P63,000!

More than a week after my marathon and yet pledges are still coming in. The current total now is about P63,000! This is the largest amount of after-the-fact pledges I have received in all marathons I have run so far, and I have my family and friends to thank for this.

I am still trying to set up a Paypal account so some of my friends abroad can send their pledges in more easily. If that happens, the total amount raised for charity patients in the PGH could still go up. Once again, my deepest gratitude to everyone for the incredible support! 🙂

Pictures!!

I didn’t have any bike support this year and I didn’t have any friends stationed along the marathon route so I thought this would be my first marathon without a single picture. As it turns out, my friend Joseph sent me a link of photos taken of me during the run. Here are some photos:

Luckily, another first in this year’s Milo Marathon was making use of the services of Photovendo to take pictures of all the runners so I have visual proof in the form of photos that I took part in the marathon. 🙂 To see more of my photos, click here.

Lots of after-the-fact pledges coming in

More pledges have been made since I completed the marathon. Current running total is now about P52,000. With a few more people indicating that they would be making a donation without specifying an amount, the total funds raised may end up exceeding P60,000, which would be awesome given that I had very little time to raise funds. I really have the most amazing family and friends! 🙂

Marathon #7 a success, thanks to you! :)

It took 6 hours and 13 minutes, way longer than any of my marathons in the past. But the key thing is that I completed it. Which means that I will raise about P47,000 for charity patients in the PGH wards. Yahoo!!

I was really concerned before the race started because I barely had any rest. I fell asleep at around 8:30pm last night but for some strange reason, I woke up at 10:30pm. I couldn’t sleep anymore after that so I decided to just go for it. Making things even more difficult is the fact that there wasn’t a lot of shade in the new route, unlike before where the a lot of the route was shaded by trees and tall buildings. The lack of sleep, lack of training, and the intense Manila heat made me realize at some point that there was no way I was going to be under my time last year. So I decided to drop that plan and just make sure I finish.

I started really struggling in the last 6 or 7 kilometers. I ran out of Gatorade at that point and most water and Gatorade stations had already run out of water. Thankfully I run into Romy and the race support team of P&G and they give me some Gatorade with about 4.5 kilometers to go.

With 3.5 kilometers left, I figured I would just walk most of the way. Interestingly enough, I end up walking right next to someone who’s run several marathons before. We ended up just talking most of the way to the finish line, and started jogging again once we got to Luneta.

I was surprised that medals were still being given out at the finish, especially since I finished the marathon a lot faster last year than this year. Maybe less people ran or more medals were prepared, but I am pleasantly surprised to have a medal.

Thanks once again to my family and friends for your unbelievable support, encouragement, and generosity. Even if I started asking for pledges only 5 days ago, a lot of money was raised. Several friends have also indicated that they will make a donation but haven’t specified the amount, so the total may end up exceeding P50,000. Amazing!!

‘Til next year! Hopefully I can be disciplined enough to be in better shape then. 🙂

One day more

In less than 12 hours, I’ll be on the road, running the marathon. I’m still really nervous at how it will turn out. I have to say though that the surge of support in terms of pledges and words of encouragement from family and friends has gotten me really excited and looking forward to a fun (and exhausting lol) run. I hope I can fall asleep by 8pm tonight to help me get a lot more sleep than I have in the past. The next update will be made after the marathon. Hopefully I will have good news to share. 🙂

More pledges! :)

I can’t believe how much support I have gotten so far in a very short period of time. In just two days, I have gotten pledges in the amount of P36,018.77. (if I finish, of course). And with several time-based pledges, if I finish in the same time as I did last year, this goes up to almost P40,000. I’m not even counting the people who said they will donate but have not specified an amount yet.

I have a few days left before the run itself and with all the encouragement from my family and friends, I am getting quite excited. I’m sure I’ll be utterly exhausted after my run, but with the amount of money I will raise and the idea that so many patients in PGH will benefit, it will all be worth it. 🙂

The first few pledges are in

I’m really pleased that despite everything being so last minute, a lot of pledges have already been made. So far, if I finish the marathon, I will raise P14,573.84.

