Run for Pasig River 2011

"Where are you now? I'm already here at Ospital ng Maynila. Our group will start from here. You should be here by 5AM!" It was 3:30AM and the voice reverberated in my room in the quiet of the early dawn. The call came from Ms. Bebian Lo, our company's Senior Vice President for Sales and Marketing.

Two days earlier, Ms. Bebian made a last ditch effort to have our group join the Run

for Pasig River 2011 organized by the Gina Lopez-led ABS-CBN Foundation, Inc. (AFI). She gave us eleven registration forms complete with race shirts and race numbers, free of charge. I think each set should have cost the participant at least P450.00. Thanks to Boardwalk, her younger sister's fashion and apparel company which co-sponsored this major environmental concern activity alongside Air 21, Midas Hotel, DOTC, Lopez Group of Companies, Metro Rail Transit Corporation, Prudential Guarantee, ExTribe and other cause oriented groups, we will be saving our weekend allowances.

Online registration was already closed but Ms. Bebian has managed to ask Boardwalk to include our group in the last batch of participants which will be encoded manually by the monitoring group.

The event was listed on a global scale, having broken the Guinness World Record in the most number of participants in a marathon registering a total of 116,086 runners last October 10, 2010 or intentionally 10.10.10. This year's run hopes to break last year's record breaker. But the greater task is to generate funds to help sustain the rehabilitation of Pasig River. This is what AFI has set out to do and arduously strives to achieve since 2009 when the campaign started to gain momentum after the establishment of the Kapit Bisig Para sa Ilog Pasig (KBPIP).

Our group, composed of last minute recruits from Mt. Zion Memorial, Inc. (Rod, Jocelyn, Abel, Mon and myself), Fil-Estate Management, Inc. (Jackie), Global Estate Resorts, Inc. (Tet), Malay Resort Holdings, Inc. (my wife Hapi) and Universal Robina Corporation (Ina) all agreed to convene first at the Renaissance Tower at 4:00AM, Sunday on 11.20.11. Rod's group decided to go ahead via EDSA going straight to Roxas Boulevard as Hapi and I almost missed our cell phone alarm rings. The call from Ms. Bebian made it all the more urgent and exciting. As expected, traffic was incredibly heavy starting from the approach to EDSA MRT Station all the way up to the Mall of Asia. I followed Mon's advice to go left immediately upon reaching Roxas Blvd. and make a right going to the DFA and breeze through the SMX parking area. We almost did it but not quite, as we got caught up in the middle when all vehicles grinded to a halt. The race has begun! And we're going to miss the big event.
A call from Rod, Abel and Mon added to our frustration hearing that they were already on the race and have already joined the group category of 10K run while we were stuck in the middle of the road. They were at the opposite direction coming from the Uniwide Coastal Road area. We were nearer going towards Petron Gas Station along Macapagal Avenue where the 3K and the 5K race categories were happening. Assessing the situation, we left the car in the middle of the traffic jam, suited up for the race and joined the fray halfway along the race - a classic shortcut to the finish line. There were very many runners and walkers with different groups coming in throngs of varied colors - a festive atmosphere, indeed.

I've heard that the biggest contingent came from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines with at least 15,000 entries. ABS-CBN posted a remarkable 5,000 plus runners. It is quite notable to see happy faces doing the marathon or should I say walkathon. The volume of participants occupying the road made it impossible for the runners to run as there is no more space ahead to cover for more energetic stride. All one needs to do was to keep up with the pace of the race and that was to walk . . . albeit leisurely. In my poor estimation, the participants that came that day far exceeded what was needed to break the previous year's record breaker. I think around 150,000 runners attended.

Reaching the finish line was our greatest achievement that day. And our prize was nothing less than exhilarating - a bottle of Smart C and a pack of Champion powder laundry soap. I would say that the real winners of this Run for Pasig River 2011 were those who came to shed a few extra pounds and sweat; those who came for bonding with family members and friends and those who came to share an insignificant portion of their fortune to bring back to life the once majestic and poetic Ilog Pasig.

Our hand salute to AFI and the organizers.

