Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Race #6: A Lackluster Run

Race #6
Run For Wellness, Run For Life
May 22, 2011
4K
Victoria Plaza Parking Grounds
Davao City

Some races are fun. Yet, some fail beyond expectations. Unfortunately, this is one of them. Here is why:

1)   The singlet: I got a feeling something was a bit off when there was no sample singlet shown to us. They only had a picture of how it was supposed to look like. As it turns out, I was right. While the choice of fabric wasn’t very good, that was not the part that bugged me. It doesn’t matter what size you picked, the length of your singlet stays the same! Only the width is the difference between medium, large, and extra large. I felt like wearing a singlet fit for a 12-year old!

2)   The starting area: Even though the directions said to gather at the Victoria Plaza parking lot, we runners have no idea which part of the parking lot on where the race would start. There was no sign on where the starting line is or any of the organizers until nearing the very starting time of the race.

3)   The fun run: In a typical fun run, parts of the road would be closed off to the runners. Or at the very least, there would be some warning signs of a race in progress. Well, on this race, there was none. And I don’t think we even had race marshals to look out for us on the road. It wasn’t a fun experience knowing you could be easily be hit by moving vehicles on the road.

4)   The finish area: This race is a “point A to point B” race, which means the start and finish area are in different locations. That’s fine I guess. But on approaching the finish area, well, we had the same problem as the starting area. Which is we had no idea on where the finish line is as we could have entered from three different directions to Damosa Gateway (the finish area).

5)   The post race refreshments: While I must admit that the food was tasty, the organizing was again, missing. When you put a tray of food on a table, leave it behind, and all that is missing is shouting, “Come and Get it!”, well, you have a mess on your hands. What did you guys expect from a hungry horde of famished runners? Some got food and some didn’t. For only one race category (only a 4K), it should have been easy to organize a decent food distribution unit.

Even though this race for me and my brother was disappointing, there was still a bright spot. The beneficiaries of this race were children with disabilities. And before we left, the kids made a little presentation for all us runners. With that, I was pleased to have a least contributed to a worthy cause despite a lackluster run.

>>> Run time: 4K (30 min)

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