SIRUMA: Run Retreat in Paradise

At the crack of dawn, with the sound of the waves in the surf serving as nature's drumbeat, I scanned the expanse below. The Bicolano Penguin was perched on a  promontory and from this vantage point, the flightless bird's spirits soared high with anticipation. The view was exquisite. A view to paradise.

Paradise. In religion, a place of exceptional happiness and delight. In paradise there is only peace, happiness and contentment.  For those who are passionate believers of the Gospel of Running, is there such a paradise for runners?  In that November morning of the year of our Lord 2018,  by the coast facing the mighty Pacific, I do believe I was gazing at such a sight of paradise. 

Perching on a rugged rock to afford the Bicolano Penguin a view of a running paradise.  

The sandy beach was covered by the agohos and coconut palms 

From a distance, paradise was covered by the green foliage of a cacophony of agoho, coconut and palm trees.  But the sound of tidal surf softly carousing the beach gave a hint of what was to come. Unpolluted and unadulterated oxygen  wafting in the air, I strolled  down the hill with my brothers and sister in run.  And at the foot of the hill, the sight that greeted us was breathless. The rays of the mighty sun breaking thru the distant horizon, and when its light broke thru the darkness, the beauty revealed was breath-taking :  a flat white sandy beach with a generous space for running. 

Sunrise on the beach. 

More than a kilometer long, the stretch of  white sands of the Angelica Paradise beach gets longer and wider with the shifting of the tides.  

With the powderiness and the flatness of the sandy beach, I immediately conjured images of our  pack  of runners spending a lot of time in the place doing what the  British athletes  did at the opening scene of the Chariots of Fire.  For the 1924 British olympians, their running paradise is the West Sands at St. Andrews on the Fife coast of Scotland. For us 2018 row5runners, our running paradise is the Angelica Paradise Beach at Siruma on the Pacific coast of Camarines Sur.

We sure did had a lot of running worthy of the Vangelis-composed instrumental  theme of Chariots of  Fire. A treasure trove full of photos we have to show. But before that, allow us to share how to go to that paradise in Siruma.

Looking at the map of the province of Cam Sur, Siruma shares the rugged Pacific coastline with the towns of Tinambac, Lagonoy, Garchitorena and Caramoan. It is roughly 80 kms from Naga City, the heart of Bicolandia. A short distance by private vehicle but  travel to Siruma, before 2018,  was anything but smooth.   Travel from Naga City to Siruma took 7 to 8 hours given that the 40-km Tinambac-Siruma Road was almost impassable during the rainy season.   But with the completion of thePhp 1.3 B Tinambac-Siruma Highway, travel time has been reduced to less than 2 hours.

The Pacific Coast of Camarines Sur:  Siruma, Tinambac, Lagonoy, Garchitorena and Caramoan.

The muddy and rugged Tinambac-Siruma Road in the early days.

The newly-completed Tinambac-Siruma Highway.  Thank you DPWH  Fourth Engineering District of Cam Sur.  

It is the Tinanbac-Siruma Highway that our group took going to Siruma on the first week of November in 2018. Leaving Naga City in a Montero, our group composed of Myla, Bob, Ed, Pidong and myself arrived in the town of Siruma in 2 hours. It could have been less if not for a minor error of not taking a left on the road after the town proper of Tinambac.  The road from Tinambac to Siruma was scenic and no hint of ruggedness as previously experienced by the Siruma townsfolk before the Tinabac-Siruma highway was completed.

The barangay road map to Angelica Paradise and Beach Resort 

Less than 3 kilometers before the poblacion (or town proper) of Siruma, we did a right turn from the Tinambac to Siruma highway to a barangay road which led us to the Angelica Paradise Beach and Resort. At that time in 2018, majority of this barangay road was not yet in concrete and there were portions that cannot be traverse by low vehicles like small sedans. Hopefully this barangay road by 2020 would have been completed already.

The road to paradise is not paved. Pity a small car that enters.

As they say,   the road to paradise is not paved. But it is very much worth the trip.  What we saw at the end of the dusty rugged barangay road is a run retreat worthy of the word "paradise."  And truth  be   told, words may not be enough to capture the sheer delight of the experience.  Thus, the abundance of photos in this blog article to mirror the abundance of joy we felt in Siruma.

Good morning smile from Myla.  She is wearing a Hoka on the beach but...

          

...soon, she is running barefoot.

Out of the trees, Bob came running into the white sands.

In full stride,... 

...Bob's running is a thing of beauty.

Footprints in the sand.

On land,  on water, running is therapeutic.

Even the rain will not stop us from running.

After the rain, the sandy beach is transformed into a mirror.

The view below from a hermit crab.

This is the biggest hermit crab I have ever seen.

This is how a hermit crab looks like naked without its host shell.

A beached jelly fish.

We can run all day. 

The GPS showed we ran 19kms, some of them on water. 

The beach got a A thumbs up sign from Pidong.

Ed walking on the beach to...

...join us - "Los Cuatro Amigos en la Playa." 

Hours on the beach had us hungry big time.  Good thing, we got some crabs and...

...squid from the Tinambac fish port. 

I love the smell of beaches and  books.   

Our trip to Angelica Paradise Beach on that November of 2018 was only an overnighter. The demands of our job require that we be back to the metropolis posthaste. But in those precious 24 hours in Siruma, we experienced a bliss that a running retreat in paradise provides.

In our high school and college days, most of us have undergone a retreat or recollection.  The purpose of a spiritual retreat is to temporarily leave behind the usual distractions we all face for a time long enough to allow relaxation and for an inner change to occur:  the ongoing conversion of heart that is critical to deepening faith.

To some extent, what we did in our Siruma escapade was akin to a spiritual retreat.  Myla, Bob,Ed, Pidong and the Bicolano Penguin temporarily left behind the usual distractions and went to a remote and beautiful place. We relaxed and experienced running as an adventurous, joyful exploration of a new place,  a way to connect with friends, a way to connect our mind to body --- and all these experiences help us remember why we fell in love with running to begin with.

It is end of the lost summer of 2020 as I write this blog article. The summer of the Wuhan Virus.  In this time of despair and unease, there is a silver lining to be had. For a runner like me, the silver lining is that when this virus is tamed and a vaccine is at hand,  I plan to be back and  run to my heart's content in the paradise that is Angelica Paradise Beach.  Who's with me?

Hasta la vista Siruma.

  










Photo credits:  Myla Barretto