I would like to mention the following observations on the conduct of last Sunday’s 2nd Men’s Health 10K Race held at the UP Diliman Campus:
1) The race started 20 minutes late from the scheduled time of start. Punctuality in the start of race is the first thing in my rating list in evaluating a road race. The race organizer should also remember that all the runners have to wake up early just to be in the starting line before the race starts. Allowing runners to register on race day was the contributory factor that delayed the start of the race. It is suggested that our race organizers must train or condition our runners to register within a period of time and not allowing late registration on race day.
2) Group exercise & stretching before the race—It was unthinkable that a member of the race organizer tried to lead the assembled runners at the corral with a group exercise and stretching. With all the runners jampacked and standing shoulder to shoulder at the Starting Area, the lead demonstrator tried to do some aerobics moves and I guess, nobody from the runners tried to follow him due to the lack of space. In a few minutes, the stretching/exercise stopped. Such group exercises should be done at least 30 minutes before the scheduled start of the race.
3) The distance of the race was short. Basing from the data that registered in my GF 305, the race distance lacked at least 200 meters to make it to 10 kilometers.
4) There were lots of water station and water in 5-gallon containers but water cups were lacking. Water in cups were able to all the runners during the 1st 5-km loop but it was surprising to see that there were no longer water cups in every water station on the second 5-km loop. Runners complained about this situation after the race. Even if the sponsor for the water supply accepted the responsibility in the distribution of water to the runners, I believe, the race organizer is still the one responsible in the overall implementation of services for the runners. The solution of this problem is a simple drill/exercise in mathematics—the counting of drinking cups for each runner in a given road race. Guys, those plastic drinking cups are too cheap in Divisoria! They cost P27 per 100 cups. So, if you have 500 registered runners, you need 4 cups per runner for a distance of 10K, assuming that each water station would be available in every 2.5 kms to include the Finish Line, the total number of cups needed is 2,000 cups. The total cost for the cups would be P 540.00! Cheap, di ba? It is equivalent to the registration fees of 1 & 1/2 runners.
5) There were lots of road marshals in road intersections but there were no dividing line to separate the runners from the weekend joggers/walkers and cyclists at the Academic Oval. At least, one of the road marshals should had been tasked to remind the non-race participants to take the outer lane of the Academic Oval and reserved the inner lane to the runners.
6) Full Shot Advertising is the race organizer of this race. This race organizing group is registered with PATAFA and it is represented by Ms Gay Maddela and Mr Pablo Cay. This is the same outfit that managed the conduct of the 2009 PSE Bull Run.
7) I paid P 350.00 for the registration fee and I was glad I was able to contribute a fund-raising event for the Tahanan Ng Walang Hagdanan that generated a total amount of P 240,000 for the said group. It was a very commendable cause to help the less-fortunate ones. I don’t mind the high cost of registration fee as long as some amount is allocated for the welfare ot other people who are in need of our support.
8) I don’t mind when the official results will be published. I usually depend on my finish times through my GF 305 watch. However, I was glad that there was a big digital clock at the Finish Line.
9) My overall rating for this race is 83%. I hope the race organizer would be able to correct the minor “lapses” in the said race.
Bald Runner 
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