update: November 26, 2009
result: MATILLA DEXTER 00:26:58 05:23 min/km

A week before the race date, I've been telling my tennis friends that I'd take this race seriously, it being my very first. Aren't we all like that when it's our first time of anything? :p

In my mind, I told myself that I'd run twice around the village before race day (Wednesday and Friday) then do some light lifting on Thursday and rest Saturday.

In reality, all I had was a four-hour sleep, food binge (bulalo of course), and none of the running or light lifting. When I arrived however at the venue, I saw so many "runners" that suddenly, it hit me, I wouldn't even be placing top 10! (Yeah, I set high goals so what?) Most of those I saw looked really fit and if I thought I was serious, none could have been more serious than those whose arms and legs didn't seem to have any fat in them.

Still, I guess I was caught in all the energy surrounding me that I psyched myself up by saying that a top 20 finish may just be achievable. As soon as the race started, I found myself zigzagging forward trying to get as much head start as I can. Somehow, I wasn't feeling tired from the lack of sleep, or the lack of practice run, and I thought "hey, I might just be able to do this!" On the first right turn, I saw some runners already taking a piss at some wall somewhere on the right. As I approached the first left turn to Macapagal Avenue, I started to feel tired but I didn't want to stop so I slowed down for a minute and then continued running like a moron. Up ahead, at the u-turn point, I saw some guys giving out white sashes and some of the runners in front of me were slowing down to get some. So I did the same but I heard someone say "para lang sa mga 10k ito" but I didn't understand it so I still stopped and asked for my sash (lol). As soon as my mind was able to process it, I realized they won't be giving me a sash coz I'm in the 5k category so I made a mad dash back to the return route to MOA.

I forgot to mention that I was wearing a black long sleeve shirt under my singlet and I brought one Absolute 250ml Distilled Water with me. I was thankful I did because I didn't need to stop at the water stations. But it was during this time that the sun started to heat things up. I was really getting tired so I stopped running and started walking telling myself, "just for a minute." I saw some of the runners I passed previously run way ahead of me and I wanted to get ahead of them again but my body didn't seem to want to.

On the right turn at the gasoline station, I started to run again until I reached the right turn going towards SMX. This had me feeling down as I saw that I wasn't anywhere near the front of the pack. I saw runners already making their final right turn towards the finish line. This was when I simply walked from the church across SMX towards the final turn.

As I reached the turn, I started to run again but I couldn't run as fast as I did when the race started. I even wanted to slow down again but as soon as I looked ahead, I saw the finish line sign and I told myself, in dramatic fashion, (yes I uttered these words) "there's no stopping now!" And I played Europe's "The Final Countdown" inside my head.

I passed by two runners with blue shirts that had "Pulis" written on them and just when I was a few yards from the finish line, I started to take it easy. To my surprise, the two "Pulis" runners were already on my side and before I continue, let me just share a crazy want-to-do item. I've always wanted to outrun the police in a car chase, similar to the ones shown on crazy car chases shows. That thought came to my mind and with a final burst, I ran like mad towards the finish line, even doing a fist-pump as if I won. A guy at the finish line stopped me and for a split second I wondered why. He then drew a line across the numbers on my bib but I didn't even bother asking what it was for. In my head, however, I thought, I must have won! Haha. Apparently, the winner had a time of 00:15:17 so what was I thinking?

I'm glad however, that I was able to finish the race because I told myself that if I won't be able to finish the race (see post below), I wouldn't be joining again. But now that I saw how competitive it is, I'm hooked! I loved the feeling of the finish. I just need to improve my time now because I don't think I'll be finishing a 5k race under 15 minutes any time soon.

I won't even talk about how bad the distribution of the goodie bags was. All I'm gonna say is that it was realllllly bad.

What I'd like to touch on though is how awesome my Reebok shoes were. I bought the shoes on sale because when I tried it on, it was so comfortable. And for the price, just under 2,000 if I remember right, why not? I've had just one Reebok shoe before but it was painful as it had an non-adjustable strap and I have wide feet. But this one I used for the race is just too good. I've actually been using this model as my everyday pair and I was having second thoughts about using it for the race, thinking I might destroy it and I might have to finish the race barefoot. I'm so happy with this model and I've been thinking of getting another one if I still chance upon a pair.

All in all, the experience was truly memorable and I'm looking to join another 5k race this December. So to the winners and to all who finished the race, congratulations. :)

Original post:
This Sunday, at the SM Mall of Asia is Del Monte's Fit n Right Dare to be Fit n Right Fun Run (that's a mouthful) and I'm running! Check out the list of participants here:

http://www.runningmate.ph/del_monte/list?page=18

I've been running around our village (at night. wearing dark clothes. with a monkey wrench.) and I consider myself to be quite fit (not necessarily right though hehe) and I'm hoping that I could at least finish the 5K category. If not, this may just be my only fun run haha. I'm really excited and I can't even decide what shoe to wear or if I would need to get a new one. One thing I'm sure of, however, is that I'll take this one seriously. "Fun" run? Yeah.

JUVENAL SANSÓ IS A JOKER. WITH only a handful of guests remaining, Sansó showed a side of him perhaps only his closest friends are privy to.

“An old lady went to her doctor to complain about her hearing,” Sansó said. “’Doctor,’ the lady said, ‘I’ve been having trouble hearing. Can you please take look at my ear?’”

This didn’t seem to be the first time the artist delivered the joke. He knew he had the people in the small circle who had gathered around him, “by the ear.”

