My Great (?) Filipino (Running) Adventure

I considered putting my blog to private around this time; however the current "position" (not official) of the U.S. Military is to encourage service members to talk about their military experiences. This helps the public see the good we are doing, and also provides a positive public image. Considering also that I have a very small "public" viewing, and knowing with Facebook that I couldn't hide the fact that I was deployed, I decided to leave my blog public.
On Wednesday, August 10th I said "Aloha" to Hawaii and flew into the Philippines. My first stop was to Manila. I spent a couple of days here with my predecessor (Jon) learning about some of the things I will be responsible for on this deployment. This is the view from my hotel room (The Peninsula...VERY NICE)We got to stop by the U.S. Embassy for a little big, and of course we had to take a picture. Interestingly enough, as soon as we took the picture, as soon as we took this picture, we found out from security that photography is not allowed in front of the Embassy. Still they were nice enough to let us keep the picture.
After a few days in Manila, we flew to the former Clark Air Base (in Angeles City) for some more orientation and transition. The mountain in the picture is NOT Mount Pinatubo (famous for its 1991 eruption), but because it is the most significant feature of the landscape, we like to pretend that it is. We arrived in Angeles City on Monday, and I decided to start running after a brief hiatus due to travelling. There was a treadmill in the hotel's "gym". Really, it was more like a sweat-box. There was no A/C and the heat from the sun was easily trapped in the small room. Running was TOUGH. Just as hard, was that the treadmill used metric units, so I had to convert my kilometers into miles (after all this isn't "1930.8 in 2011"). During the two days we were there, I managed to get two runs in on the treadmill. By far, that was some of the hottest temperatures I've ever run in.
From Clark we made the Short Drive to Subic Bay, which is both a popular sea port and tourist destination. We stayed in a villa...incredibleThe last stop was to my "Home away from Home" for the next 6 months, Zamboanga City on the island of Mindanao. To tell you the truth, I'm not really sure if this picture was taken as we were leaving Subic Bay or landing in Zamboanga, but I thought it was a good picture. After one trip to the Dining Facility, I knew I couldn't slack off on my running or else I was going to get fat, so I wasted no time getting back on the treadmill. Our camp is too small to run in (plus the air quality is poor from burning trash), but there are a few treadmills, so between when we landed on Wednesday, and for the remainder of Week 33 I squeezed in 4 more runs.

My total mileage for Week 33 was:
Total Runs Logged: 6
Total Miles:31.6
Total Time Spent Running: 3 hours, 52 minutes, and 21 seconds
Average Pace:7:21 (min/mile)

I attribute the speed directly to running on a treadmill. I don't cheat on the treadmill either by grabbing onto the sides, but by forcing myself to run at a pace slightly out of my comfort zone, I'll get faster.

Since Week 26, my totals are:
Total Runs Logged: 35
Total Miles: 178.7
Total Time Spent Running: 23 hours, 31 minutes, 33 seconds
Average Pace: 7:53 (min/mile)
That means my new total mileage through Week 33 is 927.

Stick around for Week 34 (another 100% treadmill week) coming very soon. I'll also talk about about my "deployed life" in the Philippines