It's an Urban Jungle Out There (Men's Health Urbanathlon 2010)

{Survivor Race Bib}

{Snagged a limited edition tumbler for running fast. Yay!}

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Torn, tangled, trampled on... and that was just my race bib.

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This year's Men's Health Urbanathlon proved to be one tough run. I came home with more aches, scrapes, and bruises than the previous ones. But, hey, a little rough and tumble play is always fun!

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The first obstacle I had to overcome was the hardest- waking up at the crack of dawn! For the past few weeks, work had me spending my nights and weekends attending shoots and events. I'm pretty sure I haven't recovered yet, and frankly, quite surprised that my body hasn't complained yet. Still, I didn't take a chance and foresight had me sign up for just the 5K event.

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My sister and I arrived at The Fort just before the 1st wave of 10K runners started. It was a nice change not being the first category to run as we had a bit of time to go around for some photo ops and to check out the booths at the festival.

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{Wanna be on the cover of a Summit magazine?}

{Gorgeous husky wants to be a cover model too!}

{Mug Shot Pre-Race}

{Cover-worthy Post-Race Battle Wounds}
{Waiting for the 5k runners wave}

{Urban Warriors}
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Aaaaand they're off!

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Just under a minute of running, and the first obstacle, the Tire Dump, was already up ahead. Wading through it was easy enough. Good thing I had enough experience crossing through the campus cobblestones, Manila's cracked sidewalks, some open manholes, and exposed tree roots all throughout college.

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{Tire Dump}

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A few seconds later, the next obstacle, the Balance Beam, was already in sight. It took me a few minutes to wait in line. And for 4 whole minutes, I had to endure the complaints of the participants behind me. Truth be told, the placement of the obstacles could've been more strategically spaced out, but (tsk, tsk) it was too early in the morning to be getting those negative vibes! Aah, welcome to the urban jungle...

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{The Balance Beam}

{Looks easy... until you're actually on top of it.}

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The Balance Beam looks easier than it actually is. Instead of the usual flat surface, it was a long rustic jam of a log. Good thing it was dry since trying to stay on top was already challenging enough. I crossed it sideways instead of the usual catwalk style (see photos above). Nevermind that my arms were flailing and my butt was jutting out, I'm pretty proud of myself for not falling off.

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The next obstacle was the Scaffolding Maze. It was a criss-cross of garters that looked really fun to have experienced. I, however, usually fail the "marshmallow test", and today was not an exception. So, after seeing the long queue, I decided to skip this one and be time penalized instead.

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{The Scaffolding Maze}

{I skipped the line and got a 10-minute penalty.}
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Obstacle number 5 was my waterloo- the Hurdles. Instead of the orange barricades they used last year, it was another row of logs. They were probably 3-4 ft. high. Too high to swing my legs over, so I pretty much scaled it like a crawling lizard. The last hurdle was the toughest because I had to prop myself up before I could swing my legs over. It took me a few tries and the pressure of being the lone female with the male runners impatiently waiting behind me.

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{Hurdles}

{The last one was chest high and really challenged my non-existent upper body strength.}

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There were more running after this obstacle. I really wanted to speed through the run part to make up for the penalized time, but my body wasn't cooperating. You'd think those obstacles would've woken me up, instead my body felt more lethargic. Looks like the work load finally caught up. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the run and was still vying for the Havaianas tumbler that would be given out to the first 450 runners.

The Low Crawl came next (Sorry, no photo. My hands were really dirty.). If I were in a war, my platoon would've laughed at me silly. Instead of crawling on my belly, I did it sideways. I planted myself under the netting in a fetal position and did a dog paddle-like crawl. How very poised! This time though, I was wishing for mud. The dry, course ground felt like you were going through a sanding machine. Both my right arm and leg had cuts and scratches afterwards.

The final obstacle was the Wall. You had to go over an 8 ft. wall with nothing but a rope to assist you. Last year's wall had foot holds, so this was a new experience altogether. Getting up the wall wasn't a problem for me (I held onto the top of the rope and pulled myself up using my legs), it was the getting down that was scary. It took me a while teetering atop the 2-inch wall before I finally decided to just hang down the other side and jump. As I landed on my feet, I heard the crowd cheer. I'm not so sure if it was because I was the lone female racer, because of my superb wall climbing skills, or because of the rated PG, riding-up-of-the-shirt, indecent exposure that ensued.

Seeing the finish line, I sprinted towards the end, happy to have made the freebie tumbler cut (Yes, I'm easy to please like that). I was all set to head for a drink of water when I suddenly realized that my race bib was missing. Whaaaat??!! I rushed back and found my crumpled race bib at the bottom of the wall. Now, not only do I have extra time from the penalty, but I also wasted more time by not crossing the finish line with my bib. Drat. Plus my shirt was all holey. Talk about more indecent exposure from a survivor Urbanathlete. ;)

{The Wall}

{Running Fatboy scaling The Wall}