Our Post-Christmas Long Run

Since we started running last year, going home to the province has becoming more exciting. It was because aside from visiting our families and relatives there, we can always do a long run. Last December 26 when most people are still asleep after the merry makings on Christmas day, Swthrt and I woke up at around 5am and prepared for the longest run we ever did. Our goal was to run from Baranggay Tulo, Batangas City to Eternal Garden in Alangilan, Batangas. We will be visiting Itay (Swthrt’s father)’s grave since it was our first Christmas without him. We have no idea of the distance we will be running but we are quite sure that it will be longer than our usual route we run every time we visit Batangas. To at least approximate the distance we will be running, I decided to use my nike+ ipod.

At 5:30 am we were ready to run. We started at a slow pace for our warm up. It was very cold. We increased pace to 7min/km as we go along. It was a good run all the way to Stonyhurst School in Baraggay Pallocan where we met Ed (Swthrt’s brother) on his bike. He will be guiding us on our way to Eternal Garden. We will be taking a detour since the Bridge of Promise in Baranggay Gulod is still not passable. It was damaged by typhoon Pepeng. We took the road going to SM City then turned right on the road leading to the town proper. We took a right turn at Prieto St. after crossing a bridge (forgot the name) and turned right again at Rizal Drive. At this point we ran more than 10K. It was here at Rizal Drive where we faced a great challenge of running uphill all the way to the Provincial Capitol. And so before doing it we had our first Kitkat break and conquered the hill. We then proceeded to the main highway going to Eternal Garden. It will be at least 3K more to our destination according to Ed. With 1 kilometer to go, Swthrt felt pain on her chest. We took a walk break and assessed if she can continue to run. She told me she was not feeling dizzy nor she was feeling weak. It was the pricking pain on her chest every time she spoke that bothered her. Our guess was it was an acid reflux attack that she has been experiencing for the fast few days. After a while Swthrt had a burp. She felt better and proceeded with our run. We arrived at Itay’s graveyard after 1hour and 41 minutes of running covering 14.5Kms. We stayed there for at least 8 min and had our second Kitkat break before heading our way back home.

This time, it was a question of can we still do it? And without hesitation, or should I say without any choice, we made our way back home. It was harder this time. The sun was up which made it hotter at this time. There were also more motorists on the road where most of them had no regard to runners and drove faster than they should. And the fumes coming out from the jeeps and tricycles in the city area really made it harder to run. The route going to Baranggay Gulod was no problem. We had short stop and bought a bottle of water to replenish Swthrt’s hydration bottles. Upon reaching Baranggay Pallocan, we begun to have walks break especially after taking on the series of uphill going back to Baranggay Sampaga. With more than 21K ran, we felt the soreness on our legs and the heat of the sun that drained all our energy. It was our longest run ever. We took our last Kitkat bar and finished the whole course running and walking for almost 4 hours covered a total distance of 29Kms. It was a tiring but fulfilling run that we had.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!

See you at the starting line on Rizal Day Run!