Rock and Run, Rain and Run

At exactly 5 PM, there was already a thunder storm in Quezon City. Family kept on prodding me not race anymore. “Baka daw matamaan ako ng kidlat!” I had to “lie” and tell them it wasn’t raining at the Fort to be able to get my ticket to proceed.

There was very heavy downpour as soon as I got to the race site. Until the last minute, I was hoping they would not push through with the race because the lighting, flooded Fort streets and heavy traffic looked very hazardous to the runners. 2 minutes before 6pm, they started with the 10K race, with me still in my car. I had to sprint out and push all the 5K runners blocking my way just to catch up with the 10K crowd.

Indeed, 50 meters from the starting line, I was already drenched. Rain poured so hard, it was very painful to the face and arms. It was hard to run on wet socks and shoes. It was a challenge to avoid puddles and flooded street corners. It was even harder to sift through the traffic as well as vehicles suddenly driving through closed roads for the race. “Mga Pilipino nga naman oo!” Drivers do not care if they hit a runner, as long as they find a better route to get away from heavy traffic! Tsk tsk.

I commend the race organizers for fixing such a fun race. Rain or shine, “tuloy pa rin ang laban!” Water was adequate (forget the fact that I had gastroenteritis an hour after the race because I took a sip from a water cup with 50% Maynilad water and 50% rain water!) I’d like to think race marshals were well distributed as well. They did their best, they just did not expect to handle heavy traffic and see cars enter closed roads. What I liked about the race was that they put up stages with music/ band around the route to entertain the runners. Though it was pouring very hard, I would like to laud the JCI members positioned by the stage as they tried to cheer and give encouragement to the runners! Galing talaga!

I think it was a fun race. From start to finish, though drenched, I could see runners enjoying every minute of it!