Run for your Life

During the start of the year, most of us often resort to ways on how to burn the excess calories gained from festive eating. To shed out one (1) pound of fat, you have to burn 3,500 calories.  If you have a sedentary lifestyle, you really need to engage yourself in exercise, coupled with a healthy diet, to achieve the best result.

Running is one of the best exercises you can do to lose weight. Nowadays, marathon and fun run events are the latest trend for health buff and runner enthusiasts, even for amateur runners of all ages. Last year, the “10.10.10 A Run for the Pasig River” event set a world record in the running history. As reported in www.abs-cbnnews.com (1/28/2011), “the official count of runners who made it through the finish line was pegged at 116,086. This broke the 110,000 record previously held by the 1986 “Bay to Breakers” run in San Francisco, USA. The feat garnered the Philippines a certification from the Guinness World Records for the most number of participants in a racing event.”

Marathon Fever in the Philippines was also featured in Kapuso Mo Jessica Soho’s episode last 15 January 2011. The show presented the success stories of people who drastically lose weight in running, of professional athletes who took the race seriously to covet the cash prize (Kenyan story), and even the ironic sad story of a runner who died due to heat stroke and dehydration. In each story, people run for a purpose.

Last 09 January 2011, I was enticed to join the PSE Bull Run - my first fun run and the first Sunday race in Metro Manila for the year. I was overwhelmed with the number of runners who participated in the race. 

Celebrities like Tessa Prieto Valdez and the running guru Coach Rio dela Cruz also participated in the event. The profiles of these two runner enthusiasts are inspiring and remarkable:

Tessa Prieto Valdez has been featured in MultiSport magazine as a triathlete belonging top Team Valdez (with Dennis – Tessa’s husband and Robin - Tessa’s brother-in-law). This bubbly lady was highly respected in their team. Robin even revealed that “the only one who’s completed a full marathon and IronMan 70.3 in our family is the female – Tessa!”.

       Coach Rio  - the man behind the afro, is the well-known running coach in this Philippine contemporary marathon. Coach Rio, the model of Globe tattoo TV commercial, is featured in different sports magazines and running events. His inspiring rags-to-riches story can be read at http://runrio.com.

Going back, completing my first 5K fun run is rewarding. Based on my gender and body weight, around 243 calories were burned in the said race category. To better appreciate the efforts exerted in running, trying the running calorie calculator is a fun thing to do as it shows the amount of calories burned by distance and by speed based on your actual weight. (http://www.runtheplanet.com/resources/tools/calculators/caloriecounter.asp)

If  your goal is to lose weight, just be cautious with the food you eat since your efforts to burn calories through running will just be wasted if your calorie intake is high. Average calorie count of the foods we craved the most is as follows:
1 Cup of Rice = 240 calories     

Medium Size French fries –  380 calories

1 Cup of Softdrinks =  100 – 150 calories            

Slice of Cake = 350 calories

1 Slice of Pizza  = 300 calories                                       

Fried Chicken = 460 calories

While engaging myself into this type of exercise, I became more conscious on taking care of my physique. The long run benefits of running urge me to run more, even on rough road or treadmill... In the Run Rio event this March, I already enrolled myself under the 10K category.


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Post Author's Note: Here are the pictures of our 10K Run Rio Leg 1 run