Just a couple of days more and we'll be turning in the fat again on Christmas Eve. So while you're getting to ready for that big 6,000 calorie day, some final snippets for you to chew on before your culminating holiday activities.

• Just received the confirmation from Sir Jovie. It's final. It's mind boggling. It's the... Bataan Death March 160k Ultramarathon, the longest and most challenging road race in the country today. 28 hours of sheer guts and glory. But we'll be up for it. How do you train for 160k (or a 100 miler) anyway?While I haven't the slightest idea, maybe this rough plan could give you an idea of what it takes to finish one. No doubt about it, we'll all be extended to our very limit on this one. Off the couch, on to the road.

• Quick survey - would you ever attempt running 160 kms in your lifetime? Why or why not? Give me your thoughts.

• I have come to terms with the reality that if you want to look half decent being snapped up and tagged in a dripping wet trisuit, lose 20 lbs. Minimum. Cry.

• Some days I wish I could have taken a snap of my Oscar-worthy, PBA losing finalist smile.

• To that dude who emailed me, no I do not use spellcheck for my articles. It's a hit and miss.

• For all those who emailed and FB messaged on our recent Piolow cover story for Frontrunner, thank you so much for the support. I am very happy that you liked my article. I didn't sleep for two days working on it, subsisting on Cobra and pandesal. Yum. Seriously though, thanks a bunch. You guys inspire me to come up with even better material in the future. Cheers!

• What's fancy thing did you buy over the holiday? As for me, while I promised not to buy anything for myself anymore , I couldn't resist snapping up this cool pair of Aqua Sphere Seal XP fancy goggles courtesy of Ultraman/Ironman/VFF celebrity endorser Ronald Declarador. It gives you cool 180 degree vision in the water and seals in tight like a ziploc bag. Much better than the lame goggles I bought at the SM Kids Section.

• Congratulations to everybody who finished the Corregidor International Half Marathon organized by my good friend Edward Kho. I heard from a lot of my ANR students that the race was one heck of a humdinger. I ran that last year, no way you could go around that without maxing out your HR.

• Even if we didn't take home a medal, big ups to both LC Langit and Nikko Huelgas for placing 4th and 10th respectively in the recent Oman Asian Beach Games. They both broke national records for Olympic Distance in the process. The rest of the team did decently as well, Kim Mangrobang took 7th and Epoy Jurolan 17th in an extremely competitive field. These guys and gals are the future of the sport here in our country, there's simply nowhere to go but up for them.

• In related news, LC's 1.5 km swim split is still faster than my 800 m split. Que Horror. Gosh I suck. Time to hit the pool.

• I wonder who amongst the people we know would be joining the planned full Ironman Distance Triathlon this time next year? Hmmm....

• I have seen more accidents this holiday season than any other. The funny thing is, what exacerbates the whole thing is the 20 or so seconds it takes for the motorists to make usyoso. I plead not guilty.

• Usapang Batalya. Carbon Fiber = Stiff. Titanium = why don't you just buy a car? And give me the change?

If I don't catch you all , Good afternoon good evening and good night :P Happy Holidays :)

I was poring through my old files when I ran into this old and nearly forgotten list. It was a somewhat brazenly conceptualized attempt at figuring out the strongest runners out there, if only for the sake of trivia and after dinner conversation. Not a few bought into it for the bragging rights. With the glut of races, I found it quite impossible to maintain. Now, since a lot of us are pretty much chilling out for the holidays (don't even mention the getting fat part), I'll post the list once more. I'd love to hear from you. Try to see if you've actually managed to lower your all-time best times. If you were off the radar back then, help me updates this and let's have a little fun with it. Enjoy the parties everyone!



As was the rule before, Zorro is still serving a lifetime ban from being on the list, if only for being too much of a fun guy.







5k Monsters :

1. Jon "under160" Trimble - 17:09
2. Graciano "Totoy" Santos - 17:20
3. Mari Javier - 18:xx
4. Edward "Conquer Corregidor" Kho - 19:xx
5. Chris Iblan - 20:00
6. Wilnar Iglesia - 20:36
7. Patrick Alcomendas - 20:58
8. Jixee Lagunda - 21:02
9. Mark "Mark's Vo2" Parco - 21:08
10. Junrox "Tigerboy" Roque - 21:42
11.Dennis "RunningPinoy" Ravanzo - 22:22
12.Natz "i2runner" Garcia - 22:30
13.Alfred "El Kyoshi" De los Reyes - 22:18
14. Jonel "Bugobugo"Mendoza - 22:xx
15.Mark "Running My Mouth" Hernandez - 23:04
16. Brando "Ace" Losaria - 23:33


