“When it comes to running races there’s really not much that could piss a runner off. In my part I only two: late gunstart and lack of courtesy booths. That’s until this weekend’s race in the Kapamilya Run 2013 held in Cebu International Convention Center organized by no other than the ABS-CBN Cebu. Now, I hate running without the official singlets.
The race was quite an experience for me because I have never been so pissed off on how the pre-race activities were handled. It bled me not only to run without the event singlet but also to practically beg for a single racebib just to be allowed to run. Look the race was just minutes away from gunstart and I am still there on the line waiting for a singlet to come with no time to warm up:
The race, Kapamilya Run, is by no means a new one since this has been around for quite a few years already. Take note this is an event brought to us by ABS-CBN you know the biggest TV network on the country, so I was expecting a good glamorous and fantastic event from registration to awarding ceremonies. Oh c’mon they should have paid for a quality supplier for the singlets and held their booths at the nearby malls to claim the racekits, Not on their company turf which is quite far from Cebu. And that’s the end of the bad things that happened before the race.
It started with this when I accidentally picked the wrong shoe to wear, yeah the one which really hurts in the early kilometers. I think it was the rush to catch a ship that will take me to Cebu from town. I just didn’t noticed what shoes I’m wearing.
I signed up for the 15k category as a tune up race for next weekend’s Tacloban City Marathon where I’ll run my first half-marathon! And the race turned out to be just so okay. I ran strong that morning despite the wrong shoes and no warm-ups. I finished the race in a surprising 1 hour and 40 minutes, I targeted 2 hours so I’m very happy with the results.
The course was not really that easy because of the maddening turns and u-turns around the city of Mandaue. But it’s fun to be out there running in an unfamiliar road and absolutely no knowing how much kilometers left on the road. It was just plain blind running and sight seeing of the city without a care where the finish line might be.. that feeling of being lost.
But the highlight of the race is of course no other than the runners who took the pain of getting there to experience some more bodily pains so early in the morning. We are the strong 3-4 thousand people who went there and worked out our assess. It’s just so much fun to be around with runners of every levels and walks of life, it’s as if I’m in a community of people with shared passion. The smiles, the excitement, the shoes and the many story behind all those runners; one can never be alone in a fun run. It really is a Kapamilya run.
So overall it’s still a successful run. I made a few friends, meet some personalities, discovered a new crush in the name of Monica Orellano (a dancer and an artist!) and set a new PR. What can I ask for more?
This race review is also published on my blog: http://lapiskamay.wordpress.com/2013/06/18/kapamilyarun/” .
Lester Glenn Tabada
