Last Sunday was Resort World Manila’s “Run With Me” celebrity charity run at the Mall of Asia grounds, organized by Runrio. It was an event I really wanted to support because Run With Me partnered with six beneficiary charities.
Runners made up “tribes” led by celebrity ambassadors: Adrian Alandy and Meg Imperial for YesPinoy Foundation; Rovilson Fernandez and Carlene Aguilar for EPCALM Adult Leukemia Foundation of the Philippines; Jason and Joshua Zamora for HERO Foundation; Jeffrey Hidalgo, Abby Asistio, Ria Atayde, and Kim Atienza for Right Start Community Development, Inc.; DJs Sam YG, Slick Rick, and Tony Toni for Empowering Brilliant Minds Foundation; and Jeffrey Santos, Chuckie Dreyfus and Yen Dreyfus for ERDA Tech Foundation.
Resorts World Manila had given me two kits, one of which I gave to my Endure Multisport teammate Jixee Lagunda. Jixee is fleet-footed and determined to qualify for the Milo Marathon finals this year (he intends to race a provincial leg and log a fast enough time over the half-marathon to make the cutoff). Since it was pretty short notice, he chose to do 10K.
I would have done the 5K, but unfortunately, on Friday last week a close family member was hospitalized. Since then, I’ve been back and forth at the hospital which is a long drive away from home. I know a good run would have taken some of the stress away, but I didn’t want to risk putting too much stress on myself and falling sick when I’m needed by my family the most.
You could say I raced vicariously through Jixee. It was a nice feeling to be able to gift someone with the opportunity to participate in a well-organized race, as you can always expect when Runrio is involved. Here’s his race report.
Call time for 10K runners is 4AM, I arrived 3:30am for a 5PM guntime. The race event venue itself if very spacious, organized booths for baggage area, stage, finishers kit, and advertisements. Race course was very accurate for the distance that I ran, 10k. The participant traffic is manageable. Hydration stations provided water for every 1.5kms. Finish line was not crowded so it’s safe to sprint for those who wanted to cut few seconds off their finish time. Post-race program was entertaining too.
47:58. Too conservative for the first 2kms.
Would I run it again? Why not? Joining Run With Me benefits several foundations which I think gives runners a sense of purpose on top of promoting good health.
The 2017 edition of Run With Me attracted 3,500 participants and raised three million pesos for five partner charities. This year, they logged 5,000 participants and I’m sure raised even more funds. Congratulations to Resorts World Manila, and I hope to be able to join you next year!