10k Monsters

1. Jon "under1630" Trimble - 35:51
2. Graciano "Totoy" Santos - 38:14
3. Mari Javier - 38:xx
4. Wilnar Iglesia -42:04
5. Chris Iblan - 42:30
6. Alfred "El Kyoshi" De los Reyes - 42:47
7. Vener "Run Unlimited" Roldan - 42:xx
8. Edward "Conquer Corregidor" Kho - 43:16
9. Jonel "Bugobugo" Mendoza - 43:xx
10. Raymund "Reel Running" Bontol - 44:21
11. Jairuz Agang-ang - 44:25
12.Mark "Mark's Vo2" Parco - 44:43
13.Patrick Alcomendas - 46:53
14. Junrox "Tigerboy" Roque - 46:58
15. Natz "i2runner" Garcia - 47:33
16. Brando "Ace" Losaria - 47:34
17. Piolo "Idol" Pascual - 47:54
18. Dennis "RunningPinoy" Ravanzo - 48:38
19. Jixee Lagunda - 48:51
20. Mark "RunningmyMouth" Hernandez - 49:15
21. Elmer "Life Runner" Ching - 49:43
21. Mccoy Lontoc - 50:xx
22. Raymond de Pana - 50:xx
23. Jinoe "Manokan Runner" Gavan - 52:xx
24. Sam "The Running Ninja" Delena- 53:34
25. Rodel "Argonaut" Cuaton - 53:40
26. Bong "BZ" Zandueta - 54:30


21k Monsters

1. Graciano "Totoy" Santos - 1:21:32
2. Jon "under1630" Trimble - 1:23:41
3. Chris Iblan - 1:27:35
4. Mari Javier - 1:29:xx
5. Gian "Cartgian" Saquilon - 1:31:10
6. Edward "Conquer Corregidor" Kho - 1:32:49
7. Alfred "El Kyoshi" De Los Reyes - 1:39:25
8. Jerry "High Altitude" Karundeing - 1:39:29
9. Mark "Mark's Vo2" Parco - 1:39:38
10. Junrox "Tigerboy" Roque - 1:39:40
11. Jonel "Bugobugo" Mendoza - 1:40:xx
12. Wilnar Iglesia - 1:43:xx
13.Patrick Alcomendas - 1:44:xx
14. Natz "i2runner" Garcia - 1:45:04
15. Raymund "Reel Running" Bontol - 1:50:00
16. Jixee Lagunda - 1:50:23
17. Eric De Belen - 1:55 :xx
18. Bryan "Planet Trumania" Rivera - 1:56:35
19. Sam "The Running Ninja" Delena - 1:56:xx
20. Mark "Running my Mouth" Hernandez - 1:57:31
21. Dennis "Running Pinoy" Ravanzo - 1:58:40
22. Edu "Doods" Fabian - 1:59:xx


42k Monsters
1. Jon "under1630" Trimble - 3:09:39
2. Graciano "Totoy" Santos - 3:19:25
3. Mari Javier - 3:27:xx
4. Edward "Conquer Corregidor" Kho - 3:27:xx
5. Vener "Run Unlimited" Roldan - 3:36:41
6. Wilnar Iglesia - 3:38:16
7. Chris Iblan - 3:39:43
8. Junrox "Tigerboy" Roque - 3:45:06
9. Alfred "El Kyoshi" De los Reyes - 3:49:10
10. Jonel "Bugobugo" Mendoza - 3:53:xx
11. Gian "Cartigian" Saquilon - 3:53:13
12. Natz "i2runner" Garcia : 3:56:53
13. Mark "Mark's Vo2" Parco - 4:07: xx
14. Bryan "Planet Trumania" RIvera - 4:12:xx
15. Dennis "Running Pinoy" Ravanzo - 4:25:59
16. Patrick Alcomendas - 4:32:xx
17. Frederick "Gab" Gabriel - 4:44:xx
18. Dennis "RunningFatboy" Quepe - 4:52:xx
19. Raymund "Reel Running" Bontol - 4:55:57
20. Edu "Doods" Fabian - 4:58:xx
21. Rodel "Argonaut" Cuaton - 4:58:xx

Last night I was invited to attend the presser for the 2011 Condura Skyway Marathon, and the good news was that the venue only changed around ten times (was actually holding on to see if it would somehow be shifted to Ortigas) Smirk. That notwithstanding,the cream of the crap of the blagging community was there, good times. That also pretty much means that you would have about 20 or so entries on the same event. So to save you the aggravation of sifting through mundane information you already probably know (because you have that unique ability to open their website) I'll just show you the highlights of the night. In bullets. Wooot.

