The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Yesterday's (First ever!) Merrell Adventure Run at Wawa Dam, Montalban (Rizal) was a blast [good]! So much has to be said and I just want to post what I can. I can't believe I'm blogging at 3 in the morning [bad?] :P

I think it would have been more appropriate to call it a hike instead of a run. Shoes with ample support on the ankle would have been better due to the diversity of the terrain. Wawa dam is a beauty and I don't mind going back there with my bigger cameras. I'm not even sure if it was a blessing that my N82 died on me before I got to the 8km mark as I was stopping most of the time to take some snap. The last half of the trail was the more beautiful part of the trail. I will google later to check other participants' snaps specially the two mountains(?) and the dam itself with big white rocks below it [good! \m/].

So part of the Bad part was my N82's batt dying on me. My NST crashed hence it was not able to tag this photo together w/ the trail. The [ugly] sattelite view of the trail shows how exciting the 'run' was. Here's a clickable screen capture to the NST site. Check out that altitude! I was not even able to track our road trip to Wawa Dam as me and my friends had to use the Garmin Navigator to bring us to the place [good and bad].


Here are some of the snaps I took on the trail.

At the starting area

The agony has begun

Local folks looking around

Dried water paths
(The trail could been more exciting if not for El Nino [very bad])

Just one of the great scene on the trail


I 'lost' one of my toe nail even before 1hr of the 'race' [very bad :D] It was where the 'fastest' part of the trail where you can run going downhill and I had to run sideways (reminds me of some scenes in Man vs Wild). I'm not sure if the very thin(?) and slippery(?) socks that I was wearing helped kill my toenail [ugly]. But I was glad I could feel the grip of my trail shoes on the different surfaces of the trail [good]. I had to dig my heel on those nasty sands on the downhill parts.

Some part of the hills where burnt (called 'kaingin' in Tagalog) and it really looked ugly [really ugly]. I guess the locals had to that for some practical reason. The locals were very friendly and I took some time to talk with some of them specially the little boys and girls who were summoning the runners to go and speed up the hike/run [good] :D

First encounter with water


Hitting sand


Hitting gravel


My trail shoe 'survived' the trail and I just had to give it a rinse when I got home. I got some sore muscles specially the ones that we don't usually use when running on the road. I was not even sure I could finish the race when I felt my right leg was feeling thick or bloated. Fortunately, I was able to go on. Toward the last part of the race I was jumping and balancing on the big white rocks. One slip will cause a 'wipe out' :D I'm glad a I got this good pair of trail shoe [good!].

My N82 died after taking this shot and before hitting one of the most beautiful part of the trail. Lesson learned, I should give it a full charge while I'm sleeping and having my own recharge and I think I owe the N82 another gift.

More on the other 'N82 gift' soon :)

Time to go back to sleep and what's left of it.