FAT ASS RUN 2020: Trying to Keep A Tradition Alive

"Hi, I am afraid the last edition would be 2019."

This was the message reply I received in mid-December last year. The respondent is Atty Jon Lacanlale and what I sent him was a query on whether he will organize a Fat Ass Run this Jan 2020.

An accomplished ultra runner having tackled some of the more notable ultra marathons here and abroad, Atty Jon has been the leading light in bringing the Fat Ass Run in the Philippines, and organizing it every year since 2010. .  The origin of the very first Fat Ass Run dates back to 1978 when a San Francisco Bay Area free spirit by the name of Joe Oakes came up with idea of a really cool long run that can work off the consequences of a little Xmas holiday overeating.  Since the late 1970s, the Fat Asss Run has spread in popularity to all corners of the ultra running community in the world. 

The Bicolano Penguin, together with running friends from my Ateneo de Naga High School Batch 1983 and First Balfour, has had the pleasure of joining the Fat Ass Run organized by Atty Jon in the Clark Parade Grounds in Pampanga for several years already.  First time in 2014. Then followed up in 2017 and 2019.  Kind of like a budding tradition for us in the local ultra running community. 

2014:  My first Fat Ass Run.  Learned that hydration is not exclusively about Gatorade.  

2018:  Combined runners from First Balfour and row5runnin were one of the bigger contingents in that year's Fat Ass Run. 

2019:  Our Fat Ass Run "swan song" so to speak with Atty Jon.

The experience has always been a cool one.  It is not a race; it's a long run for everyone to burn the excess pounds without having to deal with registration or pre-race jitters.  After all, the Fat Ass Run mantra as coined by the founder Joe Oakes is "No Fees, No Awards, No Aid, No Wimps." The community spirit of bayanihan is actually very much alive in the Fat Ass Run from runners bringing in food and drinks to share with other participants to erstwhile running rivals  collaborating with one another to break course records.        

Fat Ass Run mantra

Truly enjoyed being part of the Fat Ass Run tradition in Clark.  That is why I felt sad reading the message  from Atty Jon on that time a few days from Christmas in 2019.  Why should there be an end here in Luzon to a cool thing like the Fat Ass Run?

But should it end?  One thing about runners of the long distance kind, we are more often positive thinkers rather than pessimists.  We are of the persistent and persevering kind.

So it was that on the week before the long Christmas and New Year holiday break of 2019, that I started messaging/calling up my kindred spirits among Ateneo de Naga high school batchmates and First Balfour fellow employees.  I was talking about having a bootleg kind of a Fat Ass Run on the first Saturday of 2020.  Bootleg in the sense that we will not have official permission from the administrator/owner of the venue where we will run around for a number of hours.  Speaking of venue, the one I was planning for Jan 5 will not be in the usual Clark parade grounds in Pampanga but instead will be  nearby Filinvest City in Alabang, Muntinlupa City.  Speaking of number of hours, for our 2020 edition, our Fat Ass Run will only be for 4 hours, not the usual 6 hrs, 12 hrs and 24 hrs bonanza that Atty Jon has adroitly managed all these years. But the same free spirit will be there. Our 2020 Fat Ass Run will have no registrations, no awards, and definitely no wimps.

Our 2020 Fat Ass Run was held in the southwest portion of Filinvest City, Alabang. 

The response were mostly positive. Several of the First Balfour employees were gearing up for their first full mary at the TBR Dream Marathon  come mid-February.  They welcomed an opportunity to do a long run that will catapult many of them from the 15km training runs they have been doing to a long slow distance run in the 20kms and beyond range. Many of them eagerly placed their names on the sign up sheet we posted at the company gym.   On the part of my classmates from the Ateneo de Naga High School Batch 1983, my fellow 83neans were happy to join in an exercise activity that will shed some excess pounds from the holiday partying of the previous month.

Sign up sheet for the 2020 Fat Ass Run posted in our First Balfour gym

 
A few minutes before 4am on that Jan 5 Sunday morning, our 2020 Fat Ass Run participants gathered together on that parking area along Pacific Rim Street with the shadow of The Palms Country Club looming above us. All 22 kindred spirits:  18 First Balfour co-employees, 3 Ateneo batchmates and me.

After a brief orientation of the route plus some of the minor reminders, we had ourselves sign our names on the score sheet where we will mark the number of times we have ran around the 2-km loop. Then without much fanfare, we were off on our  2020 Fat Ass Run. Just to start it was already a small victory for us in our attempt to keep the tradition alive.

For the 2020 Fat Ass Run, we run around a 2-km loop. 

The runners  naturally grouped themselves according to the pace they are comfortable with, which were mostly 2:1 and 1:1 Run-Walk intervals. A lot of Jeff Galloway disciples among us. With the loops starting to pile up, we have gotten accustomed to the routine of running the 2kms and then staying a couple of minutes on the start line where a table and some chairs were set up. This is where we congregate to drink our hydration and eat snacks.

"Sa ilalim ng puting ilaw", we gathered around in a circle to have a short race briefing.

running 83neans from our Ateneo de Naga High School Class of 1983. 

Dawn has broken and First Balfour runners  still at it running-walking in our 2020 Fat Ass Run. 

The start/finish area was a haven for eating, resting..

...and talking about anything under the sun. 

The 2020 Fat Ass Run score sheets.  12 rounds around the 2km loop was the most.  

With the morning sun beginning to heat up, we called it a day as we near the time of 9am. Looking at the score sheets, many of us ran 7 loops or more.  A couple of our runners even did 12 loops translating to 24 kilometers.  But more than the distance, the achievement we share with one another was the strengthening of camaraderie. This is best exemplified by the comment of one of the runners in our high school facebook chat group.

Message at a chat group about the 2020 Fat Ass Run

 
       

2020 Fat Ass Run group photo. A combination of First Balfour runners and running 83neans.

Same group photo, unplugged. 

The Fat Ass Run is never a boring run.  It is more of a re-awakening experience that all active bodies need after all the partying in the Christmas and New Year Break. This year 2020 it served its purpose again.  And perhaps that is the key to keeping this tradition alive in some form or another in our Philippine setting.

See you in the next Fat Ass Run...