TAGAYTAY
"Christmas Eve" SUNRISE RUN
Dec. 24, 2002 - 4:30 am.
The first ever sunrise run held yesterday the 24th of December was a complete success! Despite the fact that one had to start preparing at around 3am and only ChitoF and myself had enlisted on the list of confirmed participants 15 members participated in this run.
I woke up and started preparing myself at 3am and because Benedikt Llana had requested me for a wake up call on their landline - so I called. His phone rang . . . and rang . . . many, many times before anyone answered and finally when it was answered much to my embarrassment it wasn't Benedikt, it was a female voice and neither was it his wife Carina. She asked who it was that was calling, however, there was also an irate male voice in the background, definitely far older than Benedikt's voice asking who it was - by this time I was shrinking from this awkward and embarrassing situation of having startled and harassed an entire household in the middle of the night . . . I sheepishly answered "joey. . . is benedikt awake?", she paused, put down the phone as the irate male voice boomed - "JOEY WHO?!!!", she came back and asked me and because of my embarrassment and discomfort which by this time had grown to monumental proportions I timidly said, ". . . .almeda . . . ."
Turned out Benedikt was not only asleep, he was passed out after having come from a party the night prior.
So I proceeded to get ready
while muttering and cursing Benedikt for having
put me in such an awkward predicament. Never will I accommodate wake up
calls ever again especially for Benedikt!
At a little past 4am I was at Petron
on the South Expressway, I figured I
should be there at the original assembly time lest someone who hadn't
received the amended assembly time shows up. Sure enough, Joey Almeda
arrived at a litle before 430 calling me on my cellphone while I was buying
batteries for my FRS radios. I decided not to tell him about the
disturbance he had caused to Benedikt's household earlier.
By 445am we had about 11 members there - ChitoF, MonV, JunZ and
wife, Edrich, Santy, Bobby Dy and Stanley in addition to the gang that was
Joji, Collins, JoeyA and myself. We took off at a little past 5am and it
was still dark.
As we neared the end of the Sta. Rosa Road, the air was now very cool and we could see some light from the sun now peeking out of the darkness. I was going, "let's hurry, we have to be on the ridge when the sun rises!" When we hit the Tagaytay ridge road it was still rather dark but the sky over the lake was now lighting up with a glorious variety of colors! We drive down the road and stopped beside the radar station where there are small huts with tables on a small garden, a very appropriate point in which to admire the now rising sun, it was now a little before 6am. There, John Resurreccion playing hooky from his night-shift job joins us. We stayed around 20 minutes to admire the view and decide to head on out to Highlands for breakfast.
That road on Tagaytay with
the top down, the cool, chilly air and the sun
bursting out with myriad colors across the sky down over the lake and the
volcano, this run was nothing short of MAGNIFICENT!!! And as we
approached Highlands, the line of Miatas in front of me were now bathed in
fog with their parking lights peeking through the mist, snaking around
those twisting and winding roads - what a sight! We get to the clubhouse
and absolutely everyone is in high spirits!
At the clubhouse we enjoy the view up the golf course directly in front of us, down overlooking the log cabins to one side, and over the lake and the volcano on the other side - absolutely GORGEOUS!
We assemble a long table as we wait for the buffet to be prepared. Notwithstanding the fact that our host at Highlands was Bobby Dy, Edrich was on Sultan mode clapping his hands for service and demanding that one of us feed him. It's entirely possible that our friend was still asleep and was still enjoying a dream ; )
We have a hearty breakfast
as JR Tanpinco and his friend arrive and also
the Aquino father and son join us having driven from Batangas City. We
chat and joke for a couple of hours, we also have some preliminary
discussions about the day with the guns on the range and the Aquino's
quickly offer their own firing range in Batangas City along with breakfast
to boot if the club goes down there on a run. As we wind down from the
various discussions, story telling and jokes we decide to rise and take
some photos with the views as the backdrop.
At around 830am we cruise around and down to Midlands where we stop for awhile for more photos. At a little past 9 we were on our way home, happy and smiling from our little activity.
We later hear that JohnR who had left at an earlier time had suffered a flat tire. On our way down I was trying to keep a sharp look out for where he was just in case he was still there but I didn't see him. Hope you were able to fix your tire John.
Notwithstanding the ungodly preparation time and the small misadventures, it was well worth the trouble for that indeed was a superb run and something that we should engage in again, and very soon while the weather is this good! Thank you to all who participated in this first ever sunrise run! Thanks to Bobby Dy for hosting us at Highlands! I hope more of you can join us the next time.