Run and bike from/to Makati-Cubao

The other day, I had a discovery of sorts. I’ve really been wanting to do some running in the evenings, especially as it becomes cooler these past few nights. I sort of envy the joggers running around Salcedo village everytime I go out after work. I was thinking doing the same thing, maybe run an hour or so around the village. As I drove home that night, for some reason, I set the car odometer and recorded the distance from the office in Makati to Cubao where I live: 9.8 kms. I realized suddenly that this is precisely the hour’s worth of running I was looking for; I promptly decided to try this out the following day.

The next day, after office at around 8pm, I went to the car inside the parking lot, changed into running gear, and proceeded to run, leaving the car overnight. There was a slight rain as I started, and it continued to drizzle all throughout. I passed through Makati avenue from dela Costa St., crossed the bridge to Mandaluyong, emerged into the city hall rotonda, then onwards through Nueve de Pebrero St. I crossed Shaw Boulevard, entered A. Mabini St., came out into Wilson, then went through these winding roads that end up in Santolan St, finally reaching our house in N. Domingo St, near Aurora boulevard. Time it took: 1hour 5 mins. Not bad, since the other Friday, it took me 2 hours, at the height of the evening rush hour, to traverse the same route by car.

The next day, I set out early, this time by bike, basically going through the same route. Time it took: around 35 minutes. This is about the same time it takes by car, with average traffic.

I repeated this exercise a couple of days later, i.e. last night:  leave car in Makati, run to Cubao, bike the next day back to Makati.

I consider this experiment a sucess and so I plan to go bike commuting next week. Riding by bike through the streets wasn’t really that bad as some people perceive it to be. It was no problem carrying clothes inside my backpack; I can get a shower in the gym in our office building; there’s a suitable place to park the bike in our office building; I have gotten the additional bike accessories necessary for bike commuting: lights, bike lock, saddle bag, spare tire. Let’s see how it works out next week.