Though it has been a roller coaster ride for me, there are still so many things to be thankful for the year 2010.
As I started out the year with a bad note, sulked, and focused more on work and other stuff, I finally made a decision that have changed the way 2010 ruled over me. The decision was made to start running last March and joining my first official race a month after. To date, I already joined 11 races with a total of 110 kilometers (exclusive of my training runs). My goal was to finish a half marathon, Pikermi, or 21K (whichever way you want to call it) before the year ends. But I managed to finish two, that’s for King of the Road and Quezon City International Marathon. On a side note, prior to running, I’m an avid badminton player and fanatic. I usually spend my Tuesdays and Thursdays inside the court playing with colleagues and friends.
Along the journey, I’ve met a lot of new friends from the running community. I’ve joined Adination of Runners-Alabang last June which I consider my family, have attended several running clinics/seminars, and gatherings.
This is also the year where I had an accident while riding my bike. This happened last April where I found myself lying beside West Service Road with a bump on my right temple, wounds around my right eye and left knuckles. I remember running my first race with Band-Aids on. 
I’ve also started organizing and writing my blogs/articles. Thanks to all runner-bloggers whom I followed for tips. You know who you are guys, raise your hands. I started with the Blogger platform and then later transferred to WordPress. I gained a lot of readers from the initial launch of http:raintherunningenthusiast.blogspot.com. Got a little busy and tired of writing that time so when I decided to resume writing, I considered transferring to WordPress; fitting to change the look and feel of the original blogsite. I established http://runningenthusiast.wordpress.com focusing on using the name Running Enthusiast to institute a more solid base for a running blog identity…let’s just say re-branding. It was tough to regain the number of readers you’ve had from the original site. But after 2 months or so, the site was able to catch a good number of readers once again. After some time, I saw this promo on Facebook where they offer a year of free web hosting plus giving you your own domain. Won the promo and started to have my own domain. Then the http://runningenthusiast.net/ was born. I originally wanted a dot com as this is more popular, but unfortunately runningenthusiast.com already has an owner (thank God it’s for lease now, which I don’t think will be used in the near future). That’s the reason why I opted to use dot net. The runningenthusiast.net is still coping up with yet another transfer from free hosted wordpress to a self hosted one. I’m still confident that it will gain number of viewers especially after the holiday season. It was also because of blogging that I got invited to attend a bloggers’ night for the launch of Condura Skyway Marathon 2011, which I really never imagined to be attending and see bloggers in the flesh! That’s also the venue where I officially introduced myself as the Running Enthusiast.
This year was also a year when I won a lot of items, first the dot net, second when I won a DVD player, third is winning in Toby’s Sports What I Want for Christmas promo where I wished for a pair of running shoes (Asics GT 2150) which I did claim last December 24, 2010! As I’ve said in previous entries, never have I experienced winning in raffles and contests until this year. Thanks for being good to me.
Most of all I would like to thank my friends (and would be sponsors). I hope to see you next year and create a more solid partnership.
Imagine, all these in one year?!?!?!?!
As the year ends, I leave all the bad memories behind and charge them to experience. May 2011 bring more encouragement, inspiration, runs, races, winnings, sponsors(?), and give birth to more running enthusiasts!
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