2016 was a year of change. Change does not come easy. It’s a road filled with struggles and failures but when you own up to your responsibilities, you’ll always find a way to succeed. Lessons were learned and those would come in handy in 2017.
Year of The Franc XI
Towards the end of the year, I got a chance to visit my Lola at Bario Mamat-ing in La Union. It was the site of a lot of childhood summers fun. Things were simple. We’d wake up, play all day, get dirty and call it a great day. Well, my life is far from simple. In 2016, I made it even more complicated. I started my own Company while still working full time. I started a new website. Through the website, we organized our own race. I still had my training load as well as regular races. To this day, I don’t know how I got past everything but I do feel how difficult it was to try to juggle so many things. Having the Annual Year of the Franc post makes me appreciate the past 12 months including people who lent a helping hand along the way.
FrancRamon Enterprises Inc.
The first few months of setting up my own corporation was humbling. It was a big feat being able to start but the first lessons of business I got was reality is always far from expectation. It wasn’t a walk in the park as I am the President, CFO, Accountant, Messenger, Driver and a lot more on my own Company. I hope it will expand one day but I am learning a lot from this venture. Business is a game of innovation and always learning and finding ways of reaching out to your market. I need to spend more time growing the business come 2017.
The Trail is My Playground
The Story of 2016 was my growing love for the trails. For the first quarter, I still was doing my routine races but when I started building up for Cordillera Mountain Run in June, it was trail love all over. I was in the trails on a weekly basis and I was happy to visit a lot of new trails and growing my Tale of The Trail database. Whether you are fast or slow on the trail, you learn to adopt faster the longer you stay in the trails. Even after the race, it became routine now spending weekends at the trails or joining races.
PinoyTrails.Com
Pinoy Trails was born out of the love of the trails. Together with several like minded persons, we founded Pinoy Trails. We wanted it to be a forum where trail runners, mountaineers and trail enthusiast can share their stories and create a trail database to further promote the trails. It’s always difficult to start but we’re slowly sending out message. We’re slowly expanding our presence in trail events and also had our very own event, Sierra Trail Adventure Race to raise the brand awareness of Pinoy Trails.
Sierra Trail Adventure Race
Sierra Trail Adventure Race gave me the highest and lowest moment of my year. Having your event cancelled by the typhoon was really depressing. We got rid of the negativity, regrouped and started planning a great race. The highlight of that journey was having people around you who are passionate enough to help without expecting anything in return. Honestly, we didn’t have much to offer since all the budget was gone even before the first staging. With the very light environment and happy runners on race day, it made all the tough times before worth it. We did learn a lot but I’m glad we had a group who took ownership of the responsibility and made it successful.
The Running Lifestyle
If there was something that partially took the backseat, it was my running lifestyle. I was able to join 20 races but the bulk of it were on trails. I opted to rest my injuries towards the last quarter of the year in preparation to bigger and badder 2017 races. Even with less races, I still ensured that I still get my regular dose of calories burned.
FrancRamon.Com
While I still get my regular traffic, my own site has also taken a backseat with my busy schedule. Though somehow, it’s also something I wanted. I don’t want to over post on my site that it loses it’s personal touch. I also invested time on my site in previous year that it can generate its own traffic. I guess we’re in for a leaner and meaner Francramon.Com in 2017.
Bucket List
I had several out of the country trips during the year with trips to Taiwan, China, Singapore and Japan. Japan would be the highlight of my year in travel. While I don’t really officially have a bucket list hiking Mount Fuji is definitely worthy to be included in the list. I personally make sure I do get at one big vacation or out of the country hike per year. 2016 would be the year for Fuji. I was also able to visit Catanduanes, which was a beautiful as Batanes.
Towards Year 2017
A year always starts and ends in my home town, Baguio City. Family will always be the one constant in your life the you can count on. Honestly, I feel tired and burned out towards the end of 2016. Having to mix up so many things can really take the energy right out of you. The lessons came in 2016. 2017 will be smoother with the right focus and the right mindset. It’s time to make life a lot simpler.
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