Struggle from Within

On occasional visits with friends, I sometimes see a natural beauty of nature miniaturized in a small flat tray. I actually appreciate the beauty but never gave much attention to how it came to being.

I am talking about a bonsai. There is always something in this work of art that touches your inner self and imagination. This art coupled with a lot of science actually originated from Japan, hence the word "bonsai" which means literally "small". The fundamental concept of bonsai is called"Keisho-sodai" which means "small size, great similarity". And it was only very recently that I started to dig deeper into appreciating this newfound hobby.

In a hurried world, going into bonsai art is like going against the tide of fast-paced way of living. We live in a world where everything should be done fast and comfortable. So we have fast food, fast ferry, fast internet connection, fast ticket, expressways here and there, fast computer upgrades, accelerated college courses... and the list can go on and on... Bonsai making goes on the reverse.

It is actually a balancing act of having a healthy plant which growth is stunted through root and branch pruning and a delimited source of soil nutrient. The art challenges one's capacity to wait, and in most cases to intentionally slow down the process and painstakingly wait for the desired result - Keisho-sodai.

They say that patience is a virtue. It is indeed a virtue specially when you’re involved in bonsai making. It is like a clock without hands so that it becomes timeless. It thrives in a world of its own, amid the chaos where time is suspended. As I gaze intently on the roots of my ficus benjamina that now hugs the little block of concrete, I wonder when they will ever grow bigger than my pinky. Maybe years from now. One leaf a day.

Outside, the bonsai brings calm and gentleness. Inside, one will never see the struggle of every small root trying to absorb the limited nutrients in its harshly made environment. It is that same struggle inside that brings out the best of the tree - a beauty to behold. What a stark similarity with what the bible teaches, “fire purifies the gold.” This brings to memory the story of Job and you know what happened.

Just One More Time

Someone once said, "The day you get angry at your failures is the day you start winning." Translated, winners are simply ex-losers who got mad. We have always associated success to winning in whatever field - be it sports, corporate affairs, sales, politics, economics, religion ... literally in everything. And everybody will be measured. Question is, "by which yardstick?" It's quite difficult to do measurements as it is quite even more difficult to find a perfectly even playing field. It's a good thing Albert Einstein invented the greatest excuse for differing results - the theory of relativity.

Going back to the ex-losers, I mean, winners, I'd like to say that success is measured or achieved by getting up just one more time than you have fallen. Everybody makes mistakes but the problem is very few learn from those mistakes. Worse, they embrace it and forever live a life of obscurity and misery. The great challenge is to get up every time you fall and to keep up the good work and finish the race. Life is not about pristine and unblemished records. Sooner or later, Floyd Mayweather, Jr. will be slapped with his first ever loss in his boxing career. And if that loss will not come from Manny Pacquiao, it will be from someone else. Nobody is young forever. Father time is just lurking at the corner.

In the physical world, everything can be measured. And so they say that which you cannot measure, you cannot manage. However, I find beauty and relevance in things that cannot be measured. It gives us the license to bask in the great feeling of amazement. That is why we marvel, we stand in awe. In mathematics, there is a symbol for infinity because mathematicians knew infinity exists. Even the great physicist Albert Einstein acknowledged that there is a vacuum inside the human heart that only a divine being can fill. So let's not be dependent on the physical attributes because they all fade. Let us use the energy that makes a person glow even without the batteries - our heart. When it's aflame, it can very well propel a man to achieving greater heights, or simply to get up just one more time than you have fallen.

Lola Loves Me

"Come down now... we're here at the lobby." This sounded more like of an anxious pleading than an exasperated request from Happy. I have kept my wife and May waiting for me at the Renaissance Tower lobby a good twenty minutes after office work. I was actually finding an excuse not to join them in their nocturnal safari for inexpensive branded clothes at Mega Tent, an upscale tiangge just a stone's throw away from where we work. I don't want to go with them because I really hate shopping for windows, I mean window shopping. You stroll around the place, pick up and examine some really cool and nice merchandise and pray that the price tag is colored red. Otherwise, you move to another booth and then to another section and then to another and... now that's what they call shopping for windows, I mean window shopping, whatever. My best alibis didn't work at all because just a few minutes later, I was magically converted from a junior executive into a senior chaperon.

