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A day before the race event, I remember seating near the end-section of the bus on my way to work when a mother assisting what look like a teenager sat in the empty space beside me. As the teenager was about to seat, he accidentally hit my knee with his elbow. I looked at his face, expecting some sort of apology but nothing happened. As I was not in the mood that time to engage in some conversation with him for that, I just closed my eyes and tried my best to sleep. Few minutes later, I heard him whispering in robot voice. He was playing with his hands and I noticed he can’t straighten out his fingers. Every ten minutes he would say “Mommy, mommy” but he would not look at his mother’s face. The mother would just embrace him, like giving him some sort of assurance.

As I wasn’t able to sleep, I spent the entire hour observing him. Several questions pop up in my mind. What’s the future will be like for him? Is he going to be a productive citizen in our community? Is he going to be dependent on his mom for the rest of his life? Any company or institutions dedicated to raising funds for them? Fortunately, only few of them exist, one of which is LET IT SHINE FOUNDATION, a non-profit organization dedicated to raising funds for individuals diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Individuals with autism vary widely in abilities, intelligence and behaviors. Although most of them require some form of assistance or supervision throughout their lives, some interventions have made it possible for others to develop the skills they need to live independent lives, including the opportunity to work.

So they had this fund-raising run last Sunday where I was one of the participants in the 15km category. For the first time in my running career, I wore the race singlet on that day. For a charity run, I was expecting another so-so singlet but I was really happy I wore it because it’s very comfortable. As I was planning to “race” in this run, my main objective was to look for people to pace with. Unfortunately, only few “regulars” were in for this run. I only saw sir Rene (aka JazzRunner) and Ate Roselle (Running Diva) among the blogger-runners circle. Was this indicative that runners would rather support another company’s marketing effort than help a charity? Or maybe the php500 registration fee is too high? Or maybe a Saturday race was really a bad choice to conduct a race as most people probably still have a hangover from the previous day’s activities (e.g Friday night gimmick). I really don’t know the answer. Fortunately, I saw Taki and I noticed he was the 6min/km official pacer. My plan then was to run as far away as possible from him, with the intention of improving my previous (also my first) 15km result of 1:38 from Mizuno Infinity Run several months ago.

The race started late (6am instead of 5:45am) and I believe there were less than 300 runners for the 15km race. We passed thru the several roads going to Market! Market! Lawton, Bayanihan, Heritage then back to The Fort. I finished the race in 1:20:44 (unofficial), an 18 minutes improvement from my previous race.

Here’s my observation of the race
Organizer: Elite Multi-Sport Resources

Good:
Nice Singlet
Breakfast after the race
Plenty of water and vit water along the route.
Plenty of water and vit water after the race. I probably drank three Vitwater after the race finished.

To Improve:
Late start. It’s supposed to start at 5:45am. Race started past 6 am.
Not enough marshals. I found myself dealing with jeepneys and cars along the race route with very few marshals to direct traffic. Almost got hit by a car.
Race Bib. The material they used for the race bib is a typical “sticker” type of paper. Yeah, at the back of the race bib, you can peel one section and attach it unto your singlet. I thought that was a bad idea and even if it has four holes for the safety pins, I find myself stopping several times to attach it back to my singlet.

In general, I still enjoy this race because of its objective, the free breakfast and a new PR. See you all on Sunday’s big event- New Balance Power Run!

Related posts:

1. Race & Shine: A Charity Run to help others help themselves
2. Earth Day Run 2010 Race Review
3. Southern Race at ATC

Tags: autism, Race and Shine