Sunday morning,
I haven’t had any run in more than 9 days. This running drought comes at a bad
time as I am preparing for the Tagaytay
to Kawit (T2K) Ultra Marathon scheduled for August 24, a mere 5 weeks away.
But
I had to follow the doctor’s order to take a rest as I battle a viral illness (fever
and cold) I got two Fridays ago. The past several days I have been on a steady
dose of paracetamols, antibiotics and vitamins but nothing seems to be working
as I continue to be groggy and sounded sick. I was getting impatient and my
feet were itching to serenade the road.
Sunday
morning, I was gonna drive my son
Marcel to the UP Diliman campus as he would be joining his Section 1A classmates
watch a play at the Wilfredo Ma. Guerrero Theater inside Palma Hall. Showing was a Dulaang UP staging of the
highly-regarded Filipino Folktale "Adarna". The plan was for me to watch as well. The duration of the play was from 10 am to 12:30 noon.
Sunday morning,
serendipity happened for my jealous mistress and me. Arriving at the lobby in front of the
Guerrero Theater, I asked where I could buy a ticket to the play (Marcel and his
classmates had gotten tickets from their Filipino subject teacher). I was pointed to a
table where a pretty lady informed me in a respectful tone that there were no
more tickets for sale. I did not expect
Dulaang Productions to be fully sold on
a sleepy weekend morning.
What to do to
past the time for 2 and a half hours?
Simple. My
jealous mistress was always available, and my dear readers should know by now
that I am referring to my R – U – N – N
– I – N – G.
And what a
better place to have my running romance during
the immediate hours prior to noon than
inside UP Diliman, the most runner
friendly campus in all of Metro Manila. Lots of big trees to provide a natural shade against haring araw. Lots of veterans or newbies runners to
keep one company. And lots of roadside
snack to substitute for the running gels which I did not have on that Sunday
morning. What I did have, ever ready inside my vehicle, was a duffel bag full of running shirts,
running shorts, running socks and a pair of Hoka.
Thus, the die
was cast, fever or no fever, I was running. I rationalized that the
non-availability of tickets was a sign from above that I should run already. I
figured I could go around the 2.2 km inner loop 3X and then do a single round of the 4 km outer loop (the one passing
College of Architecture and UP Bahay ng Alumni). Roughly 10 kms.
Running and
walking in UP gave me the added benefit
of being exposed to what was going on inside
the country’s premier university thru its posters and tarpaulins. And in my
sojourn this Sunday morning, I kibitzed, as could be seen in the
following pictures:
 |
| A signature campaign to oppose the name change of the College of Business Administration to the Cesar E.A. Virata School of Business |
 |
| SONA inspired complaints |
 |
| Sign Up for a day & Photo Contest |
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| Free showing of Pinoy film classic |
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| Abelardo Hall Auditorium Concert Series |
As I neared the
finish of my run, I got to have a brief
chat with a runner who I figured to be training for a marathon, or even an
ultra. His name is Job and true indeed he was preparing for both the Milo
Marathon this July 28 and the T2K this August 24.
Here we go
again. A budding serendipity. Our chance
meeting on this Sunday morning might prove beneficial after all, for the both of us, come our 50-km August
adventure.
 |
| Job on his 12th round on the 2.2 km loop |
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