New Balance Trail Adventure Race

As i write this piece, many good things have already been written and said about last Sunday’s New Balance Trail Adventure race and i echo most of the positive sentiments. To those who had their first trail run, i’m sure running it was a gruelling one but no less satisfying as it brought many to a new level of personal challenge. I had wanted to run the longer 15k distance but as i was still tending a sore plantar faciitis, i opted to join the 10k race instead. 

Nothing compares to running on virgin trails complete with deep wood, open sceneries on single track paths and the sparkling Nuvali river enclave. Sunday’s route was entirely different from the “dry-run” we had three weeks ago, hosted by the race sponsors themselves as we didn’t get to the knee-deep parts of the river and didn’t even see the cascading waterfalls. 

Nevertheless, the solitude, stunning sceneries and tough going as you made your way through the edges all made up for it. Reaching the river, what follows is a slow trek on either the rocks or the river itself that separates the cautious from the bold-headed! I was in the cautious group. 

The lush fauna carpeting the mountain river made it difficult to concentrate on speed when all you want to do is stop and take a picture of the beautiful surroundings. Running buddy, June Santiago did exactly that, took his time to take photo shots of the scenery as he did with us runners while we were in motion, as you would see in the pictures below. 

The last kilometer brought us back to the paved roads of Abrio as we passed the Lakeside Evozone where we crossed a wooden bridge for a strong kick to the finish at Solenad. 

Overall, the race was well-organized, the route exciting and scenic and the feminine wash (again) at the finish was aplenty. However, they should have added another water station at the race course to benefit those who did not bring hydration fluids with them as the two water stations made available were far in between.

Here are some of the photos taken by June Santiago:

with BR, Ka Totoy and Luis

A kilometer after the start

Still going strong

Reaching the river

We were all walking at this time

The walkways were very slippery

One single file on the tracks

There were some slip ups on the wet trail so we had to move very slowly

Some of the views along the river

Some runners did the right thing, charging right through the river

Nearing the river's end

The vertical climb, holding on to tree trunks, roots, branches and the ground itself

Stopping to chat with a runner

At the 8th km mark

The finish at 1:20:24

June and Rio