The Akashic Field Chronicle

Long time, no post.

Today I did the Santa Monica 5000 (www.santamonica5000.com). A very short race, but noteworthy for several reasons:

• It’s my 1st race in more than 1 year. The previous one being “Paa-tibayan 5-miler” in UP, before I left the Philippines (Thanks primarily to some coercion from my good friend and avid runner Mr. Wilson Tan)
• It’s my 1st run in the US.
• It’s my attempt to get back to running after stopping for a long time (due to a mix of laziness and a busy 1st year at UCLA)

Also in the race were 2 other guys from my lab (Przemek and Jun), although they both did the longer race (10km).

In summary, I was really, really, really slow. It took me 33m11s to complete the 5k and I was 7th from the last in my age group (25-29). Given my deteriorating fitness level , I’d say it was good enough. Honestly, my pace was very laid back and I was closer to easy jogging, than actually racing, for the better part of the race. My goal was to run the entire time and I did that. However, I started with too conservative a pace, that even when I picked up the pace close to the finish line, it was already too late. Still, I did achieve my original goal which was just to keep running the entire time. Hopefully, my next attempt (10km) would be at a much more competitive pace.

I thought some of my friends back in the Philippines (both the RFID guys, and the runners) might be interested on the tech behind the race, so I posted some photos on my gallery (click the t-shirt to view).

I remember running around the University of the Philippines Diliman Acad Oval while I was doing my masters (good times) and even joining a short race (thanks to Wilson). Sad to say though, apart from 1 or 2 times when I first arrived at UCLA, I haven’t really ran that much since I got here. Come to think of it, I haven’t done any sort of physical activity .

And I feel it. You know that feeling you get when you’ve been sleeping the entire day after not sleeping the entire night and then having to get up because you’re really really hungry (having skipped all the usual meals)? Sort of like that, but for months. So I decided to try and get back into shape by running around the UCLA campus more regularly. Boy, did it feel good!

Since I was always more of a ‘geek’ than a ‘runner’, I decided to tech it up and make my running route Google Maps style. I dunno why, but making routes that passed through unofficial roads were tough on Google Maps. It’s either roads only, or manual trails only. Good thing they have a great API and some guy was able to make this webapp just for making running maps. Here’s mine:

Around the campus (7km only?!) My apartment is on the DOT

I have to say, this webapp is really nice, especially for guys like me without a GPS device. It gives you km markers (or miles if you want to be English about it). It even gives you calories burned (if you’re interested in that kind of stuff). I was shocked to find that the entire UCLA campus is barely 7km! I’d bet that’s a tiny fraction of the UP campus. Then again, land prices in this part of LA are steep, being so close to Beverly Hills. To compensate, UCLA is building upwards.

What’s different?

So last week was my first time to run this route. Some key differences I noticed compared to running around UP Campus:

• Freezing - I know it’s spring already, but it’s still cold in the afternoon (the only time I can run). I had to wear a jacket wile running. And here I was thinking that Manny Pacquiao was just trying to look cool.
• Tough Terrain - UP is generally flat. UCLA = Hills. So most of the time, you’re either sweating profusely while climbing up a slope or trying to prevent yourself from going downhill too fast.
• Anytime Running - here’s one weird thing I immediately noticed when I got here. People run here anytime of the day. In the Philippines, only the crazy guys run at noon (heat stroke anyone? skin cancer?)

Here’s one similarity though, both campuses look stunning at dusk. Too bad I didn’t have a camera the last time (so un-yuppy-like of me). Hopefully next time, I can snap some photos. My plan is to try a different route every time so that I get to see the entire campus in a few months. Besides, I don’t want to get bored of running the same route every single time. Wish me luck on sticking to my schedule.

Quick-ees:

• I passed Prelims! woohoo! (Quoting the email: We advise you now to concentrate on your research). Hehehe. I guess I have no choice
• Passed the english for teaching exam – will probably be TAing next year.
• Prof. Joel Marciano (UP EEEI) presented our paper entitled: “Combining Parallel Sequence Spread Spectrum (PSSS) with OFDM – Concept and Simulation Results” this week in IEEE WCNC 2010 in Sydney, Australia.