The North Face Thrill of the Trail (February 14, 2010)

Forget about the training, this course was unlike any I’ve joined before. It was everything that was advertised and a lot more. It was 11.3 kilometers of dirt, grass, water, rocks, boulders, peaks, valleys, trees, ravines, sandbags, ropes, concrete, slips, bruises and more. All combined for an unforgettable run of a lifetime!

I came to this event with a colleague of mine who is a regular at the Fitness First gym and has participated in numerous stationary biking competitions, which usually last for long hours. He has never run in a marathon or any of the short distance categories before but I was confident that he was up to the challenge given his overall good physical condition. Heck, he was probably fitter to run this event than I despite the kilometers I’ve logged during the week leading to this event. On his part, he joined more out of curiosity for the scenery rather than the appeal of the event.

We almost did not make it to this event, that is, we failed to register on time. Weeks ago, I had assembled a team of five officemates to join me in this trail. We already trained as a group and also individually on our own. However, in all our excitement we forgot to register early and when I inquired about the registration two weeks before the event, it was already closed as the organizers already achieved their desired number of participants. However, the resourceful person that he is, my colleague pestered the organizers to accept late registrants, weaving tales of silly excuses just to earn the sympathy of whoever was willing to listen. And as luck would have it, the organizers agreed to accept additional registrants but only those with a Citibank credit card, a major sponsor of the event. Unfortunately, I was the only one in the group who had one, and I was not about to go alone. So, using my and my wife’s credit cards, I registered for two slots, using the name of my wife to register for my colleague. During registration, I was asked by the TNF attendant if my wife and I were registering as a couple since it was one of the categories of the race, the event being held on Valentine’s day. The fees for couples were lower, but knowing beforehand that those running as couples were required to finish holding hands together, I readily said no as it was hard to picture myself running hand in hand with another man.

The event was held in Nuvali, Laguna, a muti-hectare tract of land being developed by the Ayalas that is adjacent to Sta. Rosa. It was about 60-70 kilometers away from Quezon City, where I live, and the relative remoteness of the place just added to the overall thrill of the event. We departed around 3:15 am from Quezon City and arrived at the place just an hour later, despite driving at less than 100 kph, since there was barely any traffic. The air was cold and we definitely felt the chill penetrating through our exposed extremities. The place had an immediate calming effect and provided a stillness that usually comes from being close to the natural elements (either that or the painkillers had kicked in). There was quite a number of participants already but it was still early and we expected the number to steadily grow as the gun time neared. We decided to go to the assembly area right away and performed our respective pre-run warm-ups and silent chants of self-encouragement (Run Eboy run! Run Eboy Run!). The assembly area featured the standard paraphernalia for a marathon event: several open tents that partly housed some of the sponsors (who offers a credit card in the middle of an open field?) and partly served as a gathering place for the participants; a few booths that offered items related and unrelated to the event; the humungous speakers used to make the pre-race advisories, invocation and countdown; and of course the huge start/finish banner that was suspended atop a wide steel frame at the start/finish line (where else?).

The starting place for the 22K runners was different from the 11K runners and they had to be taken by bus to their rightful gun point. A few minutes before gun time, the assembly area was filled with runners, all anxious and excited about the adventure that awaited them. At around 5:45 we had our start with the couples following suit about 15 minutes later.

The first few hundred meters were ran on concrete roads – part of the thoroughfare that connected the highway to the site development. Right away, my legs felt stiff and heavy. Two nights before, I ran for more than 13K as part of my preparation for the race and another one that will be held a week later. I felt at that time I would eventually regret practicing for too long and too close to race day. True enough, I felt fatigued just a few steps into the race. I decided to slow down to allow my legs to loosen up gradually. As I did, most of the runners passed me by in quick succession, relegating me to the back of the pack. That was totally fine with me since my focus was to finish the race no matter the duration.

Few moments later, the race veered into the open grass field, leaving the paved but unleveled comfort of the road. With the turn, the complexion of the race changed drastically and that’s when the fun started.

