Last Sunday, I joined Takbo.ph/Reinier Pacific International Aid Station with two goals in mind. First, to cheer marathoners/half marathoners as they crossed our station, to provide fruits, liniment and petroleum jelly, with the latter becoming my main task that day. I must admit my task was very unusual, on the first few hours of the race, I was the only person from the team holding that piece of plastic with Petroleum Jelly on it. There were only a few runners who would passed by to get some slab and apply PJelly on their body. I find it funny as I observed some of them used it. Some runners would apply it in their hands like as if its some kind of hand lotion, some would apply it in their arms and the worst when I heard somebody shouted “nye petroleum jelly pla to! yuck!”. I guess the runner thought it was some kind of energy gel. Although my task was boring, however I did enjoy it and find it very amusing. I had a blast that day as we worked in tandem. Personally I was happy to give back the support I got from them when I joined my first marathon. As part of the support team, I realize that there are things that need to be improved next time:
- We should have some sort of dividing line so we don’t end up occupying a huge portion of the road. Many times a marshal from Milo would be reminding us to back-off a little bit as we’re almost blocking runner’s way.
- When providing fruits, stick to your location and let them decide if they should get it or not. There’s an instance wherein some of us would run after the runner when he/she missed the fruit.
- Provide a location (at least 2 meters away from the main road) where runners can go to have liniment sprayed on their legs. What we did last Sunday was we sprayed liniment on the same road where they ran. We realized later that it made the road very slippery as some liquid from the ointment found its way to the road’s surface. We did a simple “fix” by putting cartons over the slippery section of the road.
I observed as part of the support team was that whenever runners would see us, they would smile back and acknowledged our presence; or raised their arms as if they already crossed the finish line; and from what I’ve noticed they seemed to run faster after they crossed our station! I asked Milo Marathon 42km champ Cris Sabal and asked him if cheering really did help runner and his reply was “Pare laking tulong yun, nakakaboost tlaga ng morale. Dapat ganyan lagi gawin nten sa mga marathon run para tumaas standard nten katulad sa ibang bansa”. From all the runners blog I read, it seems that they love what we’ve done. I hope this will become regular fixtures in our road races.
Another important thing I was able to observe was the marathoner’s form. They are all very lean (especially the first batch of runners) and muscled! Not a single soul I saw with extra fat layer of skin in their abs. Their calves and quads were screaming mad! Their facial expression as I saw them from afar was relaxed and so with their breathing. Some ran “tall” (e.g straight body) with very quick leg turn-over while majority were leaning forward from their ankle up while running (Pinoy marathoners here are Chi/Pose practitioners?) with a higher back-kick. One thing they have in common, they all seemed to run effortlessly.
I must admit I have this “inggit” factor when I saw them. I promise myself to do good on next year’s Milo elimination round so I can join finals and be part of the very few Milo finalist here in our country. I mean c’mon this is our version of Boston Marathon yeah? So come Milo Elimination next year, I will do all my best to go sub 4…I must be there!
I would like to thank Sir Amado and Reiner Pacific team for the breakfast and delicious lunch that day. Kudos to fellow takbo.ph support people for the help, we did great! I hope we can do this more often!
Pictures by Emil Ancheta:
- Me and my petroleum jelly
- Takbo.ph Team
Related posts:
tin
on Oct 14th, 2009
@ 3:22 am:
sam next time fruits nalang wag na petroleum jelly
haha!
Marvin
on Oct 14th, 2009
@ 3:32 am:
Great article Sam (aka Mr. Petroleum Jelly)! Sayang you didn’t notice the cute girl who was looking for petroleum jelly when she passed by. She was able to get na towards the end of our long aid station and applied it to her underarms.
I would have to agree with you that we made a lot of runners smile and gave them an extra boost when they passed by our aid station.
Until our next support group! 
kelcy33
on Oct 14th, 2009
@ 3:34 am:
hahaha, the jelly man! quite a task but you look cool dude, parang artista lang ah, hahaha!.. next time, try giving them hammer gel..tosyal!
“Pare laking tulong yun, nakakaboost tlaga ng morale. Dapat ganyan lagi gawin nten sa mga marathon run para tumaas standard nten katulad sa ibang bansa”. – yeah, i guess this is what we lack here in metro. but i heard in provinces, say, the one they joined in San Pablo, i think the people there really cheered for the runners.. And yeah, i also read some posts of those who joined the Half Ironman in CamSur, that they had a taste of the so-called Filipino congeniality/hospitality…they felt like a rockstar. Here in metro, i think for the better part of your run, most of the people are just plain irritated because of the traffic being caused by these races..tsk, tsk..
