2010: A Year of Firsts 2011: A Year to Elevate
by: Vicboy de Lima
Start of the year 2010 saw me halfway thru an inspiring running best seller “Born to Run”. Inspiring as this book is responsible for fueling my adventure to run more, run longer and run a lot of firsts in 2010. Not just me but a dynamic group of classmates which I have the honor and pleasure to inspire to run, the so-called 83nean Runners.
In this adventurous year of 2010, we got to run our first half marathon, our first marathon and our first ultramarathon. Let me name them again for posterity:
1st Half Marathon: Condura Run(Feb ) for Vicboy de Lima
Rexona Run ( July ) for Bob Castilla & Ruben Fajardo
Unilab Run United (Nov ) for Noel Guevara
Milo Nationals (Dec) for Ed Balcueva & Ernie Badong
1st Marathon: The Bull Runner Dream Marathon(May) for Vicboy
Camsur Marathon (Sep) for Bob, Fards & Allen Tolledo
1st Ultramarathon Tagaytay to Nasugbu (Nov) for Bob & Vicboy
Not bad for a group of 40-something dudes a few summers removed from you know what.
More importantly, these firsts have served to inspire other members of the Ateneo de Naga high school class of 1983 to take up running. We have Jobel Belarmino taking the lead in Pasig with Art Puncia and Rico Sabalvoro. Pidong delos Santos is a few nudges away to joining the Tuesday/Thursday sessions in Ultra. In Paranaque. Ronald Hemady has been doing training runs in Multinational Village. In Loyola Heights, our pioneer Bert Ferro is sec retly in training for long distances. In our home city of Naga, our runners include Ric Lozano, Ronel Gascon, Johan Botor, Moy Imperial, Neal Nueca, Raoul Herras, Noel Aureus, Eric Zaens and Lizardo Junio. Vice Mayor Omar Mercurio get to share jogs with kagawad Mike Reburiano by the shores of Lake Buhi. In Pili, Bem Dychinco and neighbor Zozimo Ordas are into running. Butch Concon too up north in Isabela.
2010 a fruitful year of firsts for Batch 83 indeed.
What do we do then for 2011, the year at hand? How do we second a year of firsts?
By coincidence, the start of the year 2011 see me reading another running book, “Running with the Legends” Written by Michael Sandrock, a runner and freelance writer, the book provides training and racing insights from 21 great runners including the mercurial Bill Rodgers (4-time winner of Boston and New York City Marathons), jovial Emil Zatopek (only runner to win the gold medals in the 10,000 meters and marathon in the same Olympics) and the driven Joan Benoit (first gold medalist of the women’s Olympic Marathon) . As I read thru the stories of a couple of these legends, I cant help but realize that the key to the success of these running legends is the sheer determination to improve.
This then should be our inspiration for 2011. Let us focus to improve. Let us elevate our running experiences in this year Twenty Eleven.
And we shall do this by putting in writing at the start our objectives, be it as a group of runners or as an individual runner.
After consultation with our batch 83 runners, here are our running goals for 2011:
Run longer.
- Number of Batch 83 marathoners to jump from 6 by the end of 2010 to at least 9 by the end of 2011.
- Ghibz and Ernie to upgrade from half marathon to marathon this 2011.
- Johan Botor, Ric Lozano & Ron Hemady to go for the marathon this 2011.
- Bem Dychinco and Ronel Gascon to try their first 21k this 2011.
- Fards to finish his first ultramarathon this 2011
- Jobel to graduate from 10k to 21k this 2011.
- Omar, Art, Zozimo and Lizardo to try their first 10K run this 2011.
- Bert to run a marathon in 2011.
- Batch 83 runners to participate in an ultramarathon event exceeding 50 kms.
Run faster.
- Allen to finish a marathon below 7 hours.
- Vicboy to finish a marathon below 6 hours.
- Fards to finish a marathon below 5 hours 30 mins.
- Bob to finish a marathon below 4 hours 10 mins.
- A Batch 83 runner to qualify for the Milo Nationals marathon by finishing a prequalifying 21-km run at below 1hr 45 mins.
Run more.
- We will run more marathons in 2011. 3 in 2010. 4 in 2011.
- Batch 83 will have more marathon finishers in Camsur. 4 in 2010. 5 in 2011.
Run hard.
- Batch 83 runners will participate at the Mayon Trail Run 2011.
Run international.
Run smart.
- Batch 83 runners will finish at the Singapore Marathon 2011.
Run smart.
- Batch 83 runners will attend running clinics and talks.
Run for Others.
- Batch 83 runners will raise funds for its scholarship initiatives thru the running of the Camsur Marathon.
So there is the list. You can bet that Batch 83 runners will achieve majority if not all of these objectives to elevate. At the end of the year 2011 , 83nean Runners will be able to declare MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.