The Trails of San Andres, Tanay: The Nature’s Trail Discovery Route

Every trail has its own unique characteristics… it has its magnet of charms, its allure speaking at you to discover it. It is sometimes gentle, letting you savor its calm terrain and green scenery. But it can also be harsh, forcing you to climb its steepest hills and stumble when you cross its gushing rivers.

Its sternness however reminds us that for every route that we take, there will be gale winds to blow our faces, higher mountains to trek until we are out of breath,  more rivers to slip into its cold waters until we reach the other end and only then would we be rewarded and discover who we truly are.

Yesterday, i was one of those fortunate to be invited to test-run the newly discovered trails inside the inner sanctum of Tanay, Rizal.

It’s in a remote village called San Andres where two Sundays from now on May 27, hundreds or may be a thousand trail runners will be running the Discover Tanay Trail Run to test their mettle in this scenic but harsh route laid out by the organizers of last February’s Love A Tree Trail Run, also in Tanay.

We arrived at the site at about 6:00am with surprisingly cool weather and some morning fog enveloping the area. I was with about 16 other runners and we were greeted by the race organizers themselves led by Sir Manny of PIMCO Sports and the race’s shoe sponsor, Norphyl-Connect, sole Asian distributor of the Viking Trail Shoe represented by its CEO, Mr.  Ceasar Valmadrid.

We did a short 10k run but felt that we finished a 21k because of the arduous mountain climb on its earlier stages.

Highlights of this run will be the 2.3 km long single-track mountain climb (from KM 2.7 to Km 5.0) where i experienced some kind of oxygen debt just trying to put one feet over the other in bagging its peak. Another highlight others would either love or hate are the various river crossings that for sure will get your shoes submerged as you wade in its cold waters. Well, that’s part of trail running.

A surprise was waiting for us in the middle of the run when a small waterfall suddenly appeared  near the trails which provided a cool respite from the sun.

This will be the 1st Leg of several trail runs being hatched by the organizers to culminate in a 50k Ultramarathon Trail run by 2013. The Natures Trail Discovery Run will have a 10k, and 21k distances and promises to be a very exciting trail run as it has everything nature has to offer…cool winds, farm lands, mountain ranges, rivers, wooded forests, waterfalls, a friendly neighborhood and a lot more.

Here are some pictures of the route and trails. Enjoy!

A group picture

Preparing to start for the trail and mountain run

Mountain mists greeted the runners at the start

The front runners that will lead the group on the trails and mountains

It was muddy on most parts of the trails yet tolerable for all to run through

Parts in the open area

One of the views during the run

An outdoor panorama

Entering a small cave resort. The owner was one of the local runners

The small underground cave

One of the many rivers that we had to cross

and another one…

They didn’t want to wet their shoes this early

From single trail tracks…

…to rice paddies

We are the first runners to run these trails

Runner in red is the Running Mhalot

Into a more wooded area

It was still foggy and misty during the late morning

A thin slab of stone was the only way to get thru the ravine. One slip and down you go.

It was all uphill from here

It was a zigzag maze to the top

The view emerges from the top

We were like above the clouds

A few more steps…

Now over the top

The high and mighty!

Our descent…

It took us about 40 minutes to scale up the mountain and just a fraction of that to reach level ground

Back on the rough roads

Another river to cross

Nice place to rest and take a picture

Ed Escueta continues…

Reaching one of several waterfalls

Doing a duathlon?

Breakfast at the end of the run

Great way to end the run!

Thanks to Ed Escueta and Jojo Paulino for some of the pictures used.