New Balance Power Race - Day 1

November 15-16, 2008 will go down in our memories as a very busy weekend due to the sport of running. There were three different races to be held on these two days. First was the 5km race on November 15 at 4:00PM and then the 10km and 25km events to be held the next day.

There were 14 of us in the group for this out of town trip. Out of the 14 people, 8 will do the 5km run (most of them their first time), 2 will do the 10km run, and 2 will do the 25km run. We used 3 cars to go here and there was hardly any traffic as we left Metro Manila around 10am. With me in the car are Janine, Per, Kervin and Jeanne and our I.T for that day were as follows:

9:50AM - leave for Manila to Clark
11:30AM - head for SM Clark for lunch (ended up at Gerry's Grill and did some carbo loading)
12:40PM - Watch Madagascar 2! Its theme song "I like to Move It" makes for a great running song, don't you think?
2:30PM - head for Pure Gold Duty Free for some food shopping
3:30PM - check in at Clarkton Hotel
4:20PM - meet the rest of the group at Clark Parade Ground for their 5km race.

Due to lack of time, we weren't able to go to Clarkton Hotel and went directly to Parade Grounds from Duty Free. At that time, we expected the race to end (as start time was scheduled at 4:00PM) but it hadn't even begun yet. Delay had something to do with the big red START balloon needing more air. At least we got to see our friends at starting point as race started around 4:30 - 4:40PM.

I also met Vener here who was supporting his wife Christy as she does her 5km race.

While waiting for the 5km runners to finish, Janine, Vener and I went to the registration office to get our timing chips for our own race the next day. No lines here and they were quite fast in giving us the chips which were attached to ankle wraps.

For the first time, I was part of the cheering group and had a great time watching my friends as they head over to the finish line. Too bad most of the pictures I took were blurred but it was nice to shout my friends' names and to cheer them on. All of them had a good time and they got a lot of freebies from the race which includes chocolate bars, bananas, magazines, and a New Balance yellow band.


The 5km cheering squad! We have our own races the next day too..

Running ahead of the 5km runners. Will go for the gold medal! Haha

The Running Banana in his running shoes.

Blanche was the first to finish in our group for her first 5km race.

Nikki followed by Minerva as they head to the finish line.

5km runners group picture

The complete 5km runners group picture! Good job guys! Hope to see you in future runs.