I’ve been getting invites to join trail runs for the longest time but I never really joined any mainly for 2 reasons: One, I didn’t have any trail shoes and two, I didn’t have any transportation. The only trail run I joined was a short trail run in Filinvest Alabang. Blog on that HERE.
Last July 28, while most runners prepared for the historical Milo run, I was preparing for my first trail run in San Mateo Rizal. Everything was set, I my new pair of Tevasphere and a bus was provided from the Fort to Rizal for ALL participants! I felt I was ready, though I forgot about the obstacle course. Toinks!
Teva Trail Challenge at Eartheaven, San Mateo Rizal
Prior to the race, I remember asking my fiancé to join me. I told him this would be my first official trail run and it would be fun to see the sites with him. No pressure on the PR, we’ll just walk and jog. So he obliged and registered for his first trail run as well.
We arrived at the venue at around 5am and were given a couple of minutes to relax and settle down prior to gun start. What transpired after was completely different from what I expected. It was fun, yes, but it was also EXTREMELY challenging. Definitely not the walk in the park I expected it to be. The first hundred meters took place on pavement but uphill! It seemed forever to finish the first part given we weren’t warmed up yet. After that, the most challenging HIKE of my life took place.
Photo c/o Thirdy Lopez
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The trail laid out in front of us was filled with uphills, downhill, streams and more. If that wasn’t challenging enough already, the organizers still prepared additional obstacles participants were required to go through in order to complete the race. So let me try to tell you about it as detailed as possible.
Given that we had to walk uphill for the first 100 meters, the next 2 kilometers became a downhill challenge. It had rained really hard the day before so the trails were all MUDDY and SLIPPERY! My fellow runners and I had to hold on to whatever plant or root we could to prevent ourselves from sliding down the muddy path. Several times, we failed to hang on tight enough that we actually ended up slipping and scratching ourselves. Other times, there were no plants to hold on to and we just had to pray we wouldn’t fall off the hill! (haha)
Tony sliding down the muddy path. I swear it was too slippery to walk down!
Photo c/o ROX
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At one point, my fiancé Philippe actually slid down only to be stopped by a pile of rotten bamboos. Luckily they were there to break his fall, otherwise, he might have fallen all the way down! Our “mud sliding” experience lasted for 2kilometers! I was with fellow runners/bloggers CJ Lampad and Thirdy Lopez for most of it. We were laughing the entire time but deep down, I swear to God we were fearing for our lives!
Next up was a river crossing obstacle course. There were 4 options laid out in front of me and I could choose which path to take. The rope bridge, the rope “line”, the sacks or the swing. I went for the easiest – the rope bridge.
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Philippe on the ropes and myself on the rope bridge. Photo c/o ROX
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Once the muddy terrain finally came to an end, I figured we had already ran 5km. I had already seen the finish line only to realize we had to go through the river that flowed underneath it and up another hill. we had only gone 1.5 kilometers! I couldn’t believe it. It had already been more than 30minutes and we only finished 1.5km?! This is crazy! So we went through the muddy river, under the bridge and carefully stepped on the huge river rocks one by one.
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Uphill through the falls with Philippe.
Photo c/o Thirdy Lopez
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The strong current made it even more difficult to cross. I was so afraid to fall and hit my head on the rocks. The next one kilometer on the other hand was all uphill. Luckily the trails were dry now. The hill however never seemed to end! We could see what seemed to be the top and get all energetic and excited only to find out that it was just a short turn to more uphills! Toinks! haha I was laughing and trying my best to run but I was just really exhausted by now. Finally, we reached the top and tried to run as fast as we could going down. Last 1 kilometer!!
We were greeted with more obstacle courses, this time however, much easier ones. We were exhausted but we tried them out anyway.
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That’s me attempting to swing across the mud. Fail! haha
Photo c/o Thirdy Lopez
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The last obstacle where we had to go through a thick pile of mud! Our shoes kept getting stuck! haha
Photo c/o ROX
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I was so happy to have crossed the finish line. This was by far the most challenging 5k run I’ve ever participated in. It was fun and I was thankful to have experienced it, but it was definitely DIFFICULT! I was glad though that there were enough shower areas at the venue for all of us to get ourselves clean.
Congratulations by the way to my friend Flo Bayer who won 3rd place for the 10k category! Woot woot!
Whenever someone would ask me, “how was your run?” I would often answer, “Buwis buhay! (Life-risking) and I was serious every time! haha Nonetheless, I had a lot of fun. Thank God I’m still alive!
With fellow runners/ bloggers at the Teva Trail Challenge. All freshened up!
Challenging as it was, I look forward to experiencing more trail runs in the future with Teva! So how did my TevaSphere survive this super challenging run? Find out HERE.
What was your most challenging trail run? Do share!
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Teva Trail Challenge: Surviving a 5k Run, Hike and Swim with my Tevasphere Shoes
