Trails Unlimited: Merrell Adventure Run 2013 @ Pintong Bucaue, San Mateo, Rizal

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Merrell Adventure Run 2013 @ Pintong Bucaue, San Mateo, Rizal

Merrell Adventure Run 2013 will be set in a new playground!

Further away from Timberland Heights where the Merrell Adventure Run was held three years in a row are trails unknown to many. For the weekend mountain bike warriors, this place is a biking haven, a perfect place to exhaust their remaining extra hyper energy from a week-long work in their offices.

Mr. Thumbie Remigio, MAR race director have finally connected several loops of difficulties and distances to cover the 5k, 10, and 21k category for this Year’s MAR. The place is called Pintong Bucaue, Sitio Cabading, San Mateo, Rizal Province.

This year, everyone will have to brace themselves with a breath-taking view, a panoramic picturesque scene of rolling hills and mountain ranges, much of the area where all the trail runners will have to experience. The Area is called Camp Sinai, because it is located at the mountain top where a giant replica of the tablets of the Ten Commandments will welcome everyone.

Last March 8, 2013, I was invited to join the Merrell team along with some runner blogger friends to do a test run of the newest playground of MAR 2013. We arrived at the area 6:30am, this place is still chilling with fog and mists. I joined the group of Thumbie to cruise the 10k route with six other trail runners.

The first few steps are steep downhill descents but the road texture is quite manageable. Much of the areas on the first 5k are wider but very steep. At the early stage of the course, we passed along a community of houses but soon after, the rest are all trails. The course covers several mountain ranges with a series of up and down terrains.

A unique feature of this year’s MAR, is the single loop course of the 21k distance. It will cover mountain ranges, and will traverse two sets of rivers. After that, the rest of the courses are all up hill. So, for those who will run 10k or 21k, should consider adding more quadriceps training like stair climbing or weight training in their running regimen. The difficulty of the route will be twice as challenging compared to Timberland heights but guaranteed ten times the adventure.

Below are some pictures of the trails we took as we run along the course. See you all at the starting line! 

...and oh, by the way, there will be mud surprises in-stored to all distances so just be ready to get dirty! :)