Clouds of Courage: My Run to the Clouds story

by Jareliese Mauro

Cebu Running club (Ungo Runner)

In this age of plethora, it is notably intriguing to fulfill your curiosity of accomplishing an all-uphill 8k run, a rare event in Cebu’s running scene. Tagged as a suicidal run for the rookie runner, the Run to the Clouds event only attracted an intimate group of 500 participants maybe because of its promise of an extreme workout: defying the slope of 2000 feet above sea level. And my egocentric, youthful stamina took the bait of the seemingly impossible challenge. “I will crawl on my belly ‘to the clouds’ if I have to,” I muttered with conviction. The point-to-point route: from The Outpost restaurant to Cebu Zipline in Busay. 

During dawn at the starting point, the adrenaline junkies hyped up a “can do” atmosphere yet one could feel the unspoken and brewing curiosity of the amateurs: “Can we really do this?” There’s nothing more overwhelming than that raw, leap-into-the-void mentality, fueling a runner’s motivation to achieve his goal. There were probably more amateur runners in that race. From a tenderfoot’s own point of view, their clumsy footwork and improper footwear are a dead giveaway but you’ve got to give them much credit for trying to triumph over the uphill phobia. You draw strength from that kind of bold courage.

It’s always a battle between mileage and minutes, as every runner should seriously consider, but I felt a considerable high watching the surroundings that I resorted to “leisure running” every now and then. It’s like watching for the first time how drops of rain were resting on leaves and how the sunlight radiated a certain glow on the runners. It’s more stimulating than imbibing what the urban jungle offers that I momentarily forgot the shortness of my breath while running. After an hour of what seemed like forever of running then brisk walking then attempting to run again, the peak loomed large, beguiling. I was like the donkey motivated to bite the hackneyed carrot right in front of my face. And I knew I’ve burned more calories than running on a flat course. After all, running uphill expends 4% more energy as the elevation angle increases and makes a better exercise for working on muscle groups such as upper leg muscles, hamstring, etc.

Only a stone’s throw away and my knees began to weaken that the encouraging remarks of my friends faded into a drone but who knew that a gentle squeeze of the hand could make a whole lot of difference. The steady of a decade, whom I look up to for his running stats, has come back after finishing the race to give me that one last boost of energy that I needed. And so we crossed the finish line hand in hand. They say that the best fun run stories are susceptible to our own biases. The races that we remember the most are the ones which we have a strong emotional affinity to. My Run to the Clouds story is the one I can reckon with much clarity.