Event: PhilHealth Nationwide Run (Dagupan Leg)
Date: 02/17/13
Categories: 3K, 5K, 10K, 18K
PhilHealth Nationwide Run was the first simultaneous run held in the Philippines. PhilHealth celebrated their 18 years of service to Filipinos, thus making the 18K category their longest distance.
Before seeing this event last November, I’ve developed this craving to join races outside Metro Manila. I’ve initially planned to join in this event alone, and since I’m also from Pangasinan, I’ve concluded Dagupan as my destination. But some of my teammates grew an interest in joining out-of-town runs, so I’ve offered my aunt’s house in Lingayen as a place for us to stay.
This is such a huge project to organize that made it prone to disappointments. A couple of days after they’ve officially opened the registration, I went to Robinsons Bank Eastwood to enlist, but to my surprise, they were not informed about it. Good thing, one of my friends (Charm) knows someone working at PhilHealth Regional Office (Dagupan). Since Charm also planned to join this run, she generously offered to register me.
Roldan, Karl and I are registered to run 18K, while Allen and Eunice will run 10K. The saga between where-to-claim and when-to-claim the race kits almost went endless. My friends got their race kits 10 hours before the event proper. Charm got mine weeks before so she just handed it over to me.
RACE DAY:
This is it! My first out-of-town run with my running buddies. I was the slowest in our group, so I’ve always been ambivalent whether to run side by side with them. Roldan wanted to do podium finish so that just leaves me and Karl.
Karl and I ran the same pace until KM 10 only. He had to increase his pace and had me eat dust to set a good PR for 18K. LOL. So I came in last amongst us three. Oh, Roldan wasn’t able to do podium since he felt the need to go to the toilet halfway through the race. HA HA!
I was already exhausted at KM 13. My legs felt the urge to just walk until reaching the finish line. But because the roads remained open to vehicles and people tend to stare at you while running, I was too ashamed to be seen walking. Talk about ego! HA HA! I had no other choice but to keep running. Finally, I can see the finish line! Oh but wait, these baboons started pulling down the FINISH signage. I wanted to shout with my last ounce of remaining energy to tell them that there are still runners left behind. It was such a disrespect for us. Also, I almost did not get my medal because of their last-minute change of cut-off time. The cut-off time was supposedly 3 hours and 30 minutes, but they changed it to 2 hours. So I did the walk of shame on my way to the stage. I was too exhausted that I had no more room for another disappointment.
In conclusion, unless my friends ask me, I will never run in Dagupan again. Let this be my finale.
RunningTaurus 