Men's Health Miracle Run - August 17, 2008

As luck (or is it Miracle?) would have it, this run was scheduled before a holiday so there is one extra day of rest for those who woke up early for this race (and another extra day of rest if you are from Quezon City). Things work out fine for me this time around in terms of preparations: my alarm went off right on time and I got to the Fort Bonifacio area about 10 minutes before the gun was fired, which was enough time for some last minute stretching. Too bad all of my running buddies missed out on this event (Kervin, Per, Janine+, Jeanne: I know you all woke up late! haha! kidding! :)). Nearly all of my siblings registered for this event so I wasn't alone in this race (and lead to a new meaning for the term "sibling rivalry" race-wise as we all try to out-do each other).

It was hot by the time the race started at 6:30AM so my goal was try and finish it as quick as possible before it gets hotter. From the looks of it, it doesn't seem to have reached the 1,000 runners target that Men's Health had but being good sport that they are, they decided that instead of donating Php 200 for each runner who finished the race, they will instead put in Php 400 per person, on top of Php 200,000 donation to charity if everyone finishes it.

The race course was relatively flat most of the way and takes about two 5KM loops in order to finish it. There were ample water stations, which also offered bottled multi-colored and multi-flavored Gatorade to all the runners. It was such a sugar buffet for me that I fear I may have drunk more calories than I burned. Ended up skipping two water stations as got too bloated already.

I ran most of the way with very little walking but dismayed at the finish line and upon checking my Nike+ sportsband and seeing I still breached the 1hour mark. Weird though that my official time on race was about 58 minutes and 35 seconds. I let this discrepancy go but then my sisters also informed me of delay in Men's Health timer! Oh man, I guess there is no such luck in my under one hour target for this. Maybe on the next race.. On a good side, my Nike+ sportsband finally registered a near accurate distance of 10.1km so felt quite happy with that.

Took some pictures afterward and hung out at the Nike+ booth afterwards with friends and family.

The boys getting a photo together..

Not to be undone, the girls also took a photo of their own.

We made amends and did a group shot. haha

Shot taken with "Fast and the Furious" Coach Rio

Men's Health awarding stage with Timer (last count at 6,600 km)

The big check for the big money. All going for a good cause. Very Big of Men's Health for that!