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Women Trail Runners

I have a real admiration for women trail runners, they are like beautiful swans in the water. They look fragile from the outside but inside you can sense they are really fearless and fighters. They fear not even the dark forests, the high mountain to climb, the cliffs, the raging river and all the elements that can be found in the forest. They run with grace and calm that is electrifying even to men of steel and rocks.

In two straight years of covering Nature's Trail Discovery Run Trilogy Championship series by Pimco Sporting Events, I have seen many women trail runners who crossed over from the glamor of road running to the extreme sport of trail running. Sometimes you will now they are new in trail running because they come to the race event still wearing their favorite running get ups as if they will simply run the road. Yes even in trail running they look glamorous, stylish, and trendy. They are awesome in their individual style and look of a runner. I take photos and anxiously await their return in the finish line from long distance trail routes that cover dozens of kilometers for every category and like the organizer I pray for their safety. Sometimes I wonder where they are getting the guts to dare the natural obstacles they faced in the mountains yet lo and behold when they get to the finish they will almost instantaneously display satisfaction they get in finishing the distances. Sometimes like men they pump fist in the air and jump in moment of triumph. Nothing I think gives satisfaction to the women runner than finishing what she started. Anything short of it is a disappointment to the runner thus pushing oneself to the limit is heroic act of conquest - beating one's own limitations. Its not about winning its about finishing.

By its simplicity Nature's Trail Discovery Run or NTDR provides the stage for the drama that unfolds in every race. When I watch and take photos at the sideline, I feel like watching a teledrama in television complete with the set and beautiful actors and actresses. But this is real, this is raw, this is extreme as it can get, this is Trail Running and I love every minute and hours that passed until the last man or woman comes into the finish line. From the early hour in the morning at past 12:00 in the morning they start to come and converge until the starting line are filled up with excited runners and in each race, more women are joining, their numbers grow in every season of NTDR and I guess they will grow more in the upcoming NTDR III Trilogy Championship series starting with the 1st Leg on May 25, 2014. With the possibility and a chance of anyone making it to the Pimco-Tanay Philippines Trail Running Team, I can sense the races to have more intensity and more drama. Trail running is not just a sport, its entertainment for the runner and the family that most often join them and cheer for them. I have watched and seen it many times and Im sure there will be lots of it in the most awaited return in season 3 of the very successful trail running race event, the NTDR III Trilogy Championship.

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