It was a rainy day, yet students and other runners still arrived at the Fort Bonifacio to participate in what was said to be one of the cleanest and most organized runs! Last July 8, 2012, I was among the 15,000++ runners who participated in a fun run organized by Athletes-in-Action called Schools Run for Schools Room!
The run was composed of mostly students from different schools and universities who all wanted to run for a cause and help build classrooms for the kids of Iligan City. Several times, when schools were asked to participate, the fun run turns out to be slightly chaotic and disorganized simply because the students didn’t really care much for the run and were just there for the incentive their teachers must have offered them. Today however was not at all as I expected. Though the first timers and several students would stop halfway, take pictures etc….they still somehow practiced proper running etiquette. Most if not all of them wanted to do their part to help the victims of Illigan city!
Aside from students from various universities in Metro Manila who came by buses, celebrities also graced the occasion to show their support to the run for the rehabilitation of schoolrooms in Typhoon Sendong-hit places in Iligan City through the Kapuso Foundation. Such celebrities were Tim Yap, Borgy Manotoc, Georgina Wilson and Fabio Ide amongst others. Philippine Sports Pride Coach Elma Muros, paddlers from the Philippine Canoe Kayak
Federation.
Those who unleashed the power of their feet also included TESDA Secretary Joel Villanueva, who also extended the President’s greetings and led in the gun start and awarding ceremonies. Also present were FILA big bosses, Butch and Cris Albert who were all out in their support of the program; Cibac Partylist Representative Sherwin Tugna and wife, Joni Tugna who is also the executive director of iCare Foundation, another beneficiary of the advocacy run. The event was hosted by Izza Litton and ended with beautiful music from singer Acel Van Omen.
My Schools Run for School Rooms Experience
I joined the 5k runners and was pretty impressed with the route. I honestly don’t like routes with too many turns…and for fun runs done in BGC, that’s usually the case. Schools Run for Schools Room however, only had an average of 2 turns for the 5k run! I was really really happy about that.
Some things though that could be improved on though is the number of water stations for each race category. Though the average runner should only drink a glass of water per 5km, most runners here were newbies and hence felt dehydrated after only running 2km or so. Runners who ran longer distances also have the same sentiment. I also heard a bunch of complaints regarding the lack of marshals or signs during the run. Some 10k runners even got lost as a result. Lastly, the gun start which was originally set at around 5:00am for the 10k runners was late and runners only took off at around 5:30.
I guess the run still has a lot to improve on but I also see all these as part of the learning process. After all, you can’t achieve greatness without committing a few mistakes here and there first right? Overall, I still think the race went pretty well. The camaraderie and the spirit of giving to help build schools for Iligan City was present throughout the run and I guess that’s really what mattered the most. Everyone, especially the runners and organizers did what they could for the run with good intentions in each one’s heart.
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Till the next run for a cause! Congratulations to FILA and Athletes-in-Action! :)
