A certified SKI

I am a mother of seven-year-old Mergin Rose (MG), and 17-year-old Paul Ronard (PR). I have a Nursing degree, now doing selling as my line of work.

I think I have the same daily routine as with other mothers-wives, making sure everything is prepared before the children go to school and before the hubby goes off to work — including taking care of their stuff when they get home from school, or the hubby comes home from work.

My daily routine for house chores starts as early as 5:00am and ends by 9:00pm — that’s about 16 hours on average per day in a week. I do my laundry and other more laborious chores on the weekends. (You wonder, when do I get to run on the road?)

On being a mother, a wife, and businesswoman, I practically have no day-off but I always find time to do family bonding such as going to the mall, organizing roadtrips, swimming, and watch movies.

I am a race organizer. I actively assist my hubby Paultom in all of his road-running events. [Paultom Paras is a race director, and head of the Negros Oriental Sports Development Program.] I am basically the sports manager in all his sporting events, preparing the budget, disbursing monies, buying race materials.

It usually requires at least three-days to prepare the materials before the race day; but about six months to prepare everything else.

I spend about two hours a night for three to four nights before the race day, actually preparing the race materials including encoding and completing the master listing of runners.

I am an ultra-runner, which is anyone who runs beyond the full marathon distance 42 kilometers.

It was in 2006 when my hubby introduced me to run with the Metro Dumaguete Roadrunners Club every Sunday under the Dumaguete Running Program.

I finished my first 21-kilometer in the Dumaguete Adventure Marathon in 2009, and my first 42-kilometer in the Cebu Marathon in 2012.

I ran my first 50-kilometer ultramarathon in 2013 with the Dumaguete Adventure Runners & Striders. Then on the same year, I “leveled up” to do a 75-kilometer run around Siquijor island, in tandem with my hubby.

Then I ran my first 103-kilometer ultra in 2014. It took me at least eight years before getting my first 100-km belt.
I now having four belts completing 100-kilometer races: a three-peat in the NegOr100 Ultramarathon (2014, 2015, 2016), and the SU 100K in August 2016.

Paultom would always remind me to understand the concept behind running ultramarathons. And how I must decide on my running goals based on my actual real life daily routine.

I work 16 hours a day at home, assist my husband about two hours a night, and most of the time on weekends, I assist in the various sporting events in the Province.

My body continues to work 16 to 18 hours a day doing household chores and transacting various businesses seven days a week — leaving me with practically with no day-off.

As what my husband would tell me, what I do every single day for seven days each week is basically what ultra-running is all about — endurance.

The household chores and income-generating activities that I am able to endure and finish without let-up actually comprise the basic functional body movements that are required for anyone to be able to say he is actually physically-fit and mentally- healthy. And for me, that is all what matters.

As I continue to regularly run — mostly by a certain number of hours, and simulating the actual length of time of the run — I get to train my body clock to learn to adapt with the required running time of the actual races.

And so technically, my eight years of basic running, my four belts in having run 100 kilometers, and my daily routine for family would be enough for me to run another 100-kilometer in maybe three months time.

After all, I am what runners call a certified SKI*.

* Special Kind of Idiot.

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