10-Mile Run For The Eye

...while most of the runners are hyped at one of the big races of the year, competing to be one of the King of the Road, I was back at my hometown for the "Eye Run 'coz I Care".

A few days after my September run, I was torn into deciding which race should I join for October 24 since there were three running events happening on the same date. The first Baguio City Host Lions Club run-for-cause; the first St. Peter Life Run with only Php 50.00 of registration fee; or the Adidas KOTR where I am entitled for a 50% registration discount for having accumulated 11 sessions at the aNR Ortigas.

After realizing that I already miss racing in Baguio, I opted to join the Lions Club event. It is the first run-for-a-cause of the Baguio City Host Lions Club, and my 10-mile distance debut run as well. The beneficiary of the event are the visually impaired children of Baguio City, who are under the care of NLAB (Northern Luzon Association for the Blind). I remember way back in 1996-1997 when I was still studying while doing my part-time job of selling sweepstakes tickets, my competitor vendors in the Baguio Cathedral area are the blind ones. Everytime someone buys tickets from them, I am awestruck by how they can give exact change to their customers. What's more amazing is how they can go back to the same area day-by-day, climbing the 100+ steps of Baguio Cathedral, and how they can return back to their own houses with only their sticks to guide them.

I thought I was the only one among my running-buddies in the office who will be joining this event. But when they got to knew of my plan, our number increased to two, then three, four, until we reached up to nine participants during the day of our registration, and ten - including my half brother, half sister. But when typhoon "Megi" (local name "Juan") devastated a lot of property and flooded some flatlands in Northern Luzon, the number dropped down to two as eight of those registrants backed-out. My brother didn't backed-out due to fear.... fear from me, lol! Their race bibs (thanks to you in behalf of them) then went to three of my friends in Baguio (Jason, James, and Jaymark) who wanted to join the event, but wasn't able to register.

All of these are for the Blind, thanks to those who donated :)

Me and my brother arrived 10-minutes before the gun-start for the 16-km. James wasn't there yet, Jaymark was already on his way, while Jayson enjoyed his bed-time. It was only after the race that we've met James and came to know that he arrived as early as 4:30AM. He also did a good warm-up by walking from their house at Gibraltar, Mines View towards the starting line, a good distance of 3-4 kilometers (or 19% to 25% of the 16-km route).

The race event was simple yet noteworthy. There were no glamorous pre- and post-race program, no eye-catching route banners, starting and finish line facade, no high-tech gadgets such as timing chips or barcodes. The absence of these features did not hinder the success of the event:

A good sprint with another runner towards the finish line.

Participants - a number of elite runners and athletes also registered and joined the event such as the World Women's Boxing Championship bronze medalist Alice Kate Aparri, Flordeliza Doños and Hernane Sore; Camsur International Marathon third placer Michelle Balbuena, National Milo Marathon qualifier Librada Tamson; runners from the Philippine Sports Commission, Baguio Country Club, PMA Academic personnel and some Baguio-based professionals also joined the event.

Hydration - although the runners rarely hydrates due to the cool weather, there were still ample water stations situated at around 2-km, 6-km, and 10-km marks and at the finish line. Even I have only consumed about 150ml from my hydration fluid and my sweat glands was not even activated.

Race route - the route was not confusing since it was also my training route. The hilly part inside the Teacher's camp going out to South drive still remains a challenge to me though.

Marshalls - two to four friendly marshals are located at the most critical areas (crossings, u-turn loops) and are all active in leading the runners to their route.

Distance markers - there were no kilometer markers, but the route distance was measured through GPS as announced before the race.

Race Photos - A number of photographers are located along the route. Visit the facebook fanpage of Baguio City Host for the photos.

Race Results - At around 7:00AM, The race results on the manila paper are already almost complete. Visit Baguio City Host Lions Club's facebook fanpage for the race results.

The initial race results

My brother had his first 5k run on this event, and I hope that he would still get to join further races in the future.

Jaymark, who also had his very first fun run, was very happy that he was able to participate on this event, and I'd like to post his facebook message to me: "...the distance that i ran that morning considering that I ONLY slept 1 and a half hour meant so much to me, every step I took was for those kids who didn't had the chance to see the beauty of the world that I am seeing..those are for them.. and with that i realized how really blessed we are!"

The brave ones for the benefit of the blind

Race Profile:
Distance: 16 km.
Official Time: 1:26:23
Official Ranking: 56th out of 180 16k Finishers

Race Info:
When: Oct. 24, 2010.
Where: Baguio City
Event: Eye Run 'coz I Care - The First Baguio City Host Lions Club Run for a Cause.

More photos courtesy of Kitchie Daldal:

VFF Sprint meets FiveFinger socks

with Team Logan

The visually-impaired
beneficiaries

Like Father like Son,
with adopted one

Tallying of race results

post-race sumptuous Filipino meal