To add to this, I have some friends who are basing their pledge value on the amount of time it takes for me to finish. If I complete the run in about the same time as I did last year, the total pledges could go up to more than P17,000. Hopefully pledges continue to come in over the next few days (and maybe even after my run). Thanks to everyone who have already pledged! 🙂

I’m officially registered

I only got to register last Saturday. Obviously I’m leaving everything up to the last minute this year! LOL I wish I got to register a bit later though, then my race number would’ve been 40404. 🙂

A few changes in the Milo Marathon this year:

• Starting time has moved up 30 minutes. It’ll now start at 4am instead of 430am.
• Route has also changed. Instead of going to the Fort area, we’ll be sticking around the Roxas Boulevard-Macapagal Road areas. I think this might make it a bit easier because I am guessing there will be less flyovers to run over. 🙂
• It’s gone a bit more high tech as well. You see that small thingie on the bottom left of the page? I am guessing that is meant to track the runners’ times. First time I’m seeing it.

Thankfully it’s a holiday tomorrow, so I will use that time to train outdoors. I’ll have one last short run on Thursday and then I’ll just rest on Friday and Saturday (gotta make sure my muscles recover in time for Sunday’s race). Hopefully that gets me ready (or ready enough) for the marathon. Should be fun! (And exhausting :))

Marathon #7

Here I go again. I’m running in my 7th marathon for a cause this Sunday, July 4. I don’t know how that will turn out given that I haven’t trained that much (again). I’ve also been so busy that I haven’t gotten around to working on raising pledges until now. With less than a week left, I’m hoping I can at least raise P30,000.

I also hope that I can complete the marathon. I got wiped out in my long run last Saturday and had to walk a lot. And while I have had more time to train this year than last, my confidence level is not as high due to my failure to complete a couple of long runs in the last two weekends. Oh well, hope I can still do well on race day itself!

My 6th marathon for a cause a success! :)

Amazing! I completed my 6th marahon for a cause and raised more than P72,000 for PGH!

The fact that I finished in 5 hourrs 31 minutes, five minutes faster than my time last year, is icing on the cake. It’s still more than half an hour off my personal best, but when I think about the fact that I trained for only a month, I can’t help but be pleased.

This run was a series of firsts. For the first time, I had no bike support. It was also the first time that I didn’t book a room in Manila Hotel the night before. I normally stay in Manila Hotel the night before so that I’m right at the starting line when I wake up, but when I tried booking a room, the hotel was already fully booked.

Since I knew that I wouldn’t have bike support, I decided to run with a bottle of Gatorade in my hand and a couple of energy bars and energy gels in my pockets to make sure I could easily hydrate and re-energize in between aid stations. I also had a good breakfast . Knowing that I had enough fluid and energy reserves and replacements helped me stay focused on getting the job done.

The marathon started, as it always does, at 4:30am. I was tempted to speed up early on coz so many people kept passing me as soon as the marathon started, moving me towards the back of the pack, but I knew I needed to stick to my own pace. What worried me more was the fact that it was so humid, and I was already starting to sweat a lot.

But then, another first – a Gatorade aid station! Serving cold Gatorade! As it turned out, there was a Gatorade station every 2 kilometers, alternating with the water stations. This meant an aid station every kilometer. Wow!

photo taken by my friend Petite

I ran about 26-27 kilometers maintaining a more or less constant pace before I had to walk. I then alternated running and walking the rest of the way after that. I ran out of Gatorade at around the 30 kilometer mark and was planning to get a new bottle in Petron Treats in Buendia-Makati Ave but the Gatorade station at KM31 (i.e. on top of the Kalayaan flyover) very nicely refilled my bottle with cold Gatorade. Awesome! The Gatorade station at KM 38 did the same thing (which was helpful since there were no water stations left in the last 10 kilometers).

I managed to run the last 1.5 to 2 kilometers straight and had a pretty decent sprint finish for the last 50 to 100 meters. I missed out on the medals (I got one last year even with a worse time) but it doesn’t matter. I achieved my goals for the marathon and nothing beats that.

Thank you once again to all my family and friends. I wouldn’t have been able to finish my sixth marathon and raise more than seventy two thousand pesos for charity without your amazing support, encouragement, and generosity!

We did it!! 🙂