Luis Arcangel
on Oct 14th, 2009
@ 5:17 am:
Wahahaha
Nice on petroleum jelly man! 
Next year takbo na sam 
carmen
on Oct 14th, 2009
@ 5:37 am:
A good cheer or boost never fails! Whether in a marathon, at work or school, in our relationships. It’s refreshing to receive praises and encouragement. Good job on the petroleum jelly! It sure is irritating to have skin chafing! I hate that when it happens it can be distracting actually. hehehe.. (Have you tried BodyGlide? That’s what I use.)
Alfred / El Kyoshi
on Oct 14th, 2009
@ 7:21 am:
Thanks Sam and to the rest of the group!
I can never thank you all enough for the cheering and the support. Pang rock star talaga!
Some people, instead of cheering, would make very interesting comments. One was: “Hoy ang tangkad mo, bakit ka nagja-jogging? Dapat basketball!” Obviously, he has never had fun running
Next year sabay tayo sa Elims!
markhernz
on Oct 14th, 2009
@ 8:39 am:
Many thanks for the support! It was a great boost, and gave me the much needed second wind!
Bald Runner
on Oct 14th, 2009
@ 11:33 am:
sam, thanks for cheering us! i was able to see you on my way to The Fort. this kind of volunteer aid stations should be encouraged whenever we have marathon races in the country. at least, we are starting to raise the level of quality of our races. see you at the starting line!
wilson
on Oct 14th, 2009
@ 2:51 pm:
it’s really nice seeing you give something back to the running community. hope i could do that someday too. for now, on behalf of the runners that day, i’d like to say thanks man! to you and the rest of the support group! your presence meant a lot to us!
admin
on Oct 14th, 2009
@ 11:06 pm:
Hahahah oo nman para maiba heheehhe
admin
on Oct 14th, 2009
@ 11:07 pm:
Thanks Marvin, I should have shifted to the next lane for those runners going back. Kaso my bantay na eh hehehehe. See you!
admin
on Oct 14th, 2009
@ 11:07 pm:
Agree Ellen,
It was a huge help for runners to hear us cheer for the. See you!
admin
on Oct 14th, 2009
@ 11:08 pm:
Yeah planning to go sub-4 for eliminations…kaw din!
admin
on Oct 14th, 2009
@ 11:09 pm:
I’m not aware that BodyGlide is available here in the Philippines. Cge will look for it, san ka nakabili?Been looking for it actually. Thanks for the visit!
admin
on Oct 14th, 2009
@ 11:09 pm:
OO nga dami nga nakapansin kaw yata pinakamatangkad dun na tumatakbo! Hahahaha. Yeah thanks and see you again!
admin
on Oct 14th, 2009
@ 11:10 pm:
Thanks for being the first person to use my petroleum jelly too hehehehe
admin
on Oct 14th, 2009
@ 11:11 pm:
See you sir. It was an honour to serve the running community.
admin
on Oct 14th, 2009
@ 11:12 pm:
Hi Idol!
Thanks for the visit. Great form! You run faster on the last turn around ah. Wish I could do negative split like you.
See you!
Amado L. Castro, Jr.
on Oct 15th, 2009
@ 7:33 am:
Dear Sam – Very nice points on how to improve. We shall do it next time. Meantime, better stick with “petroleum jelly” as your specialty mara very unique! Thank you for keeping the group lively last Sunday.
tigerboy
on Oct 16th, 2009
@ 11:29 am:
Nice post… Thanks pre… and to takbo.ph / reinier pacific peeps… it was indeed a great boost to all runners to pass/see that kind of aid station… next time!!!
? i mean what this petroleum jelly for
on Nov 2nd, 2009
@ 3:37 pm:
I was a runner also for the past 20 years in the philippines before landing a job abroad. i’m just asking about this petroleum jelly. i am not familiar of this…kindly reply if what is this for? i mean for a runner to apply petroleum jelly? God bless and more power sir!
admin
on Nov 2nd, 2009
@ 11:27 pm:
It’s suppose to avoid chaffing on your body.