Race #21
Eco Trail Run
August 21, 2011
10K
Davao Crocodile Park
Davao City
Fresh from my 21K finish just a week
ago, I was ready for a new challenge – the Eco Trail Run. This is my first ever attempt at trail running. The organizer, Mr.
Dax Ang, promised a challenging endeavor for all of us runners. Little did I
know that he was right yet I totally underestimated him while signing up at
Abreeza Mall.
On race day, my dad and I arrived at
Crocodile Park. The starting area was a field of grass instead of the usual
road. I wonder why a large fire truck was stationed nearby. There doesn’t seem
to be any fires around. Oh well, go figure.
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The grassy area of the trail run |
We are going through Mother Nature
herself. Through narrow, grassy trails and through fields where carabaos grazed
– there was a mix of hiking and running. I was doing fine, I even went ahead of
Dad, until I reached the forest area where there was a “traffic jam” of runners
going downhill. Oh, by the way, I forgot to mention that there was a heavy
downpour the night before this race. That factor somehow contributed to the “going
downhill” problem. The area was muddy and slippery – not exactly safe but
manageable. I have no idea how the pro runners got through this area easily but
the rest of us “average” people had to either hang on to the tree branches or
skid through the mud using our behinds. Some did both methods. But the worse
part was still to come.
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Going down, anybody? |
Going down through mud, rocks, and
nature wasn’t that bad. But going uphill – well, that was an entirely different
matter. My dad caught up with me at this point. He had no problem going uphill,
him being a former mountain climber after all. I, on the other hand, was having
a difficult time scaling the Cliffside. There is about a 10 meter drop to a
creek below on the other side of where we were scaling, so if we weren’t careful,
we could slip and fall into it. Mr. Dax, you sure are one crazy race organizer!
But you did tell us this was a challenge, and it is most certainly so. Since I
can’t exactly go back in the middle of nowhere, I had little option but to take
this challenge head on.
In the midst of this, I thought to myself, "I should have joined Ping and Kash at the Phoenix Run at SM. I wonder how different these two races are..." Roads and trails are two totally different challenges!
After that, another downhill path
await us runners. Only this time, this was pure mud and dirt. The rains sure
made the ground soft and sticky-like, I had to plod through it because my shoes
kept getting stuck. This run seems to have more hiking and climbing more than
running.
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Mud.... Pure and Simple. w/ Mrs. D. |
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Mud.... the great equalizer. |
Along the way, I met Bernard and Dina (who are also from Metrolifestyle Gym), at the
halfway marker. It was nice having fellow runners to chat with while going
through the “torture trail run”. ^_^ (By the way, thanks guys for lending me the pics.)
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End of the tough part... whew. |
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Mrs. Dina |
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The Nature Boy. "The Dirtiest Player in the Game." Haha |
The second part was easy as we finally
made it back to the carabao fields and near the Crocodile Park area. There was no large timer, so I didn't know what my time was. But after this ordeal, all I cared about was finishing in one piece!
While difficult as this experience is for me, a first time trail runner, I was glad I did it... I survived!
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The hard-earned, well-deserved, 10K nature themed medal. You are one tough puppy! |
So that’s what the fire truck was for, I finally realized, seeing how muddy we all were. It was going to hose us down!
Lessons
learned:
1) Ordinary running shoes work best on roads, not exactly on muddy trails.
I just had to find this out the hard way. Most running shoes aren’t sold in
branded stores such as Nike and Adidas. But there are trail shoes available for
sale in malls. Look for brands such as Merell and Columbia for trail shoes. I must add though, since I don't plan on running trails that often, I didn't buy a pair. My
dad, though, got a pair of Merell Trail Gloves after this, and he wears it almost
everyday!
2) Bring water for trail runs. This isn’t like on the road where you
can just back out anywhere and call it a day. So to be sure you don’t get
dehydrated, bring some of your own water. The water station for this run – scratch
that, the ONLY water station for this run ran out. I should know, I took the
last water packet.
In the end though, I got schooled by
my old man. Seems to me like he has a lot left in the tank despite his age.
Well played, dad. Well played.
>>> Race Time: 10K (no time)