QC Red Cross Fun Run 5K

Run For Ur Life @ U.P.

Woke up early to Run 10K at the FEATI Blue & Gold Fun Run, Rajah Sulayman, Manila

FEATI Run

Considered it as my easy run for the week…the time on my watch reads 59:08 but I think my registered time is above that.

Went home…took a nap…then off I go again, this time to Bicutan for the Red Cross Walk for Humanity and Peace… unfortunately for us we have to report first at the Headquarters before heading to Rajah Sulayman…(again).

Monday is my rest day so I had a chance to get some well deserved sleep

And another busy day today…our Dragon Boat training just started since the mixed crew is back from a successful race in Penang, Malaysia for the 6^th World Club Crew Championship.

There are no upcoming local races yet, so for now it will be land training for us. Today we had the first half or our performance evaluation composed of 100m sprint, 3mins bar hang (women) pull ups (men), 3 mins push-up and sit-up, 12 minute run…next will be the individual time trial of paddling. Tomorrow jog and weights…hay… I just hope I still have the energy to run in the afternoon.

Paddler Hard! Run Longer!

the site at 630am

3:45am

alarm sounded… turned off the alarm and dozed off again

4:30am woke up, looked outside…still raining…having doubts if I should still go for the run, headed for the showers, dressed up, started the engine and off i go.

4:45am I’m on my way to Quirino Grandstand for the Milo-Manila Marathon, I know I’m late but I planned to get there before 5am. Then I remembered (oh shit!) I did not have my race bib with me.

5:10am headed back home…picked my race number and as I stepped out the door it started raining hard… went back to my room…removed my shoes, my singlet and laid back to bed…

5:30am still raining…can’t get my sleep… thoughts of missing my 1^st Milo Marathon bugged me, oh what the heck there’s always a next time… but I so wanted to run, flaunt my Milo singlet that fits my body well (proud to look good on it)

the rain stopped…I decided to go anyway, even if I won’t be able to run  I’ll just get my race packet from FEATI peeps (they promised to be have it ready by then and set up a booth at the site)

5:42am im on the road again, (another shit) it started to rain again! Its my second attempt and I will not let the rain stop me. I let the rain stop for a while

5:50am Im on the road rain pouring hard on me, Im in a hurry so speed it up, unfortunately it didn’t help coz my face hurts it was like having needles on my face the rain is darting on me. So i slowed down a bit.

drenched runners

I arrived at the site, parked, and noticed that the kids running 3k are on their way to the finish line… so I guess no run for me today.

6:30am it started to rain again as I headed to the grandstand, took a shelter from a nearby sari-sari store and waited for the rain to stop.

7:05am got my self a hot coffee coz im freezing cold

7:10am found my way to Fortstrider’s Booth and registered for their October Run.  I guess I was one of the early birds to register coz I got race number 2.

7:15am picked up my race pack for FEATI’s Run on Sunday (hope it will not rain next week)

8:00am went to Quiapo Church for a mass

9:15am at home eating breakfast with my family, and talked with them bout my Milo story.

10am posting this blog…and it aint raining anymore…bummer….

no milo run for me

Ikaw ano ang kwentong milo mo?

Paddle Hard!Run Longer!

Aug 1 is the Ist anniversary of our batch “Class Matatag” PSBRC 2007-02 (NCRTS).  Yesterday we went back to Camp Bagong Diwa after 4 months of ojt with MPD. Our new company commander instructed us to return on Monday to attend the flag raising. Wohoo! That means we don’t have to report on Saturday and Sunday! And another wohoo !coz (I thought) ill be able to run for the Milo-manila on Aug 3.

