Last July, I had fun watching Tour de France 2011. I was so amazed how these professional cyclists were able to ride around France in 21 days in an average distance of 150 kilometer per stage in 5 hours (the numbers are rough estimate). Aside from the cyclists and their advanced lightweight bike, I was also fascinated with the scenery along their routes.
MY PAL, ROO-1. Yes, I am biker. I even named my mountain bike 'Roo-one'. We rode more than 500 kilometers already since I bought him last April 2010. The longest ride we had was the Centennial Ride (120km) -- from IT Park to Manipis, Talisay, Casuy, Toledo to Balamban, and back to IT Park through Cebu Transcentral Highway. We already rode on single tracks and climbed some mountains of Cebu City.
Since it was too late for me to join this event and France is way too far, I told myself, “Why not have Tour de Cebu?”. But it’s going to be different this time because I won’t ride a bike. Many bikers and cyclists have done that already. Instead, I will tour around Cebu Island on foot before the year ends.
I consulted this idea to my Mie-chan and she gave me a very positive feedback. Using Google Map, I looked for a Cebu map and measured the total distance of the whole Island, which is approximately 477km.
Map of Cebu
Since I’m working on weekdays, I planned to do the run-tour on Saturdays. I checked my calendar and realized that I only have 22 weekends left before the year ends. So, like Tour de France, Tour de Cebu will also have 21 stages. Every stage will cover 25 kilometers. I have no particular target finish time for every stage because my goal is to run and tour around Cebu regardless of time.
I opened this plan to the Runnroo and they all agreed to join. We then decided to do it after the Kawasan Falls Marathon.
Tour de Cebu successfully kicked off last August 6, 2011 and we already finished three stages as of this posting. Only 19 stages to go.
Tour de Cebu is not just a personal goal. It is now our team’s goal. If one of us finish all 21 stages before the year ends, it will be an achievement of all members. Just like Tour de France, the success of team’s GC (Général Classement) is a success of all teammates.
Team Runnroo, bonne chance!!!
The 4-1 Runner
[…] Joseph, Paolo, Jean, Odina and I started running together last year, none of us thought of anything else but finish the tour around Cebu island on foot. At some point […]