With Russel at the Ceritos Public Library, California

Hanna's Family (Dennis, Trixia and Elijah)

Disneyland Tour

Disneyland/ California


Welcome to Disneyland

Weather was favorable when we visited the Disneyland yesterday afternoon. Together with Hanna, Dennis and Russel we toured the Disneyland area after having our lunch. This could have been a very fun and exciting trip if only the kids are with us. You can see people from all ages full of smiles in each and everyone's face. I guess it is not too late to visit this place even as you get older, may pakaway-kaway pa eh.

Disney Toy Store


Mickey Mouse Park


Disney Train

Los Angeles Triathlon D Day

Wave#10/ Age Group 50-54

The early morning breeze of the Venice Beach swept into my face as we arrived at around 4AM. I was earlier than I expected since most of the bike racks were vacant, and as usual in any triathlon races, the sorrounding was shrouded with darkness.

Wave#1, Professional triathletes was the first to hit the water at around 6:45am. Five minutes later, Wave#2 the Professional Women was the second group to hit the 67'F cold pacific water. Wave#3 belonged to the Elite Amateurs, followed by Waves of succeeding Age Groupers which eventually leads into Wave#10 where my contingent age division 50-54yrs old belongs. There were a total of 12 Waves, a diverse talent of triathletes from Professionals to Age Groupers or Weekend Warriors, like me.

More than 2000 fitness enthusiasts joined the L.A.Triathlon, with 1111 participated in the Olympic Distance Category and the rests were signed in Sprint Distance, Team Triathlon and Bike only categories.
It was only few minutes before the start of the race when I finally came to decide whether to use the wetsuit or not. I had to weigh in the precious time I was to lose versus facing the intense bashing of the water at the shoreline. The longer our Wave#10 group waited for our turn to plunge, the harsher the tide seemed to be growing. Not to mention the delay and some unavoidable glitch the organizer had to face as the race progress', a mixture of anxiety and angst gripped my bone as we waited for our turn to attack the water.
As I predicted, I was constantly battered by the waves as I enter the water. I felt my arms and legs cramps approximately 100 meters from the start of the swim, probably because of insufficient warm up and uneasiness before the race.
About 300 meters after we started and as we reached the first buoy, the water turned a little calmer. Every stroke was so smooth and I felt like gliding along the wave in between distances 400 to 1,400 meter of the swim, until the time we reached shoreline where the big waves was at us again. Plummeting and stumbling, the swimmers staggered their way back into the shallow shore of the Venice beach. To my estimate, at times tide were as high as 10~15ft., as there were some surfers enjoying the waves at the other end of the beach.

I had the best ride of my life when the bike portion ran smoothly as we traversed the length of Venice Blvd. , Hollywood, Sunset Blvd., where an endless number cyclist were visible as we passed by the famous L.A. Boulevards. To my estimate, I must had passed more than 300 cyclist on my way to transition#2. The whole right lane were closed to accomodate the cyclist enroute to the Staples Center, L.A., where the Transition#2 and Finish Line was located.
The run portion of the triathlon was painless as I ran the remaining 10 km. with enough energy from my stockpile. I could have broken the 3 hour time if only I pulled harder since I managed to run at a faster pace on my way to the last 2km of the run with 10minutes to spare upon achieving the 3hour time.

It was during the bike portion when I came to realized that an athletes' appearance or looks can be deceiving. I was initially intimidated by the appearance and bike set-up of some triathletes. But as we moved along the bike portion of the triathlon, I've got to passed by those fit looking triathletes and highly priced bikes that I've seen at the beginning of the race.
The moral of the story is , "Do not judge a book by its cover, because it is better for the triathletes to race without a cover."