When I got up this morning it is raining and my classmate Fritz txtd me and askd if we are stlil going to run tomorrow even if it is raining… told him that I would still go and run in the rain. I have luckily pursued 6 of my classmates to join the run and told them that it would be our practice run for our upcoming reception (meaning another endless running inside the camp)

As I was preparing my get up for tomorrow’s run another  classmate texted me that we have to report tomorrow at 8am… boo hu!hu! then followed by another txt… then another…and another….mostly txts informing us that we our called to report tomorrow… oh syet! What a bad timing…after telling us that we could take a rest this weekend they would suddenly call us to duty! (these are the times when I wish I was still a civilian) oh well what choice do I have… I have sworn to serve and protect…

Then my classmates who are supposed to be joining me for the run decided not to go tomorrow coz if we do we will be late for the 8am head count… even if we finish it under and hour (we all decided to run 1oK) we have to travel from Quirino Grandstand to Bicutan; take a bath; and change to our uniform. That would approx take two hours of our time…meaning we are still going to late…

Well for me I have decided to run, finish within 1hr 30mins, be home in 15 mins, (manila-qc),take a bath get dressed in 30 mins , drive to camp under 1 hour (im a newbie motorcylcle rider so for now my speed is 40kph-60kph) and hopefully report to our CO around 9-10 am.

So there…I need to sleep now and be up and ready for my first Milo Marathon! Wohoo!

Milo-Manila Route

Paddle Hard! Run Longer!

thank you for not smoking

Been puffing smokes since I was 7… well not a whole stick…just buying for my uncle and lighting it up myself. Tasted at least 1/3 of a Marlboro Red when I was 16… hiding in my room with windows open and the fan, turned trying to remove the smell of cigarette in the air. When I went to college I’ve been switching to different brands… Marlboro Red, Marlboro Lights, Marlboro Menthol, Phillip Morris, and even Hope… when there is no other choice… so basically I just smoke whatever is available. My bestfriend once told me that I was a BI (Bad Influence) he told me he started smoking because of me… I told him “pare nasa tao yan”. Eventually he quit… good for  him.

I tried to quit on and off…been successful for a couple of months then smoke for 3-4 months straight, then stop again, then smoke, then stop then smoke…then chain smoke

In 2001 I had a partner for two years who really hates people who are smoking, on the duration of our relationship I smoke when we are not together… thinking I am getting even with her after a fight because I’m doing it behind her back… (how pathetic of me) One time she caught me smoking while waiting for her to get out of the office and that led to one hell of a big fight… when I got home I smoked a whole pack.

People would ask why do you smoke? I tell them, it helps me relax, help digest food, and also helps in pooping (he!he!he!). I know for a fact that smoking is bad for my health, and for the people around me…so y do I smoke? I don’t know I must admit I’m addicted. Ironically I’m health conscious… to compensate with my vice, I watch what I eat, I go to the gym and I’m into sports. So in the outside I look healthy but on the inside I got a smoker’s body.

My parents know I smoke…they smell it in my room and in the comfort room every time I get out. But not once I smoked in front of them, out of respect I guess. My dad smoke too ever since I don’t know when. I used to see my mom sit on a corner, lights off, with her favorite music on the background… a on her hand a Philip Morris. She’s not a regular smoker, this she does whenever she’s upset, that just went on for a month and I am glad she stopped. My grandmother used to smoke “nga-nga” the one that you put on your mouth the lighted part of the stick. My uncles smoke too. I grew up with them in our compound. I have friends who smoke too. The must have been the once who influenced me in sticking that poisonous stuff on my mouth.  But then again I will say “pare nasa tao yan”.

I may be an addicted chain smoker but I have not gone over 2 packs a day. Two packs means 40 sticks, chain smoking 3-5 sticks straight. Study shows that smoking lessens your lifespan 11 minutes on the average, so if I don’t stop I might not reach the age of 50. Thinking of it I went down to pack a day then to ten sticks, smoking only after eating, while pooping and every time I’m pissed off of something.

Now that I’m back to rowing and running, I wanted to paddle hard and run longer. It took me a lot of courage and strength to throw away my last remaining sticks and my lighter. I wanted to look young again; be back to my blooming and gorgeous sexy body; live a healthy lifestyle; finish a marathon on my birthday next year; log 1,000 km of running with in this year; join as many races as I can; run the Boston and New York marathon; join a SWAT Team; climb Mt. Apo; stanf atop Mt. Pulag; bungee jump on the Eiffel Tower (if that’s allowed); skydive; do stunts on wakeboarding; be a pacer of my dragon boat team; join an aquathlon, duathlon, and then triathlon and run as long as I live and influence others to run. As I have set my goals, I know I will succeed in overcoming this addiction.

Paddle hard! Run longer!

