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Bisikleta Iglesia in Batangas

Each year, bikers across this Catholic country brave the scorching heat of summer to ride their bikes in a pilgrimage of sorts to at least seven churches. This practice has come to be called Bisikleta Iglesia.

Last time I did this was several years ago with a few biker friends from my hometown Binangonan, Rizal. We went to seven churches in Rizal starting from Cardona, to Morong, Baras, Teresa, Antipolo, Tayuman (Binangonan) and concluded in the Sta. Ursula Parish church of our town. It was a fun ride with friends that was in keeping with the observance of the Lenten season.

This year though, I got an invitation from Lima Park Hotel to try the Bisikleta Iglesia they were organizing in Batangas. Heading the event was no less than legendary ‘running priest’ Fr. Robert Reyes. How could I say no to a chance to bike with Fr. Robert? Read more [+]

Duathlon: More Fun in Batangas

Batangas Duathlon

The duathlon is my favorite kind of race. I like biking, and I like running, and there’s nothing quite like combining the two in one event. So when I got an invitation to try out the Batangas Earth and Water Festival duathlon, I immediately said: Oooh… Hell… Yeah!

Besides, how could anyone say no to a race which promised to take participants down to Taal Lake? So, even though, I had absolutely no practice, and could never do any track read, I signed up for the 5k-20k-3k race. I knew I would suck, but I didn’t care. It’s not everyday that you get to race in a special place like Taal Lake. It also helped that the guys who invited me to the race also threw in a free stay at the excellent Lima Park Hotel.

I just had one problem: was it going to be a trail duathlon or a road duathlon?

Apparently it was the latter. And as I looked at the rows of slick road bikes and road-optimized mountain bikes being slung on the rack at the transition area, I could only hope that these intimidating, ripped, hardcore-looking guys would bonk at some point in the race. I hoped that maybe they got dumped by their girlfriends the night before, drank several longnecks of Emperador afterwards, and were eventually going to break down crying and screeching like Piolo Pascual in some cheesy melodrama. It was the only chance I had of not sucking so bad. Read more [+]