“The doctor did just that,” Sansó continued. “He said, ‘But madame, you’re not supposed to put a suppository in your ear!’

The old lady went, ‘Oh, so now I know where my hearing aid went.’”

Deftly delivered, the joke was a hit so Sansó went on to deliver two more senior-citizen jokes. This playful display of the artist, an established name in the art world here and abroad, shows an all too human side to him. Even his schoolmate Celia Diaz would quip that Sansó has always been makulit.



His close friends and avid collectors turned up for “Sansó: A Show of Shows” when it opened recently at the Sapphire Ballroom of the Mandarin Oriental Suites at Gateway, Araneta Center, Cubao, Quezon City.

Organized by Galerie Joaquin (tel. 7239253, 7239418), the show is a retrospective of works spanning more than half a century. The show marks Sansó’s 80th birthday.

“Back then,” he said, talking about his initial struggles as an artist. “Being an artist was synonymous to being a bum. Even the great Amorsolo realized that he would not survive on painting alone so he worked in advertising.”

On what brought about the decision to show some of his rarest works in this show: “If I signed on it, I have a duty to share it.” “Reaching 80 is already an accomplishment. If I get 10 years more doing this, salamat na lang.”


Sansó will be affixing his signature on previously unsigned works in a Special Authentication Day to be held today, Nov. 16, 4 p.m. at the Sapphire Ballroom.

DateFirst Posted 01:00:00 11/09/2009

JOEY VELASCO SHOULD NOT BE painting. He should not have written a book, sculpted a seven-foot-tall bronze sculpture of Fr. Patrick Peyton, and given inspirational talks to just about anybody willing to listen.

But he has continued to do so despite his medical condition. He is able to do these things and so much more—such as enjoy the love and fellowship of family and friends—because he has not given up.

Velasco was fighting a large mass in his kidney when he prayed and asked God that he be thrown a rope, even if it was laced with broken glasses. He was extended a paintbrush and, pulling himself up, Velasco was able to overcome the physical pain and emerge truly a new man, an artist with purpose.

“Remembering that death can come at any moment is the most important realization I’ve ever had to help trigger God’s gifts,” Velasco says. “Because all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure—all these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. There is no reason anymore not to follow your heart.”

Velasco continues to listen to that inner voice that guides him along the path of inspiration, and it could not be more evident in his new exhibit, “Chiaroscuro,” ongoing at the lower level of Glorietta 3 in Makati. (Contact Versensens, Inc., tel. 9366120, 9366123.)

Twelve new collections reflect the artist’s perception on life and death. As with his previous works, Velasco continues to defy the conventional views of Jesus Christ.

“Bravehearts” is about cancer-stricken kids Velasco describes as “brave but cannot play under the rain like other children do . . . A single IV tube could wrack their frail bodies with unimaginable pain. But when someone journeys with them, they shed that lambent glow.”

Sharing their pain is a bald Christ who has undergone chemotherapy as the children have, a reassuring presence.

Fully lived

“Alay kay Berns (A Tribute)” is about a man Velasco met in 1979. Six years his senior, the man had so much life in him until he was paralyzed from the waist down. Being bound to his wheelchair, Berns was initially resentful but he chose to live, just as Velasco did, and even proved the doctors wrong who had said that he would not last long.

But of course, the subject of death would not have a profound meaning without showing the value of a fully lived life.

Velasco is blessed with a supportive wife in Queenie and his four children Marco, Chiara, Clarisse, and Marti, the youngest, who is the subject of “My Heart Beats for You.”

“My bunso is a quiet but intuitive boy,” Velasco says. “At times, I catch him observing me. Even when he is busy tinkering with his toys, his ears listen attentively. Among all my children, he was the one who least experienced infant-fathering from me because he was barely a year old when I experienced my lowest moment. So I always make sure that he captures the correct signal—that I love him.

“From birth until the ninth month of a baby, the most familiar sound he can hear is the heartbeat. It is a source of his security. God talks to us amidst the cacophony of events. He speaks to us in small things as faint as the heartbeat.”

“Be the Voice” shows Christ playing the guitar with two girls singing along, and stage curtains as their background. Velasco explains that music and painting are allied arts in that as colors are mixed on a palette, notes and melodies likewise blend in harmony. If ever this truth requires proof, one could always reference Van Gogh’s “Starry Night,” which was the inspiration for the Don McLean song “Vincent.”




Own story

“The best paintings I made were done while listening to music,” the artist says. “It leads me to the flow; somehow it puts me in the zone. But more than all these, music challenges me to put a voice to my painting.

“Aware that Jesus accompanies me, the voice has to be bold and fully resounding so that when the artwork is hung it can give voice to the soft-spoken and the voiceless of our society. It cannot be muted or suppressed. When a viewer carefully listens, he will hear the song of his own story from the visual scene on a flat surface.”

Velasco’s works may have different meanings to different people or it may be as similar from one pair of eyes to the next. What cannot be denied, however, is that the paintings have the power to give hope—that the promise of a purposeful and passionate life can be experienced by everyone.

“Life is short,” Velasco says. “Live with passion. Live a purposeful life. Leave a legacy. Unless one accepts this truth, one can never really truly live because one will have the tendency to take time for granted as if one’s days are without limit.

“Time is a slippery thing and a lot of people go through life half-awake. So don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice and have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become.”

E-mail dextermatilla@gmail.com.