Tagaytay Sunrise Run Year Starter!!!
January 5, 2003

The Second Sunrise Run was held today the 5th of January 2003, as the club's year-starter fun run!

Again, the principal antagonist of these sunrise runs is the oppressive and wicked preparation time. My alarm went off at 3am - I hit the snooze button, pull up my blanket and irately declare in my mind "forget this run! It's far too comfy here, ChitoF can take car of it". However, another voice in my head goes, "ChitoF wasn't the one that called for this run - you did!" "Allright, allright", . . . while muttering curses at myself and my "bright" ideas.

Good thing no one asks for a wake-up call this time. I prepare and drive down south to Petron SLEX and get there at 4:20.

Despite the fact only MonV, ChitoF and I confirm, and I don't ask for other confirmations, 10 members participated in this run - 6 newbies and 4 repeaters. The first to arrive aside from myself was Zaffy, followed by Jeric and his son, ChitoF, Romy "Manong", ChitoS, MonV, Bobby Dy, Wilson and one other unrecognizable car shows up, and lo and behold - it's Allan and his wife Libby! I didn't recognize the car because I've never expected Allan to show up at a sunrise run.

We take off promptly at 5am. Halfway up the Sta. Rosa road, the air is now downright cold compared with last time which was just chilly (okay, okay, cold for us local noy-pi's. The San Francisco guys on the list will surely go, "Boy, you don't know what "cold" means.") Not only is it cold, it's now raining, but no one puts up their tops and the rain doesn't enter the cockpit as we're going at a pretty fast clip. As we approach the end of the road and going onto the ridge road towards the radar station, it's still very dark as there are rain clouds blocking the sunrise.

When we get to the radar station it's still dark, yet as we look down over the lake and the volcano there are spots which have light. The sight and the colors across the sky is nothing like what we saw on the first sunrise run, there are far too many clouds. Nonetheless, the view and the serene atmosphere was also nice, what with the chilly wind hitting us. A part of the entertainment for the 20 minutes that we were at the radar site is Allan's high-tech watch with the compass which he checks, and it say's that the direction where the sun is rising is West : ) I also notice that today we have quite a few digicams with us - katas ng pasko : )

At 6:15 we head on up to Highlands for breakfast. We're greeted by thick pea-soup fog as we approach the entrance near the top of the precipice. I just absolutely love driving through the fog on those twisting and winding roads with the top-down! Pure miata-heaven!

We have the breakfast buffet and as usual joke around and talk as we watch the thick fog roll across the fairway. Thereafter we go out to the place overlooking the driving range and enjoy the view and the chilly wind hitting us. With the wind, the temperature out there must have been 50f or 10c ! But everyone is in high-spirits and we're all joking around and laughing and being very loud (as usual). I propose a joke to the boys that if we're really tough lets see who has the balls to jump into the pool with this temperature. ChitoS responds that there's no requirement for toughness as there's a heated pool at the sports clubhouse which he recommends we see. So off we go down to the sports clubhouse to check it out.

Down the side of the mountain we go towards the sports clubhouse where the air is definitely much warmer, nonetheless the pool is heated. Kahiya-hiyang kasama 'tong si Jeric! Not only does he want to jump into the pool to bathe - naghahanap pa ng tabo! : )

We also check out the other sports facilities of the clubhouse which has, aside from the heated lapping pool, squash courts, badminton courts, a basketball court, a game room and a weights gym. However, we go through all these facilities in a rather ho-hum and disinterested fashion. Judging from their reaction, the miata boys are definitely not jocks who are into sports. But finally, ChitoS takes us to the facility of the clubhouse which unquestionably stirs up excitement amongst the guys - the children's playground!! There the boys go wild!!! I'd like to tell you about the fun we had at the playground but I'll let the pictures speak for themselves

By 9am we're all played out and we're ready to head back home. A red Benz SLK is coming up the drive as we head out, he's all alone. Poor guy - malungkot, walang barkada.

As we drive down Sta. Rosa road, Jeric complains of a grinding sound emanating from his supercharger and we all stop down at the Caltex station. Mon hits the supercharger belt with some belt-dressing and the sound immediately goes away.

We head for home top-down all the way as the weather is nice and cool with just a hint of the sun's rays all the way to Manila.

Despite the troublesome waking hour and the cloud covered sunrise, this sunrise-run just like the first has proven to be genuinely worth the struggle because of the fun and positively good-time that it gave us in return which would not have been possible without the participants. Thank you to all those that participated for the year-starter fun run, I hope more of you can join us on the next sunrise run! Thank you also to Bobby Dy and Chito Santiago for being our hosts at Highlands!

a few comments:

1) yes you are sooooooo right....... even i, set my alarm at 3am and wonder how and why in the world would people like me wake up sooooo early on a lazy sunday morning ....... but once i am on the road in my miata, and specially when i get to see the breathtaking beauty of our countryside,........ i cant help but say to myself that it is really worth my effort.......

2) to those who were also on the first sunrise run, you will agree that this morning's run was a totally different but just as exhilirating, an experience.(i.e. light and misty rain, cloudy overcast, foggy, and verrry cool )

3) the belt dressing applied on Jeric's belt was courtesy of Romy Manong.

4) its quite encouraging that we have 6 guys who missed the first sunrise run, be able to make it this morning.... it means that there are many guys out there who cant make it due to schedule conflicts, but will do so at next opportunity..

5) i want to give credit to those that confirmed directly to me (and not via email) Jeric, Chito S, Zaffy and RomyM (thats M for Manong)...

6) i am looking forward to seeing the digital photos posted soonest......

7) i saw stanley this afternnoon and unfortunately he hasnt been feeling well lately, I think he has been partying too much since he arrived and never had a chance to get over his jet lag ........ lets all hope he gets well soonest.........


chito F.

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