Over the years, Dragon Boat Festivals also known as Tuen Ng, the Double Fifth, “Go Ge Chue or the Fifth Moon Festival have become one of the most exciting and challenging international sporting events in the world and continue to be a thrilling celebration of athleticism and rich Chinese heritage. Most of the times the origin of the dragon boat festival is linked to the legend of Qu Yuan, a Chinese patriot and a well-known poet whose suicide in the Miluo River in the Hunan province of China during the time of the Warring States (474 BC – 221 BC) is commemorated. On the day of his death, which happened to the fifth day of the fifth month in the Chinese lunar calendar, the Chinese people have the custom of holding dragon-boat races. Tradition has it that the dragon boat race symbolizes their intention of salvaging the body of Qu Yuan. Boats were built with dragonheads and by beating drums and gongs they try to scare away the sea monsters in an attempt to retrieve Yuan’s body. Rice dumplings were scattered in the river to honor his soul and to ensure that it will never grow hungry.

Dragon boat racing was introduced on an international level by the organization of an international tournament in Hong Kong at Shau Kei Wan Typhoon Shelter in 1976. the event was a  simple affair, the competition was raced by only ten (10) teams composed of nine local fishermen’s team and a sole team of fishermen from Japan. In 1977 the international character of the event was strengthened with the addition of the Malaysian team from Penang. Following the successes of the past international races, a permanent venue was established in Victoria Harbor, Hong Kong. Participation in the event grew dramatically over time, from ten teams in the 1976 race to the 133 teams during the 1997 event, including thirty six teams from thirteen different countries. In the past two decades, the event has evolved into an annual highpoint in the international sporting calendar. Each year, the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival – International Races with its ever increasing popularity attracts spectators from Hong Kong and teams from around the world celebrating this rich and colorful tradition of China. At the end of the 80’s the sport was introduced in Europe and is now performed all over the world including the Philippines.

In 1991, the International Dragon Boat Federation (IDBF), the governing body of dragon boat rowing, was formally constituted in Hong Kong  and had regulated the sport with official rules and laws. Every continent has its own federations linked to the IDBF, and that includes our own, Amateur Rowing Association of the Philippines (ARAP). The competitions in dragon boat discipline have long become a high performance issue. The World Championships, European Championships, Asian Championships and other Continental Championships are well established and medals are now hard to come by.

Problem Statement

This paper will try to trace the history of Dragon Boat Rowing in the Philippines with the aim of establishing an integrated and comprehensive research paper that will eventually be presented as a documented historical narration. This should answer the following query:

                How was the sport introduced in our country?

                Who were the people who started it?

                How were they able to train? And where?

                How did they pass on the sport?

                Who were the first private teams? What was the highest achievement of these clubs? How were they a factor in the promotion of this sport?

                When was the 1^st national team organized? How are they doing in terms of success in major competitions?

                Did it grow as a sport? (in population, and training advancement)

                Do we observe the same traditions as that of China? Why?

                Is the sport even known to provinces or towns with fishing villages? Does rowing in the fishing villages or towns near the ocean, display the same movement in rowing as with dragon boat?

                How will dragon boat be introduced as a mass sport in our country?

Significance of the Study

Dragon boat rowing has been a part of the cultural traditions of China for centuries and it is now celebrated all over the world. Its popularity has grown rapidly; it is attended and viewed by a great number of spectators and fans. Relating such feats of this sport from all over the globe may justify the numerous prospective that it might incur to our own country.

Why do I have to trace its roots in our country? Because the Philippines is one of the countries that this sport had planted its roots, but being a young sport, not so many books are written about dragon boat rowing, or at least not one that is distributed here in our country. Being a traditional boat rower myself, I have heard so much inquiries being asked about it, sometime people even mistake it as an “Olympic rowing” or “Sculling” event just by hearing the term “rowing”, not being familiar with Traditional Rowing or more popularly called Dragon Boat Rowing because there are too many claims about its past. I am hoping that this research paper would set the records straight.

My research also intends to present the potential possibilities of the sport as a tool for promoting tourism in our country, with the aim of attracting teams from all over the world, at the same time promote and expand the sport in the country. The paper shall explore and satisfy questions mentioned below:

                Did ARAP ever attempt to explore the sport in terms of using it as a tourist attraction? Did someone else try?

