
After a month of sporadic efforts to train at the Moro Lorenzo Sports Center, occasional battles with a bothersome ankle sprain, and another unexplained foot injury, I’ve finally managed to fulfill my birthday promise – finish the Men’s Health Philippines Urbanathlon.
I’m not one to make long thank you lists, but I sincerely feel that the situation calls for it. These people, after all, have been played a big part in my growth as a person.
- To my current officemates, who were more than understanding whenever I’d beg off from weekday drinking binges so I could train.
- To my Summit family, who honestly provided me with the most fulfilling working environment anyone could ever work for.
- To all my friends, who were trying to convince me to go out the night before the Urbanathlon (Sorry guys really had to sleep early)
- To Lisa Gokongwei, Aurora Mangubat, Denis del Callar, and Neil Palabrica, for giving me the opportunity to work with the most life-changing magazines in the world.
- To my family for putting up with my constant nagging for healthier food
- To Mariel, for constantly pushing me to try new things. I think all these changes are because of you. Still not giving up my videogames though
- And of course to Carlo Buan and Ryan Roset, whose arms I didn’t have to twist so they could suffer with me.

Now, for those who want to know how long I took and what place I finished, it was in the vicinity of an hour and twenty minutes. Anyways, that’s beside the point. Bottom line is I finished the thing.
Let’s just celebrate… I’m 28! Woohoo!
*Update: I finished a 200 out of a possible 440+ participants. Not bad, but I sincerely believe I could have done better. Additional images and complete list of participants can be viewed here.
yon!!!!! berday mo nga pala kahapon pre!! hahaa belated happy beerday! central na ba to bukas? nyahaa!
belated happy bday alvs!
Ayos. Great work Alvs!
[...] rather do that, but it may be more feasible to run instead. Why do I want to join? More than the Men’s Health Urbanathlon last November, I helped organize the first two with the dedicated events team of Summit Media and [...]