But just like in any other forced adventure that I have had, something good comes out. I found this really cute white t-shirt for toddlers with a print "Lola Loves Me". It is quite unique and I was thinking this item is a product of "Research and Development." Frankly, I am not as interested as just getting a well-designed and labeled t-shirt but the word "Lola" is a touch of a genius. Believe you me but the line in queue is surprisingly not composed of senior citizens but of middle-aged moms and dads who are more than willing to shell out the extra P250.00 just to accommodate a would-be gift to their sons and daughters. I bought it not because it will look good on Barjae, my one-year old but because my Mom would be pleased to see the label on Barjae's t-shirt - "Lola Loves Me."

Well, I'm looking forward again to a new I-don't-know-when and I don't-know-what adventure. Here's hoping to strike a gold mine next time.

Revisiting Boracay

"I'm not going back via that route again!" exclaimed Lito, my co-employee and long-time friend. "The waves there are as big as houses!" he added. He was referring to our trip to Boracay in 1997 where we exited through Looc Bay of Tablas Island, Romblon.

My family planned another vacation at Boracay Island and we took the same route which the Accounting Department took more than a decade ago - via Odiongan, Romblon through the famous bay of Looc. I can't blame Lito for his horrifying memoirs of that trip which happened during the advent of the rainy season where storms were brewing and the seas were rough because of the strong easterly winds. But for most of us, it was an adrenalin-pumping fun adventure that won't be easily forgotten.

This day was different though. I was travelling with my wife and my 7-year old daughter. All I was banking on was that the seas would be calm due to the fact that it was still summer season. I was more worried about the ferociously hot summer heat draining every bit of juice from our bodies than the giant waves of Lito. We boarded M/B Ashera, a motorboat reminiscent of a medium sized fishing boat converted into a passenger vessel. Not much has changed in fourteen years - save for the orange life vests dangling like curtains in the wooden windows. These jackets would make our 3-hour trip to Boracay Island a lot safer.

Ashera, running at 10 knots provided with an almost theatrical view of the horizon, punctuated by small islands whose brilliant folder white beaches gave refreshing thoughts of refuge from the vastness of the open seas. As we have prayed, the seas were calm, almost still and Ashera ripped through the bluish green waters.

The tripulantes assited us in crossing the gangplank that connected the boat and Caticlan Port. It was midday and the sun was at its hottest, almost scorching the delicate baby skin of Karylle. I would say that the management of Caticlan Port was very efficient. In under 10 minutes, we were boarding the next boat that will bring us to Boracay Island. Paying P125 per head was just fine in exchange for a fast service, efficient port personnel, environmental fee and terminal fee.

I don't know when did they implement just having Manoc-manoc pier as the lone landing area for all sea vessels. I think just a year ago, people were so used to saying Station 1 or Station 2 or Station 3. N0w, there's only Manoc-manoc pier. A brilliant move from the Municipal Council for security and revenue control purposes. From the pier, the P50-tricylce ride to the long white beach area took 5 to 10 minutes only.

It was the peak season of Boracay and I saw many locals and foreigners. The island of Boracay through the years has not lost its magic. It is still the best tropical beach destination of tourists from around the globe. I can't help but ask why? The answer lay beneath the "palm of my feet" - the sand - its white talcum powdery sand that remains unbelievably

soft and cold even when nakedly exposed to the scorching heat of the sun. The other thing was its clear blue green water but I think it was just secondary because it only blended with its base. We were captivated by these enchanting sceneries we didn't notice we were already behind the hotel which we called the Sanctuary in the Sands.

Two years ago, I wrote an article about Boracay Sands Hotel which was aptly described by Partner Edrich as the sanctuary in the sands. Today, completely finished, it stands majestic, its beauty and aristocracy enhanced further by two newly constructed hotels on both sides. Through the accommodations of my Boss, Boracay Sands Hotel was our sanctuary overnight. It was a rather short vacation, but one that was full of excitement, fun and adventure.

Next stop - Palawan! I hope this happens this year.