Pages

Sunday, February 20, 2011

My 1st Tagaytay Run

My love for Tagaytay all started when I was in high school. Every year, being in a Catholic school, we were required to have spiritual retreats which often had Tagaytay as the venue. With the view of the Taal Lake and the cool morning/evening breeze, meditating and reflecting for all things good and holy has been the essence of my trips to Tagaytay. This went on until college (yup, still in a Catholic school).

"If I ever had the money, I would build a rest house here," I'd often say to myself.

That is still a dream up to now. But hotels have been making up for those brief, once-in-a-while weekend opportunities for me and my family to go up and enjoy the cool weather.

This weekend was extra special since this was the first time I stayed overnight in Tagaytay as a runner. Yes, I packed my running gear for the trip. I've just finished a 5km easy run Saturday morning to end my 2-week layoff from Condura and I wanted to run again this morning ---in Tagaytay.

I was so excited this early morning that I woke up several times: 2am, 4am, 5am, and 6am, for fear that I might oversleep and miss this once in a lifetime opportunity. Finally, around 6:30am, I got up and got myself ready.

When I got outside of our hotel (Hotel Kimberly, btw), the cool, chilly morning greeted me as I stretched. My goal for the day is still easy pace and complete 60mins or 8kms. Of course, the main goal was to ENJOY this run for I don't get to run in Tagaytay that often.

I started off on Amadeo Road trudging up to the Tagaytay police station intersection. The road was about 2km up until the intersection. This was all uphill so pace was pretty on the easy side (7:53, 7:22).

The next 2km was from the intersection all the way up to the crest ---still uphill (7:12, 7:09). As I looked on my right, I just had to take a picture. The view was majestic and serene at the same time. Since it was still early, there were not much cars plying this main road so the view was just spectacular. Good thing that I've almost hit 30mins so I decided to turnaround and stop, get my phonecam, and clicked this wonderful view.



I then proceeded back to our hotel which was all downhill from here, of course, since it's an out-and-back route. Pace was fast but I opted to walk on some portions so as not to kill my knees.

2nd half laps: 7:07, 7:03, 7:08, 6:33.

Total distance: 8.11km

Total time: 58:12 (7:10/km ave).

Yup, I would want to do this again. I'm more in love with Tagaytay now.

No comments:

Post a Comment