                What are its potentials in terms of tourism?

                Will anyone be interested to invest in it?

                Who could be these potential investors? Or who could be involved?

                How much potential income are we looking at?

                Is there really a point in exploring this?

Do Filipinos have the potential to excel in this sport? The Philippines is a country surrounded by vast coastlines, oceans, lakes and other bodies of water that provides us with numerous opportunities to facilitate the improvement of water sports in the country. Our fishing industry is a deep-rooted livelihood in our country for centuries; it involves much rowing activity much like other countries that have more or less similar features as ours. Though in a country like Canada, and even our Asian counterparts like Indonesia, Myanmar and China, the sport of dragon boat rowing has reached the height of its achievement that we are still striving to equal someday. This paper, with its goal of accounting history to our people should be able to enlighten many of our own potential talents in excelling in this sport.

                Do we have the resources: manpower (this includes, the athletes, the trainers etc.) and financial support to achieve such feat?

                Should we start promoting it as a cultural festivity in the local scene?

                Will practicing it as a cultural activity promote dragon boating as a mass sport in our country?

                Will this enable us to locate potential talents in the sport of dragon boat rowing?

Supported by the fact that we are a country with 7,107 islands that is delimited by bodies’ of water, it is inevitable, especially for those living near the sea not to be able to explore the reason/s and expound on some probable justifications on why Filipinos has not achieved what we are prospectively good at.

Scope and Limitations

Most of the data will be derived from interviews conducted with the founders of its governing body in our country and abroad, as well as  from the first teams that was organized to compete internationally. Other sources will be from news clippings, articles and chronicles mostly ensuing from web explorations.

Dragon boat festivals have become a great spectacle. “The growth in the mass sport is enormous” (Ryfell). And an introduction to its substantial potential for tourist attraction may be able to influence the public that might place some interest in organizing an international event in the future. Interviews with the international contacts will be established for this purpose to be able to gather some data on international festivals and events particularly the Hong Kong Tourist Association. Past written accounts will also be incorporated to further elaborate my research.

Weaknesses in my paper may include some people who I may not be able to reach. There might be unaccounted sources such as lack of historical archives and data for the lack of books and library accounts on the subject. Further, the people that I am planning to interview may not accurately recount events that happened nearly twenty years ago.

Definition of Terms

ANVIL Executive Club

ARAP

EDBF

Dragon Boat

HKTA

IDBF

MBC

PRC

POC

PSC

Related Literature

Dragon Boat Rowing: Its History and its Growth

The Legend of Dragon Boat Rowing

I have been surfing the Internet on dragon boat rowing, and most of the facts I had gathered contains comparable information on its history. It is considered one of Asia’s greatest epic sagas that tell the story of Qu Yuan and his legacy of the dragon boat festival. Known as “Tuan Wu Jie” in Mandarin Chinese or “Tuan Ngo Chue”: in the Hokkien dialect. The dragon boat festival is traditionally celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth lunar calendar. Also called the Upright sun, the double Fifth and the “Go Ge Chue” or the “Fifth Moon Festival”. Everyone involved in dragon boat rowing would recount the same popular legend of this great Chinese statesman and a renowned poet in China, Qu Yuan who had lived during the “Chan Kuo” or the Warring States period between 481 – 221 B.C., a time when China was divided into several warring Kingdoms. The seven warring states of Qin, Chu, Qi, Zhao, Han, Wei and Yan were striving against each other in supremacy. Qin, Chu and Qi were the larger, more powerful states that had vast resources and a large army, each of them wanted to unite China in their own name.

In the court of Chu two factions emerged; one standing in alliance with the state of Qi to resist Qin, the other, out of fear, for maintaining friendly relations with Qin. Qu Yuan wanted political reforms to build a more stable economy, a stronger army and an alliance with Qi to resist Qin. King Huai had trusts’ in Qu Yuan triggered the jealousy of the other faction. They had maligned Qu Yuan against the king and believing the lies they were telling him, King Huai designated Qua Yuan a minor position. Taking advantage of this situation, the state of Qin destroyed the alliance between the two states (of Chu and Qi), and then realizing that he was tricked; King Huai sent troops to attack Qin, where they were repeatedly defeated. Due to this, the king called for Qu Yaun to re-establish their relations with the kingdom of Qi. Again the other faction opposed Yuan’s proposal and lied against him to the king, who then exiled him to the north of Han River. The king was deceived into visiting the kingdom of Qin but he was detained and later on died. His son Qinxiang allowed the return of Qu Yaun in the kingdom, succeeded the throne of King Huai, but his enemies who are positioned at a higher office convinced the king to put Qu Yaun to exile. He was brought to the Hunan province in Southern China where he composed poems expressing his rage, melancholy and love for his people.

