I've been buying Christmas presents.  I know, it's only the middle of November. But hear me out. For the first time, we finally have a 7-foot Christmas tree! I’ve always wanted a big tree, but buying one from the malls was never an option. A tree that size costs around Php 10k. Th…

I’ve been digging through my old drafts in a desperate attempt to find something to post that isn’t about running (again). 😅  This was written back in 2013. I decided against publishing it at that time because the story was still raw. But it has been 12 years and I thought I'd share …

When I was still a student nurse, about twenty years ago, we were taught that a very low heart rate could be a cause for concern because it might mean the heart isn’t pumping enough oxygen-rich blood to the body. A normal resting heart rate for adults ranges from 60-100 beats per minute (…

When I was young (and by young, I mean in my 30s), I used to join fun runs just for... fun.  Even without proper training, I’d just show up whenever there's a race, run the distance, get the free banana, and go home. I wasn't running regularly.  But in 2019,  I was sponsored a 50k…

I remember back when I was at a fastfood resto with friends when, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed someone asking another person for a photo outside. I recognized the content creator right away. He doesn't come across my feed (thank heavens!) but the media pages I follow feature…

Boracay has always held a special place in our hearts. For Jan and me, it’s already our third time visiting this little slice of paradise. But this time it's different. We brought the family along.  We flew in early July, right as the habagat season was starting. True enough, it start…

This blog post is long overdue. And by long, I mean five months late. We actually went on this trip last February, and I’ve been meaning to write about it ever since. But you know how it goes, life happens and before you know it, months have passed. What finally pushed me to sit down and …

I wasn’t planning to post a progress update this soon because it’s only been three months since I started running again. But I just wanted to share because I'm pretty proud of how things are going. When I first hit the road after years of being inactive, I could barely manage 3k witho…

I just submitted an 18-page essay for my Palanca entry. Yep, eighteen pages. Exactly 4,986 words I agonized over, paragraphs I rewrote a hundred times, and countless moments of dread in front of a blinking cursor when the thoughts in my head refused to make it to the screen. Now it’s done…