•  Nice touch to have every introduce themselves and add their blog URL before we started. When the mic was passed to Abby, was half expecting her  to drop her wonderful site www.abbyjocson.com on everybody. She got shy though. I know her real blog, but I ain't telling.

• If you haven't noticed, they rebranded the entire thing by calling it the Condura Skyway Marathon,  in a bid to have the race positioned as one of the premier marathon events in the 2011 Asian marathon calendar. I've ran every Condura race since 2008 ( the first one as a very fat mann) and have borne witness to its exponential growth. It used to be the MUST race every year. And the funny thing is, despite the glut of races that abound, it still continues to be. 

• Calories gained from eating at presser : 1,000. Calories burned from writing this article : 1.5

• With Condura head honcho/overall nice guy Patrick Concepcion  unavailable to make it to the presser, brother Ton Concepcion ( the other half of the Condura dynamic duo) was there to play host to us. While Patcon is a familiar figure at races, Ton is somehow more elusive. On a nice guy scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest, he rates a 10. Quite the amiable guy, makes a heck of a difference when the people behind an event are pure runners at heart. 

Well that was fast. Hours after we had posted that there were several misgivings along the multisport online grapevine concerning exorbitant fees and sold-out (yet still exorbitant) lodging leading to talk of a (shudder) boycott, venerable Ironman 70.3 Philippines organizer Fred Uytengsu has went on record to clear the air concerning this issue. Mr. Uytengsu is a smart,straightforward guy who never hesitates to speak his mind ( I've seen this firsthand when we hosted a presser with him as lead speaker at UA&P), and it's great that he came up with this prompt statement. My take on it is that at the end of the day it's still a consumer driven market, and with the multisport ranks consistently growing in number, I don't see a problem in filling out these slots. It may even be sold out before one could say "Tim Cone" . Read up, give me your take on it.

The conversation still resonates vividly in my head on that balmy afternoon a little over two months ago. I was going about my business at home, chillin' to 90's tunes on my Grado SR-60's when the call came.

Jonel : Are you free to interview Piolow for our next cover story tomorrow at 4 pm?
GBM : Huh? Er, uh, Piolow?
Jonel : Yeah. The Piolow.
GBM: Uhhh, errr, okaaaaaaay?
Jonel : Great, I'll have the Timex gal get in touch with you.


Numbness. Is this for real? Not that I'm a screaming fangirl or anything , but I knew why Frontrunner EIC/Tatay/BDM Ultraman Jonel Mendoza got me for the story. Think of all the tension when the online pseudo-rivalry would come to a head. The Piolow finally meets the Sub-Piolow in the flesh. What fun.

To those who came a tad bit late into the scene to remember the entire ruckus that happened, read and go back to this piece to get a grasp of what we're talking about. It's as close to a cold war as one would get in the community. It was presscon fodder, and the "feud" was showing up on a completely different front. You should have seen the day when my site was inundated with heavy traffic (hostile no doubt) from Piolopacual.net. Smirk. Eventually the entire episode simmered down, but always remained as sort of an urban legend amongst old running hands.

I had practically forgotten about the entire thing.

Until I received that fateful phone call.

A gazillion things immediately raced through my head. How was I to approach it? Would he be hostile? Snooty? Would the "interview" last 2 minutes while he was being made up for his next show, alalays in tow?

I get a message from the Timex gal coordinating with us. It said something like :

You'll interview Piolow while he's being made up in the dressing room before his next rehearsal.

Ulk. This makes it interesting. I had prepared like ten questions, how am I supposed to pull that off now? For some reason, I was starting to conjure visions of a cranky prima donna surrounded by a burgeoning entourage.

The following day, me and Abby met Jonel at the lobby of his posh Valero condo in Makati. The plan was to ride convoy to the Aliw Theater where he was a guest star for Pokwang's concert. Slight Complication. Apparently, he was stuck in Bulacan, and would be late for what was anticipated to be a 7pm interview. Given that we had plans after, I thought this was a goner. Bummer.Maybe it wasn't meant to be. Maybe next time. What if there won't be a next time?

As we dejectedly started to head for the door, Jonel had a startling piece of news. For some reason, there was some confusion with his handler, and he was actually already at the venue. Sheesh. We were on the road before you could say "Noah"

We parked right in front of Star City, that last bastion of early 90's fun (anyone aside from me remember that show they used to have on channel 9?) I was pleasantly surprised to see that people were actually lining up for her show. Cool. The handler would be out in a few, so we took the time to grab some coffee (which was really more to calm my nerves). I've done a lot of interviews before, but given that this was on such short notice I felt horribly unprepared.