In 278 B.C. Qu Yuan heard that Qin finally conquered the kingdom of Chu. Overwhelmed by hopelessness, he threw himself in the Miluo River. Hearing this news of his suicide the fishermen rushed to retrieve his body but to no avail. The villagers would throw pyramid shaped glutinous rice in the river to prevent the fishes to eat Qu Yuan’s body. Since his death on the 5^th day of the 5^th month in the Chinese lunar calendar, the Chinese people would commemorate his death by holding dragon boat races. The tradition has it that dragon-boat race symbolizes the eagerness of the people to salvage Yuan’s body. They made dragonheads and made so much noise on their drums and gongs to scare away the sea monsters. They also threw packets of glutinous rice called Zhong-zi, to feed the sea creatures to prevent them from eating Yuan’s body. This 2,271 year old tradition commemorates the death anniversary of Qu Yuan.

The first dragon boat races were recorded in the Tsin Period, later becoming popular in the Tang Dynasty (618 to 907 A.D.), spreading throughout the Yangtze River Valley and the most of South China.

Dragon Boat History in Specific Locations

Surfing the net has led me to a very few historical narration about dragon boat rowing in specific countries where it is being observed and celebrated. There were only two known books published about dragon boat rowing and a Canadian rower herself, Pat Barker wrote one of them, titled “Dragon Boats: A Celebration”. Other than these two books there were not much written on dragon boat rowing apart from what you’ll read on the Net.

Several articles were written on dragon boat rowing here in our country but it has never written on its history, growth and progress as a sport in our country.

Its potential in tourism is still untapped in our country. In the mid 1970’s, the Hong Kong tourist information center headed the idea of organizing the dragon boat festival to promote tourism. “The year 1976 marked the beginning of the development of the dragon boating and is now being practiced in a lot of countries today. Its success was impressive as pictures of the Hong Kong harbor was presented around the world. More than 25 years later the numbers show impressive development of the sport, there are 20 million dragon boat participants in China alone and it has spread to all other continents as well”. (Ryfell)

It is the fastest growing water sport in the world today. Over 2,000,000 people worldwide participated in dragon boat racing in 1996. in Canada alone, which the international dragon boat racing community consider a world power, there were over 7,000 Canadians who participated in the 1996 festival, a 37 % increase over the past (Cyn). Canada holds its big dragon boat events in Ontario, where 250 thousand people turn out each year for the Toronto GWN race festival. Thousands of other Ontarians attended the Waterloo, Mississauga, Kingston, Ottawa, Sudbury, Guelph and Samia festivals. In Western Canada, the large dragon boat festivals are held in Calgary, Kelowna, Victoria, Vancouver, Edmonton and Saskatoon. The Calgary and Kelowna festivals each draw 30,000 spectators and over 1,500 racers from around the country each summer. The even larger Vancouver festival has the honor of hosting the annual Alcan competition, drawing thousands of spectators to the shores of False Creek (www.edmdragonboat.com/).

There are companies in Sweden that were founded for the sole reason to organize dragon boat festivals each year, like the one in Malmo/SWE that attracts up to 600 teams from companies, clubs etc. Apparently there are 1500 teams in Norway and Sweden, 1000 teams just in Great Britain and Germany is proud of  having close to 2000 teams, which adds up close to 50,000 active members (Ryfell).

From San Francisco to New York, and along the Mississippi River in places as unlikely as Dubuque, Iowa, more than 400 teams are dragon boating, said Iowan Gary Carstens of  the  United States Dragon Boat Federation. Most dragon boating hotspots are are in the Midwest, which has 275 teams. Nearly 70 teams train in New York City and some 80 teams practice in and around Portland, Oregon. (www.Canoe.com/CNEWSFeatures0009/01_dragonboats.html)

The sport of dragon boat rowing is also being a trained and celebrated in countries like, Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lebanon, Netherlands, North Mariana Islands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, South Africa, and of course in our Asian neighbors. 

