Advocacy and passion

Over the weekend, Metafit Tri team sent its biggest delegation to join the 8080 Triathlon in San Remigio.  It was my nth time to finish a triathlon race  but the greatest accomplishment was seeing these once sedentary individuals level up and swam, bike and ran.

We have five relay teams, including the Metafit Team Q and Team BBQ. These are a husband and wife teams composed of Alex Sy (swimmer), Jeffrey Cataag (bike) and Joseph Noel (run) for the husbands and Allyssa Sy (swimmer), Leslie Pesons (bike), and Yves Fernandez (runner) for the wives wherein all of  them cross the finish line together. The others are Team Pro H, composed of Father Joseph Anore, Jinggoy and Joy Bascug, the Metafit Tri Team of siblings Mae, PJ Cañedo and Donafel Tacadong, and the Metafit Trio manned by Joy Ortaliz, a veteran swimmer, Golda Grace, a first time cyclist, and Maui Recla, a running photographer. 

We also have six individual participants in age-grouper female champion Dr. Janet Solis, Archt. Guian Capacite, who used his newly-found inspiration to finish second place. The other who completed the lung-busting race are Luke Remedio, Fritz Co, Randy Guilles and yours truly. Three years ago, I started my journey from being Fat to Fit. Then I started a Metafit Fitness boot camp, which is an affiliate of the Fit-Filipino  movement, a nationwide advocacy that aims to help others in their fitness journey. On its second year, it turned to the sport of triathlon and used it as our  motivation.

Metafit's advocacy is simple: ‘Complete not compete’, ‘You are stronger than you think' and 'fitness is not about losing weight'. Fitness is about getting stronger, fitter, and healthier. In its simplest terms, improving one's quality of life.

This is just the beginning as these teams promised a fitter and stronger finish for 2015. In fact, everybody has already signed up for 70.3 Ironman next year. For what we have done and are about to do, we are forever grateful to Metafit, Fit-Fil/APEX founder Coach Jim Saret and Tonette Dimaguila.

8080 Triathlon

The 8080 Triathlon is the event spearheaded by the Cornerstone Group that engages in sports and fitness related events. What makes this group different from other triathlon organizers is the passion they have in the sport. I have joined other races in Cebu and this group by far is the best local race organizer. Even if it's just their second triathlon event, they have improved by leaps and bounds in terms of running a race. It had the most unique swim leg as they used underwater neon strings in the entire route. Some 'bangka' were also lined up to make sure it was safe despite the current was strong and the waters were choppy on our way back.  They closed down the road to make sure it was safe for all cyclists. The run leg was perfect with hydration and nutrition in every 1km. The race started at noontime, which was odd for triathlon but it made the bike and run stage perfect as the weather was getting cooler on the second lap of the bike. The view was just majestic, looking over as the sun set along the coastline of San Remigio beach. More than that, they used timing chip system (compared to manual timing by other organizers), the giveaways were endless from running caps, finisher's shirt, dri-fit shirt, bike cover, bib holder and a beautiful tri bag. The medals were gorgeous. To cap it all, the after party and awarding ceremony had free flowing food and drinks with live bands to enliven the night.

My congratulations to the people behind Cornerstone Group in Steve and Maricel Maniquis, Quinito Moras, Joel Juarez, and Mayor Mariano Martinez. www.alanchoachuy.com

(FREEMAN)