Los Angeles Triathlon, Venice Beach. Sept.7, 2008

Olympic Distance Finish at the Staple Center

Off To Los Angeles Triathlon

Finally, it is the day of my travel to California for the L.A. triathlon. It's been 4 years since i last visited California. It was sort of business trip, a training for the then newly introduced Canon copiers where I attended the Canon Support training at the facilty in Irvine,California.
This time is a personal trip.
My Northwest Airline flight to Japan, where I am to get my connecting flight was delayed! And you know what causes the delay of the flight? POWER OUTAGE!Ai, Adeey!!Nobody is now exempt from this failure. A failure that is now emblematic to

CNMI government inefficiencies. What a shame! I can feel at the airport all the frustrations of Japanese tourist because of this outage. Oh well. Thanks to Weng's free VIP Hafa Adai Lounge voucher. I had a "eat all you can" free snacks at the lounge for the rest of power outage...The TSA inspectors had to checked our carry-on bags manually which literally created a line up to main entrance of the airport.

Japan to Honolulu is the next segment of my trip. I was supposed to visit Honolulu next month, in time for the Xterra World Champioship in Maui, but then decided to join instead this LA triathlon where I am now heading. My first time to be in Narita International Airport where the athmosphere is a bit different compared to Nagoya Airport where I had a lay-over flight last May 2008 on my way to Manila. Narita Airport looks more modern compared to Nagoya Airport, but just the same both airport has plenty of Japanese. Jokex3.

Honolulu to Los Angeles, last part of my trip. As I've heard so many times about U.S. air transportations services, my Delta Airline flight was delayed for almost two hours, and the more than 5 hours of travel was spent mostly playing solitaire using the built-in monitor installed on each rear side of the passenger seat. No in-flight movie on my monitor, as the flight attendant announced that movies can only be viewed in selected monitors because of "technical difficulty". However, we are free daw to move into other seat and look for a functioning monitor. How can you move around if those other seats are already assigned to passengers!!!Laaanyyaaa!!

L.A. Triathlon

XTERRA TRIATHLON SAIPAN SERIES 2005

Less than a week before my departure to Los Angeles,CA.... .So excited to join my first triathlon outside Saipan. It was year 2000 when I first started joining triathlon competition in Saipan. First was the Tagaman triathlon (2km swim, 60km bike and 15km.run), then followed by Rota triathlon and Xterra Triathlon where I recently qualified to Xterra World Championship in Maui, Hawaii. I've been planning for years to join the Asian International Triathlon in Subic, Zambales but I always ran into glitch when everything seem to be set and ready...
This time, theres no more stopping! Ticket is ready, registration to LA triathlon has been paid and the most important thing, my body is now ready. Just in time to peak for the race to reach my target time. 3 hours and 30 minutes is okay. 3hrs and 15 is good, less than 3hrs is best.
Just hope for the best and an "injury free" race.

Pinoy Contract Worker Missing

It is now a month since Alex Matubis was reported missing. He was last seen July 29, coming from Tinian, and was reported missing 2 days later. Until now there's still no news of his whereabout. A lot of Pinoy workers here in Saipan are asking me concerning any development of my "friend". Actually, he is not my friend or acquaintance, it only happen that I was the one who first posted his disappearance and made it announced to the Northern Mariana Islands Triathlon Federation (NMITF)website, since I know that members of this group are the ones who often venture out in the boonies or tangan-tangans(forest).True to my insinuation, the NMITF group members found the Toyota pick-up last driven by Alex....The sad thing is that a Malacanang cabinet member was in Saipan the last 2 days and I doubt if this missing case was reported by the Saipan Philippine Consulate Office to the Malacanang official.

crystal clear blue water of saipan

DAY 1

Day 1 of my blogging....I dont why I am into this world of web communication. Maybe it is because of my curiousity. I have read and heard a lot about this....
To start with, let me first introduce my self...

I am Manny Sitchon, a Filipino currently residing here in the Island of Saipan. Way back 1999 when I first arrived, and just most OFW would say" I never thought my stay here would last this long". No regret, this island is a "paradise" as many people would say...We have very beautiful beaches, a lot better compared to what we have in the Philippines, with exception of course with the likes of Bocaray, Palawan, etc.., astounding sunset. Yes, sunset, I love sunset! Especially watching it from the beach road portion near the Oleai Becah Bar/Grill..Clean air is another thing Saipan has a lot, where doing an afternoon or morning run is world class because of the unsullied and refreshing air of the island.