just be envious of those running that I might be tempted to run “bandit.”  Besides the temptation of a good, long sleep was too difficult to resist.

Tantrum Run

I missed the chance of running at “race pace” (which I haven’t done this year) but a resourceful runner always find ways.  So that the weekend will not be wasted I settled to just doing my regular easy run whenever I’m not racing—from home to SM Fairview (via Commonwealth Ave. and Regalado Ave.), slightly more than 6K.  This is actually longer than the 5K race I signed up for. 🙂

I actually started doing this run from a crazy “green” idea of saving money and carbon emission from the commute each time I needed to do the groceries or go to the gym. You helped save the environment and you got your run!  Too bad there’s little chance of me setting new PRs with this route either since each time I do it I always carry a bag with at least 1.5kg weight (700g netbook for surfing via Wi-Fi, 500mL of sports drink, change clothes, etc.) and the route is practically uphill.  And yes, that 6K run serves as my “warm-up” before pumping some iron. 🙂

Celebrate Running

Congratulations to Mr. Jinoe Gavan for a successful Runfest and thank you for your brainchild, takbo.ph.  Congratulations also to everyone that made this event a success!  To my takbo.ph family whom I miss dearly I hope to see you soon!

DNS is my name removing the repeating letters and vowels.  In the internet it could pertain to the Domain Name System.  In racing it is a term for a competitor failing to start the race (Did Not Start).  In this context however it may as well refer to Did Not Show. 🙂

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