Thursday Running "Dates"

We have an ongoing running "date" every Thursday for three Thursdays now! It's like a family outing, actually, with cousins and uncles joining the walk-jog around Bonifacio High St. I stumbled upon an interesting term coined by a young lady runner who blogs at runpinayrun.wordpress.com -- LAKBO. It's a morphed version of lakad-takbo. "Lakbo" describes pretty darn well how we go about our recreational running dates on Thursdays.

The first Thursday, our dates couldn't make it, but being as motivated as we were to "train" for the Robinson's Supermarket buddy run, Min and I pushed on with our own running date.

The second Thursday, my brother Mike, Min's cousins Camille and Sheila plus Tito Scap joined us for their initiation into the wheezing world of running 5K's. Tito Scap had an iron will and resisted running altogether, and just walked around for a while. Afterward, we all enjoyed a hearty, but slow-to-be-served meal at the Cafe Mary Grace in Serendra.

The third Thursday date, our group swelled to an impressive 10 people. Mike abstained, but our new recruits came: cousins Hollie, Backy, Ann, and Paolo plus Tito Santi. With Camille, Sheila and Tito Scap back on their second appearance, there were 10 of us, Min and I rounding it out. We also dragged our 6-year old daughter Meg, her Ate Eden, and 11-year old niece Dandan with us so we could spend time together that day. Looking back, I should've thought about snapping some photos for this blog, which I still haven't created nor even considered at that time.

This turned out to be an interesting running date due to the rain that decided to attend our little get together. As we were approaching the Boni High area from C-5, we saw the heavy dark clouds over the Global City while Hollie and Backy who were already at the rendezvous area were simultaneously texting us "it's raining cats and dogs here!" and "it's raining... it's pouring", respectively. Of course, in our car we had only 1 umbrella to match 6 of us (Camille hitched a ride). We waited out the heavier part of the downpour and decided quite enthusiastically to have sandwiches and coffee at Seattle's Best Coffee in the meantime. Bad move. We didn't have enough time to digest the combo snack before we started walk-jogging around the three blocks of shops and parking lots, therefore, Min and I both experienced varying degrees of belly ache.

The rain didn't completely stop either. There was a heavy drizzle while we were out there and we got soaked. Some stopped after two and a half laps, I extended to three and a half. I think Backy did, too. And so did Hollie. Paolo, I heard, was going to do ten laps! I hope he made it. The rain spoiled the fun, but we still got to get together. And, everyone's in good spirits to make it next Thursday. Now that's an excellent result for an otherwise iffy date. We'll see if there are any additions to the group date and this time I'll take some snapshots. :)

[ Update: Yes, I was able to take a few snapshots the following Thursday we were able to run together. Click here to view that entry. ]

* Photo credits go to various online sources since I neglected to take my own photos.