Best places to swim, bike and run in Metro Manila

My esposo is planning on joining his very first triathlon this coming year 2009. He came across the blog of Groundhogdude and saw informative post about places where he can practice his swimming, biking and running skills. Though he'd been running and biking on the spots he mentioned, he is planning on practicing swimming in MASA. Read on, and it would be helpful. If you have additional list, just drop a comment. ;)

If you want to do a triathlon, you need to have the time as well as the place to do your swimming, biking, and running. It’s always tough to find time, especially if you have a day job and family and social commitments. As to the place, it would be most convenient if you live in a subdivision where you can do your biking and running safely. Otherwise, it’s really not easy, but I’ve come up with a list of places which are the best bets to go to.

Of course, you can always do your biking and running in the gym. However, few people (not including me) can endure an hour’s running on a treadmill or do a mind-numbing spinning class.

Swim - unless you’re a member of a country club, you’ll have to settle for public swimming pools. Basically, there are only two choices:

• Makati Aquatic Sports Arena (MASA) in Guadalupe, Makati - cleanest in Manila;  worker-friendly hours: opens at 8am, closes 8pm.


• ULTRA in Pasig - schedule is 8:30-11:30 am; 1:30 - 4:30 pm

Bike - you can bike anywhere, but for long rides, the best places are to be found in the hills east of Manila:

• Teresa/Antipolo


• Bugarin/Jala-jala - start at Coffeestop, go up Bugarin, go down around Jala-jala, good enough for 80km ride.


• Tanay, Rizal - the so-called foothills of Sierra Madre. Starting point is usually Burger King along Marcos Highway (after Sta. Lucia mall).

Running - plenty of places to run, especially inside subdivisions, but the following are popular choices:

• UP academic oval


• Marikina river park


• Makati - dela Costa / Valero St/ Velazquez park (for quick runs before and after office in Makati)


• Makati - Rockwell


• Fort Bonifacio

Having mentioned those places above, the best places to bike and run are subdivisions like Dasmarinas Village and Ayala Alabang. These have wide tree-lined avenues and they’re big enough to do a 5k or 10k run/bike circuit, anytime of the day. Not a resident or don’t know any one there? You can always pretend to be the caterer or the pest control guy.

This is just my list. If you know any other places, feel free to add in the comments.