In 1997, the Second World Dragon Boat Championship was held with the International Dragon Boat Races. Over 130 teams, including 36 overseas teams from 13 countries participated in the races (www.hkdba.com.hk/trend.htm)

The statistics evidently illustrates a promising future. Not only as a sport but also as a potential tourist attraction that can possibly reap a great deal of economic possibilities.

In the Washington Business Journal, tourism officials organized a new festival, which they hoped would become a popular annual event. They hoped the dragon boat races fire up the tourism sector (dated 2002 – 04 -29). The festival was initially being organized to celebrate the 10^th anniversary of the D.C. chapter of the Chinese Women’s League. The league sponsoring the event, expected to draw 2,000 to 4,000 visitors. Linda Lee, owner of the Hunan Chinatown Restaurant, who is also an advisory board member for the festival committee says the September 11 attacks inspired the group to help the local tourism community, 40 teams signed up to participate. Dragon boat festivals already are in place in several cities including Philadelphia, Boston, Seattle and Los Angeles. (Cube). Its potential market and the opportunity it has to offer are just too great for the sport to remain in the background.

Further, the beauty of the Dragon Boat Festival events extends beyond the boundaries of competition and the festival. It was used as an avenue of interface between one culture and another and a great team building activity to many corporations around the world. It is in fact, become one of New Zealand’s capital’s fastest growing corporate sport (www.dragonboat.org.nz/wcorporate.htm).

Also, it has been employed to raise money and awareness for cancer research (Drummond, -Young) and a successful fund raising activity for charities.

Indeed this sport has much promise. The comprehension of its related verities from other countries might justify and validate the possible values it might incite. Also, the account narration of its origin and growth in our country might launch the awareness on dragon boat rowing as a great sport.

Methods of research and Procedures

The historical method will be used in this research. I will conduct a systematic search for documents and other sources that will be able to track down everything that concerns the sport of dragon boat rowing with the sole purpose of objectively and accurately reconstructing its origin, in the Philippines. Through interviews with primary sources like the ARAP President Benjamin Ramos, Philippine National Team Head Coach, Mr. Nestor Ilagan, ANVIL Executive Club past President, Mr. Peter Mangasing or  their past Chairman, Mr. George Sy, Mr. JM Ongsiaco, the past team captain of the BENCH dragon boat team, (one of the first team in the country) along with Richard Gomez and Mr. Jay Heredia, the members of the same aforementioned team. Also Mr. Ronnie Jalandoni, one of the founding members of the Manila Dragon  Bay Boat Team (again, one of the first organized teams in the country) Mr. Edmund Li, past president of the Philippine Dragon Boat Rowing team along with Ms. Rona Dizon-Gavino, past team captain of the same team and the 1^st Team captain of the National Women’s team. Other founders of the different teams that I still have the task to identify in order to follow the sports progress in our country.

The interviews will be recorded on tape with the permission of the interviewees mentioned above except for the other founders of the different existing and previously existing teams in the local dragon boat scene where I will prepare a questionnaire that will answer the following:

                Name:

                Affiliation:

                Year of the Team’s conception:

                Position:

                Name of the co-founders (if any):

                Team’s brief history: (please limit to one paragraph)

                Team’s best achievement in local races:

                Team’s best achievement in international races:

                Team’s objectives/goals (limit to three):

The interviews that will be conducted with the rest of the people mentioned above will have different sets of interview questions, since they had played different roles in influencing what dragon boat is today.

The other data will be gathered through interviews by means of the internet where I will try to establish relations with the president of the HKTA, IDBF, and the other necessary subjects who can substantiate my intentions.

