Friday, April 10, 2009

Team QCPD joins World Creative Youth Forum Formal Launching

Team QCPD joined the formal launching of World Creative Youth Forum on March 27, 2009. The highlight of the event is a jog-walk from People Power Monument in EDSA to Quezon City Memorial Circle. For the details of the event, visit the organizers website.

Here are some pictures from the event:









Running with Joy Rojas

On March 24, 2009, Team QCPD was accorded the rare honor of running with Ms Joy Rojas, the first Filipina (and Asian) attempting to run across the USA through 5,000 Kms in 120 days. I first came to know of her story in the Philippine Star when the paper ran an article about her quest on March 8, 2009. (Click here for the Philippine Star article).

The organizer of the run was DOH Quezon City. They invited Ms Rojas to spearhead their group coming from Quezon City High School to the University of Sto Tomas for the The World TB Day celebration. DOH also requested for "police runners" to join the run. QCPD District Director PCSUPT (ATTY) MAGTANGGOL B GATDULA thus tasked us to join. Of course, we are more than happy to oblige, notwithstanding that it was a Tuesday! The route is a short 7 Km but the best part of it are the water stations staffed by very good looking hospital personnel of Delgado Hospital in Kamuning, St. Luke's Hospital, National Children's Hospital, STI-Delos Santos Medical Center and Quezon Institute, all in E Rod Blvd.

The run started quite late at about 6:15 AM and we reached UST before 7 AM. Here are the pictures from that run:











The participation of Team QCPD was acknowledged by Ms Rojas in her Philippine Online Chronicles website. Click here to read the story and see a short video clip of the run.

Get the rest of the pictures from the run in our Photobucket Album here.

Good luck to Ms Rojas!

Banditing in Condura Run

Guys, here are the pictures of the bandits in Condura Run! Hahaha

For those not in the know, before you make the wrong conclusions, here is the story.

The day after I arrived from Davao, I joined Team QCPD in Fort Bonifacio to lend support to Gary and Joan who were registered to run in 10 and 21 Km events respectively. Unfortunately for Gary, he got injured so PO1 Leo Oliquino ran in his place.

While I would have loved to register all the team members, I was not able to raise the P25,000 needed for all of us (@P500 each). What I was able to squeeze in were the customized singlets from Accel (Yes, that Accel of the Philippine Basketball Association! Thank you very much, Mr Willy Ortiz and Willy Marcial!). So I distributed the singlets before the run but we did not line up for the starting gun. Instead, we ran through PPSC with the intention of waking up the sleepy heads. Unfortunately, everybody seemed to have gone for the weekend so nobody was there. We ran around the place and followed a portion of the 10 Km Condura route (for the nearly controversial water, haha, thank you Condura!) finishing the run after 8 Km in time to see Joan cross the finish line 5th in the 21 Km women's category with a time of 1:36.

After the run are the usual pictures, so here we go:











More pictures at our Photobucket Album:

Running in Davao

This is a very late post due to numerous other priorities. Sorry guys.

Last March 18 to 21, 2009, I was fortunate to be chosen as one of the representatives of Quezon City in the Training for Key Enforcers of the Tobacco Regulation Act (RA 9211) conducted by the UP College of Law in Davao City. I was able to squeeze in 3 road runs in scenic routes. We were billetted at Marco Polo Hotel in downtown Davao and running around the city feels very safe. (Thanks to Mayor Duterte, haha!). Here is the snap shot of my runs:



On my first morning, I chose the "Heart of the City" route just to get the feel of the city. The route is about 5 Km long and I ran it in an easy 5:50 pace for most o the time. The overall Training Effect recorded by suunto T6 is 3.5. The route is of course marked by a lot of smoke from the jeepneys belching their black exhausts in CM Recto even in that early morning. But the overall air quality is far better than what I get in my V Luna-East Ave-EDSA-Kamias short run route. Afterwards, I dipped into the pool and did 500 meters of easy swim.

The next day, I dubbed my run as the "Two Flyovers Run" as the route took me through the two flyovers of Davao. It is about 8 Km long and passed through both commercial and residential areas of Davao. The most memorable part of the run is when I was chased by a dog in Dacudao. Wow, I surely beat the pace of Haile Gebrselassie during that segment! I also remembered meeting other runners in Dacudao and Magsaysay Avenue. After the run, it is again back to the pool for me.

For my final run, I squeezed a short run dubbed as the "Two Bridges Run" as the route took me over two bridges spanning Davao River. I first passed through Bankerohan Bridge on the way out and then throough Bolten Bridge on my way back. The route is about 6 Km long and it was pure bliss running through the newly rennovated Bankerohan Bridge that fell apart two years ago. I was not able to swim after the run because I will be late for the shuttle to the airport. Darn! haha

In general, what I remember most about the Davao runs was the better air quality compared to Manila. Running in the heart of the city feels like you are inside UP (actually Marco Polo Hotel is right in front of Ateneo de Davao Campus)!

I will surely be back for more!

Here are some photos:











Other photos are available in Photo Bucket.