Finding balance on the field was difficult as I constantly landed on rugged soil, which kept twisting my ankles in all directions. Sometimes I stepped on patches of damp grasses causing me to slip and slide, making it difficult to run fast. The terrain itself was highly uneven - a never ending succession of ups and downs, some were low while some were really high – and it tested the limits of the legs and thighs. The fatigue I felt slowly dissipated as I felt myself overflowing with adrenalin. The trail we followed was narrow and it required us to move in single file. That allowed me to gain on the pack as I excused my way through one runner at a time. At some point, we found ourselves winding through the woods which raised the excitement level all the more. Moments later, we reached a ravine and I could hear the faint sound of streaming water and I knew then that we were going down a creek.

The descent into the creek was quite steep and we had to go down a narrow ladder that was carved out from the side of the ravine. We used a rope for support as we made our way down. At this point, it was impossible to run as we followed a very narrow trail of rocks and boulders alongside the stream. And then we hit the water and the excitement level was at its highest for me.

The term “sloshy,” which I learned from my good friend, Nils, just days earlier as she responded to a facebook post complaining about the snow in the U.S., came to my mind, as we literally sloshed our way through the cascading waters of the creek, which followed the twisting contours of the ravine. The wade through the water lasted for over 1 km (it said so in the route map) with intermittent climbs over the rocks and boulders that lined up the sides. This was probably the most fun of the entire run except for the pebbles. Remember how you get irritated when a small pebble enters your shoe and gives you that unbearable discomfort as you walk? In my case, I was barely feeling the shoes and was literally stepping on pebbles of different sizes and shapes, some as sharp as broken glasses, instead of the soft insoles of my shoes. The more we waded, the more the shoes filled with pebbles. To say that it was unbearable was an understatement as each step became agonizingly painful but surprisingly therapeutic (mobile acupressure, anyone?). I wore a waterproof trail shoes which proved to be a mistake because once the water got in from the opening of the shoes it was trapped inside and unable to come-out through the tight mesh. The trapped pebbles and water made the shoes very heavy so when we got to the final part of the wade I decided to clean my shoes and socks in the water before we made our climb back up to the ravine. This caused me to lose a lot of time as I watched the other runners slowly passed by. But it also allowed me to take a breather and soak up the surrounding beauty. I felt almost ambivalent at that point, wanting to catch up to the others but at the same time yearning to just meander slowly and enjoy the scenery.

Once we made our way up the ravine then out of the woods and back into the meadows, it became an endless run of winding peaks and valleys, some unbelievably steep. At this point, I felt the fatigue slowly setting back in and I was gasping for air and dripping with sweat all over the body. I didn’t know how I made it through the grass fields but the run felt like an eternity (actually, about 5.5 kms according to the route map). Along the way, some of the couples had overtaken me.

As I made it to the concrete road, I was almost running in slow motion. I could probably walk faster at that point but I wanted to relish the experience to its fullest so I persevered although I knew I was almost drained and running empty.

Finally, I saw the finish line banner and heard the cheering of the crowd that gathered there. I summoned the last energy from the chocolate drink I had at the last water station and made a dash, a slow one that is, into the line. As I crossed the line, I was immediately handed a bottle of energy drink, a certificate of participation, a magazine and some other stuffs (wow, talk about efficiency). I immediately looked for my colleague who had checked in minutes before me. We were obviously both on emotional high as we kept high-fiving each other. We rested for a while and made our way back to Quezon City. As we drove back though I couldn’t help but think about the paradox of man and nature. We’ve always claimed to be the stewards of nature; but if you really think about it, nature has been there before us and has thrived for so long without us. It’s true that we feel compelled to find ways to protect and preserve its beauty as any good stewards would do, but ironically, in my view, the only way we can protect it is to just leave it alone.

This was, without a doubt, the most exciting run I have joined so far. It was beyond compare and the others seemed like a stroll in the park. If there’s one word to describe the entire experience, it’s outofthisworld and I couldn’t wait to do it again.