There was always indeed a first time. I had been through races which had several rooms for improvement but in the end, looking at the law of averages, the plus points outweighed the negatives. On the other hand, with the recently held Philippine Independence Day Run last June 12, unfortunately the negatives overwhelmed the positives. It would have been a race with a great potential that we could look forward to every year but unfortunately it got mired with disorganization resulting to the most chaotic race I ever attended so far.
1. This was my first race that 10K, 15K and 21K runners all started at the same time. The moment I heard this, I already had that uh-oh feeling
2. We could hardly hear the speakers from the runners' corral. As a result, I think there was a miscommunication when one of the speakers was simulating the countdown and unfortunately the runners in front thought it was already the start. Well, I think most of the runners were already fidgety since the race was already about 10 minutes late.
3. Some areas of the route (especially along Lawton Avenue) were lacking in Race Marshalls. As a result, the runners fended for themselves against irate drivers. Thank goodness for the security personnel of some areas and buildings who helped out in managing the traffic chaos. Unfortunately, I heard that one runner fell victim to a hit and run incident.
4. The only positive aspect of the race were the water stations which gave out Pocari Sweat drinks but unfortunately these also got mired with problems such as the short tables and small number of volunteers.
I ran the 10K and I already have this list of complaints. Imagine how long would it be for the 21K runners? Well, here was a blog post from Life is a Highway who ran the 21K.
On a personal note, amids these challenges, I was able to get a new PR for 10K which was 5 minutes faster than my old one. Yahoo! Next target will be a sub 1:10 time. =)
To show you how much we "appreciated" this race, we only had 3 pictures, 2 of which were taken at home.
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