Monday, December 22, 2008

Disaster Run sa Kabundukan: WORST RACE OF THE YEAR

This was a long anticipated run for us. Aside from being part of the DENR family which we advocate the protection of the environment and conservation of our natural resources, we were previously told about the hilly course of the race. So our team registered for this event ready for the challenge. After taking a break after the Adidas King of the Road, I finally decided to join being my last race for this year.

I woke up early and expected long hours of traveling as the race was located in San Jose, Rodriguez, Rizal. We leave from the office at exactly 4:00 am but to our dismay as the organizers never put up any marker to the location, we only found the place through the residents we asked along the way.

As we entered the oval, there were only few runners who attended the event and several of them were the elite ones from the Team Bald Runner and a few who we recognized from afar. We spotted Phillip aka The Foreign Runner and Bald Runner who registered for the 21K event. Tolits, IceOne, Ross and I were originally registered for the 10K event but we changed for the 5K event due to lack of preparation. I was afraid that my right knee would not cooperate again.

I started my run with a very slow pace together with Ice One and we increased gradually until the second kilometer. But to my dismay, my nike+ sportsband collapsed. IceOne continued to pace me until my right knee began to complain so I told him to continue without me and I will just meet him at the finish line. I ran alone and that started all the bulls^*(&%^ts that happened to me during the entire race. The route was almost flat but the roads were congested with motorists. Runners were told to run at the sides of the streets and those fu&%^%^in’ tricycle drivers kept on shouting at runners with offensive words. They were so barbaric at the runners. We were running while inhaling smokes from the vehicles. I also got lost because the marshals didn’t even know where to direct us the right route for the 3K, 5K, 10K, and 21K. Water stations were not also found and it’s a good thing that I hydrated myself with a bottle of Gatorade before the race. Lost runners complained to the marshals but they instead lead us the road to hell. My vote for the worst and the most unorganized race of the year definitely goes to this race…Runners… how do you rate this race?

2 comments:

Dr.Suave said...

Yup! Definitely the W O R S T race of the year, maybe of all time! I vented my outrage in the shoutboinkx yesterday. I don't think there'll be much comment about the race because the usual bunch of runners were not there.

I HATED the race! To think this w0uld be the last race of the year made me all the more angry.

YES, the path thru the town sucks! Onlookers were heckling us. There were profanities too. Race marshalls were so stupid they didn't even know to which event the runners belong. I had to stop at least two times to make sure I made the the right turn, or else run the risk of getting lost and make the race more useless than it is already. I encountered just 1 water station. Did I mention the pollution? The freakin trikes and jeepneys?? This was the first time I worried about my safety during a race. Danger from being mugged or run over abound! I'll never run there again, that's for sure.

gemini said...

true! running in such place will just endanger ourselves.
btw, thanx for dropping by.