A few more minutes and his handler finally came out. The affable, soft-spoken lady didn't exactly fit my notion of a "handler". Was half-expecting either Ogie Diaz or Lolit Solis to start thumbing down a clipboard in my face.She secured VIP passes for us to gain entrance, somewhat even apologetic that we couldnt just waltz in. "Stricto sila eh, full house kasi ngayon." Pokwang? Nice, strike while it's hot.

The Aliw Theater was much more bigger than I had expected, first time to ever enter. Both me and Jonel were comically fumbling with the digital recorder as we were waiting for Piolow to come out. We checked the
batteries at least four times lol. Oh the nerves. Apparently, our earlier fears of a madalian/pinilit interview were unfounded - we'd be doing the interview right there at the auditorium.

Thankfully, before I could complete a 10k just through pacing around Piolow finally came out. Here's an excerpt from the story, just to give you an idea of my thoughts at that precise moment (consider it a teaser haha.)

Aww. Just when we were getting all excited.  The aforementioned series got bumped to next year, to quote in PR-speak, " to give a lot more people a chance to register for this exciting event".  In real-world speak, that means "holy crap only five people have registered, move it you fools!". Okay maybe four did. Just jostling. Anyway, this would give you guys more time to prepare for this, the season -enders have packed the calendar and even I couldn't attend this.

The good news is, for the second straight year we've been nominated to the Philippine Blog Awards under the Best Sports Blog category. And the kicker is this year we finally made it as a finalist wohoo :) Not sure who were the other running sites nominated, but best of luck to you my friends. Thank you so much for your support and for continuing to enjoy my material. The bad news is that my site is acting up, of all times geez. Something went awry with the coding and it's not displaying the articles on the home page properly. Ugh. The worst possible thing would be for the fancy PBA judges to go through my site and see one miserly, zero comment article there along with a shaky layout. Smirk. I'm just hoping for the best. Awards night is on December 12 at the Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium at RCBC. I'll keep you guys updated as things progress.

• Brooks' Green Silence is probably the coolest name I've ever seen for a running shoe. It name suggests that diabolical nuclear weapon that dictators keep in their back yard. Cool.
  

• I received a late, red-blooded invite to the Nike Run Manila gig at Fort last Sunday. Kinda ironic because I handle Adidas ANR Ortigas, but what the heck seems like a fun gig. Oh the loyalty. Figured that since the plan was to do a brick workout anyway, might as well do it in a competitive race environment away from the crush at QCIM. The funny thing is, I've been away from the races for so long that poor lil' ol me doesn't even know how to use a D-tag. Boo hoo. Good thing I ran into race director extraordinaire Ian Alacar while trolling the grounds, thanks for helping this ignorant fool out buddy. Not too many people, was estimated at around 2,500 give or take. Field was stockpiled with fast varsity runners after strong tie-ups with schools. Rio (patiently doing his Obama-plastered smile while being snapped up for autographs and pictures ) did a patently good job with this . I struggled with a 22:34 time (good for only 81st out of 2,344 runners, testament to a strong field) about a minute and a half off my best time but the result was otherwise satisfactory. I had to rely on a furious challenge from some ultrafit varsity gals towards the end for that final push. Thanks gals, give one to the old guy. Was nice hanging with blogosphere heavyweights Jaymie/TBR and Vimz/Kulit Runner after, as well as with TPB bud Mark Mulder who finished 59th. Go to Vimz' site for the full results, I'm a lazy slob to post it on here. People were hyped over the Nike + doll that they gave away in lieu of a medal, I thought it was awesome. In related news, my Nike + doll is now the property of Ultramarathoner Abby :P

Till next week folks, congratulations to everybody on an awesome race weekend. :)

It's been just over a month since Adidas held its highly touted annual King Of The Road race. To pre-boom running denizens, KOTR was one of the most awaited races each year. The fact that it always seemed to have the best singlet of every season didn't hurt either.With the running community growing year in and year out, I'll rattle off ten quick things about this year's experience.

With off-road events experiencing a sudden resurgence, enthusiasts both new and old alike may want to check out this upcoming series of events from Finishline, to be held against the scenic backdrop of Nuvali. With running, cycling and Now if only a house in the area weren't so expensive.

Our friends at Sunrise Events, Inc. headed by it’s President and Chairman and also Alaska Milk CEO Fred Uytengsu – the same people who have brought to us the Cobra Energy Drink Ironman 70.3 race in the Philippines for two years in a row has again brought to Philippine shores another world-renowned sporting brand. Xterra, said to be the “de facto world championship of off-road triathlons”. Cool stuff.