References:

Francois Ryfell, http://www.canoeicf.com/dragon.dragon.htm

Mark Cyr, www.dragon-boat.net/historyb.htm

www.edmdragonboat.com/, 7/9/2000

www.canoe.com/CNEWSFeatures0009/01_dragonboats.html. 5/6/2003

www.hkdba.com.hk/trnd.htm, 7/4/2002

Christine Cube, www.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2002/04/29/newscolumn9.html, 5/21/2003

Corporate Teams:  Capital’s Fastest Growing Corporate Sport www.dragonboat.org.nz/wcorporate.htm, 7/5/2002

Ramsay Drummond, -Young, www.dragon-boats.net/history_of_dragon_boats.htm, 5/21/2003

Qu Yuan and the Dragon Boat Festival,     

www.chinavoc.com/history/donzhou/quyuan.html , 5/5/2003

Champion Boat at CCP Docksite

I started running as a cross training because I am having difficulties when we are doing race course trainings to prepare for a dragon boat race. I’m gasping for air even if it was a 2 min 500m course. Then one race day, if I remember it right that was also my first dragon boat race, sometime March 2006 my best bud Amy and I decided to tune up for the 8am race in Manila Bay. There we were at 4am, my first long run, in the vicinity of SM San Lazaro then down to UST, without any training or practice run, after probably 30 minutes of running we were all set to paddle…

Then most of my runs were on the treadmill…from 10 mins. to 20…30…then 45…. Then I decided to put my feet on a test run outdoors… woke up at 4:30 am, did a slow paced jog from our place to QC Memorial Circle… the test run was then followed by early morning jogs every other day. It was fun, feeling the early morning breeze, breathing fresh air and seeing other people do their runs.

Unfortunately the routine did not last long because of work schedule and boat trainings. I haven’t run for almost 4 months. And then come May 2007 when I have to prepare for an upcoming agility test which includes a 1k run with a time limit of 4mins and a 100m sprint, it was time to hit the road again.  Did the same routine as before…

 July 1, 2007 Adidas King of The Road, Quirino Grandstand to Cuneta Astrodome and back, my first time to join a fun run. I registered to run 10k and my time is 1:17 and I was just glad I did not finish last, even had the strength to head straight to Manila Bay and join the team on their boat training.

 

IMPOSSIBLE IS NOTHING!

KOTR July 1, 2007

KOTR 10Ksmile 1:17

 

10K 1:17

August 1, 2007 my first day at Bicutan for 6 months of training. And training basically was to wake up everyday at 4am, do some stretching and exercise, then at 430am run the oval which is 1km uphill and downhill for a minimum of 8-10 rounds. And we are not allowed to stop and hydrate. Well that was just in the morning before breakfast. At 1130am when we are lucky, if not at 1am when the sun is scorching hot we still have to run for a minimum of 3 rounds, and lastly in the afternoon another 10 rounds around the oval. My classmate even incorporated a chant “Takbo lang ng takbo habang may semento”.

 During our training we joined fun runs which includes the Adidas Run for Love 10k GK Bayani Marathon at the SM Mall of Asia (1:13), PNP Torch Run approximately 13k run from Bicutan to The Fort and finally our mandatory 21k Graduation Run which was held during the Subic International Marathon January 20, 2008 we are required to finish it in 3hours and I barely made it, my time on the clock was 2:57. whew! After that run I wasn’t able to feel the lower part of my body….

Adidas Run For Love 2007

Torch Run 11/11/2007

21K Graduation Run 1/20/2008 2:57

It’s been 4 months since we graduated last February and I miss the sweat, the gasping for air, the chanting and most of all I miss seeing a lot of people run. Then luckily as I was browsing on the internet I chanced upon the events schedule of upcoming fun runs, it got me excited and now I’m back on my running shoes and even started a blog on running.

July 6, 2008 Tik-Takbo at U.P. – As our team (PNP Dragon Boat Rowing Team) were doing our rounds at UP we were handed out with flyers for this event.  I decided to run 6k to test my capacity. And after this run I made a self note to run more often again.

U.P. TIK-TAKBO

route

Tik-Takbo July 6, 2008

July 13, 2008 OROFOLS – Lasalle Run – Wet and confusing run, it started to rain when the gun went of, made a bad run when I started fast since I was carried away with the pace of the PNPA Cadettes beside me, did the 5k run which I think wasn’t 5k coz the route was cut short and there weren’t any marshals.

OROFOLS July 13, 2008

Next… July 27, 2008 QC Red Cross Takbong Alay Sagip Buhay 5K

QC Red Cross Fun Run