With or without my present injury, I was decided not to join this race because of the following reasons: (1) The registration fee for the 21K is too expensive (P 700.00); (2) The Cash Prize of P 6,000 is not commensurate with the Registration Fee being paid by each runner and the number of sponsors supporting this event; (3) The course is too familiar and overused; and (4) I am not a fan of Piolo!
Instead, I came to the race to cheer for my two elite runners, Alquin Bolivar who ran the 10K distance and Crifrankreadel Indapan who ran the 21K distance. The other members of the Elite Team Bald Runner were distributed to other races in Metro Manila being held on the same day.
The set-up of the Starting/Finishing Area was properly prepared and I could see that these are “signs” of improvements in road racing. I was impressed with those new portalets lined up at the vicinity of the Assembly Area. I was able to see also a long tables of water aid stations for the 3K & 5K runners. Well, it is about time that such basic support services should be given to the runners. I’ve been complaining of short tables of water aid stations and the lack of water and water cups for more than one year of blogging and I am glad our Race Organizers are reacting to the observations of runners and bloggers.
Piolo is a competitive runner afterall. He finished the 10K race in 47+ minutes which is an impressive time for a new runner with only one month of training under Coach Rio. I hope he could run the next edition of the Philippine International Marathon: Pasig River Run 42K Race so that ABS-CBN Foundation would be able to improve its race most especially on their Prizes for the Winners.
My elite team runners informed me that the ABS-CBN Foundation awarded Gold’s Gym Gift Certificates to the winners/members of the Team Relay Race worth P 5,000 for each runner. To the dismay & frustration of the athletes, they tore their GCs after receiving them. I think those runners who are employed and working under the ABS-CBN Foundation should advise their boss, Ms Gina Lopez, that our athletes need MONEY for their subsistence needs. Runners do not have time to go to the gym and they don’t need to have bulky muscles!
Congratulations to all the finishers of this race and to Coach Rio and Finish Line for raising the bar in our road races!
And the best photo of the day…
Congratulations to Manny Pacquiao. Amazing Performance and the Greatest Fight of the Year!
Bald Runner 
Sir, I had a hearty laugh at reason #4, thank you very much! Yeap reg fees are skyrocketing but the number of participants is still on the increase.
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i was happy to see those finishers in the 3K & 5K distances in their tennis shoes, basketball shoes, and even badminton shoes. they don’t care about the fees but finishing their race is something that they could be proud of.
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amused by the Baldrunners photo. Are you triplets?
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hahaha! i think so! we are regular runners at the ULTRA Oval Track
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I think we need some cheering girls in our ultras. Not to say that there aren’t any pretty ultra-women, there are many, but often I’m stuck with the other fellows like myself; salty, smelly and dirty. Oh well it will probably never happen, who wants to cheer for hours and hours and hours.
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rick, ultras are not supposed to be a “festival” of sorts. that is why i like the atmosphere of ultras..it’s simple and just run to your heart’s content.
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sir i guess the cheerleading squad is the Salingawi of UST 🙂 Cheers to Alquin! my chip time in my first 10K is 1:04:35. Hope to improve to 58 next sunday hehehe
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i would just like to make a correction sir, the group who performed for Timex were the UST Salinggawi dance troupe 🙂
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