I only got to know this particular race last week Wednesday and when I realized it’s a “family-run”, I immediately signed up with the intention of helping my wife familiarize about the racing community. She has not seen nor experienced any actual race and so I thought this would be a great opportunity for her to do so and together with our son, a family bonding moment would be a good idea.

Right after I parked my car at Ospital ng Manila (500 meters from the Start Line), I noticed from a distance that most of the participants were students still in their P.E dress, families and only a few were runners. The atmosphere was very festive with various known individuals doing their share of talk in the stage (wasn’t really interested to know who they were or what they were talking about) and ends with a group of women senior citizens dancing their way which I only realized later was suppose to be our stretching exercise before the actual race begins. Here’s my observation of the race in typical bull runner style:

Organizer: Kenneth John Montegrande
Venue/ Route: Rajah Sulayman Park, Baywalk, Roxas Boulevard in Malate, Manila

Nice:

A chance to run with family. Although my wife didn’t register, this race gave her the opportunity to see me in action and enjoy the atmosphere.
Water every kilometer. As this race is mostly geared towards “non-runners”, a water station every kilometer is a good idea

Improve Next Time:

Missing checkers. I had a hard time looking for the people responsible for checking/signing my race bib. I asked several race staffs and was just told to look for the guy in black. I found him after 7 minutes. Next time have the checkers positioned in one place.
Late start. For those coming from very far place like I do (Dasma Cavite), getting there on time is a lot of effort. I just wish the organizer can also start the race on time. The race should have started at 4:30pm but according to my watch, race actually started around 4:55pm
Walkers blocking the roads for faster runners. While I already anticipated that this race will not be as organized as compared to other race I’ve joined, I just wish they have instructed marshals to separate “walkers” from runners or have a designated place for walkers. The second turn-around point near Vito Cruz street where most of the 5km and 3km runners (mostly students) were just beginning to run/walk where just chatting with their classmates occupying the whole road, I asked one of the marshals if he could instruct them to just align themselves in one section of the road. Most of the runners, including myself have to briefly stop and slow down several times to overtake runners.
Very small water station booth. Although the organizer did a great job in placing a water station every kilometer, it’s very small and with only two persons handling us water, some runners have to wait for their turn to be served with water. This could be improved if they could just put a 3 meter long table with cups already with water and have the runners take it themselves.
Cheaters. I saw one guy who crossed the middle section of the road, joined his friends and got a colored ribbon (this should have been given to him if he reached the turn-around point). I realized that the guy who gave it has 3 more ribbons in his hands. This could have been avoided if race people be instructed to just give ONE ribbon for each runner as they passed certain section of the road.
Area near the finish line was partly blocked by walkers. I wasn’t able to do my usual-strong finish as 50 meters before the Finish line, there were several walkers (including my son who runs towards me to greet me hahahahaha) blocking the way. This could have been avoided if there were some sort of blockage near the finish line area.

With no intention of aiming for PR for this particular race, I only got to finish the race in 61 minutes (which was same record I got from GreenFields race). Still I like this race and I hope there will be more “family-oriented’ kind of race in the future!

Me and Little Ninja. His name is Shaun and he's the cutest 2 yr old guy during the race. After the race we went to Mall of Asia and inside Guess botique, he pushed one of the mannequin breaking its arm and me shelling out php1,000 to repair it. It's not cute.

There was a taho vendor after the race and I must have consumed 4 cups of it. This is me offering little ninja some.

Family that runs together, stays together