Rowell Paner - Lutopan, Toledo City, Cebu
This Abu Dhabi-based bisdak recently completed one of the [adjective, adjective, adjective] trail races in the world, the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc - TDS! Tough race, but Ruh-well (Rowell) is tougher, four adjectives in fact - he's a bisdak, what do you expect? He qualified for TDS by completing Oman by UTMB - another super technical off-road ultra, which also turned out to be his favorite race so far.
Although his impressive CV says otherwise, Rowell does not consider himself a veteran of the sport since he only started trail running in 2016, and his first trail race was, you guessed it, Pamutan Marathon. He was one of those who only wanted to try trail running but eventually dropped everything else and shifted the crosshairs to even bigger trail races.
Asked about his training plan, he says he is not really as strava-religious as many of us but he makes sure he does quality road runs every other day and on weekends, he travels 3-4 hours to the nearest trails and spend quality vert and mileage out in the wild. And he consistently follows this routine even if he is not preparing for a race. (It is wise to take note of that part, but first you have to get out of bed and lace up!) We know he is a Lutopan, Toledo City native, that's already a pedigree as it is the home of many Cebuano ultra champs, but the work he puts in despite being a busy OFW is nothing short of amazing.
His raceday nutrition plan is simple. He eats. A lot. His go-to food in the pack is actually anything GU-branded. Chews, gels, tabs, cookies. But he only grabs them in between stations, if at all... and he's not really a gel guy - he prefers bringing a ziplock bag and grab some food from the station than carrying a lot of these stuff. Big climb require big calories, he says. His weapons of choice are nothing fancy. He wears Saucony trail shoes and Salomon GTX Ultra. He goes for anything that actually works for him. It's not the pana, it's the injan!
Rowell is now setting his eyes on Salomon Cappadocia Ultra Trail (119K), part of the Ultra Trail World Tour series, which will take place on Oct 19-20, 2019 in Turkey, and Oman by UTMB in November 2019.
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