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Long Slow Distance Run (or Climb?) at the Sierra Madre Mountains

April 9 is a holiday, a long weekend!  Instead of the usual beach plans on a summer holiday like this, me and my friends from The Team Bald Runner -Professional Group planned on a run at Bosoboso.  This will be the second time we’ll hit this road, Somewhere around the 2nd kilometer, we saw the signage “Sierra Madre Hotel: 12 kilometers away!

Me: Wow! If we reach that part, that would really be so Uphill! Pero may breakfast dun.

Randy: Breakfast? P200 lang money ko.

Me: Okay yan, may change pa. A

All: Game!

So there we go…enduring a 14 kilometer of uphill (less five downhills) just to reach that peak.  Oh, and we added two more after reaching Sierra Madre Hotel…It is easter already, so bakit nga ba kami nag-penitensya? Or probably, it’s just our own way of celebrating “Araw ng Kagitingan” (Valor day).  Ugh! Or we are just CRAZY!

Hydration, Nutrition, Shades, Cap, Sunblock....ready to go at Kilometer 43. (right after the road coming from Painaan, Baras)

Stretching after 800 meter of uphill warmup. Yes, no flat roads available for warm up...

Palo Alto, Sierra Madre. 29 kilometers more to go..

Off we go. Watch out for falling rocks...

and be careful, you might fall down the ravine

U! P! H! I! L! L! S!

You will see a few residential houses every two kilometers or more, that’s a warning sign that there are DOGS barking (they don’t bite though or at least we didn’t get bitten!) and oh, you will see Goats as well but they go hiding after seeing us.  Lucky, there are sari-sari stores and their water is priced a lot cheaper than 7-11.  This makes it a lot better than running in The Fort, huh!  At the end of the feat, the hotel awaits us!

Enduring the heat, the uphills, rolling on the downhills…..

Rarely stopped except when there's a nice view..

After breakfast which we weren’t able to document, we went back on the road.  It was past ten already and the sun is up!!!  Our goal is to reach our cars back the soonest. Ugh!  14 kilometers more! 2K up, 3k down, 4K up, 5K down and finally – our cars!

Our only picture going back...saving time. The Sun added beauty to the route, gotta love the heat of the sun!

Total Distance: 30kilometers.  Average Pace:7.45 (including stops for pics and water refill)

Categories: Training

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5 replies ›

  2. Ah, nice route! We regularly run at this place. Past the Sierra Madre Hotel is Pranjetto Hills Resort where we always hang-out after our runs. That’s quite a long run!:-)

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  3. Yeah, pranjetto! have seen that from the outside and they say it’s really a nice place. Will try to go one of these days. There are several vehicles who were shouting at us “Mag-swimming kami, sama kayo!”..Guess they’re going there =)

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  5. Thank you for sharing your running experience with the 30k. I enjoyed the visuals. I assume a sari sari store is a store that sells a little bit of everything, like a convenience store owned by mostly family. I enjoy your blog as it is very insightful and I gain knowledge on running every time through your posts. Take care and God Bless and give you strength.

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