Quezon City Elliptical Road Run - 1.85Km Loop

In line with my goal to visit various running route in Metro Manila, my destination for December 28, 2009 was the Quezon City Elliptical Road.

The Quezon City Elliptical Road also known as R-7 is a 2 kilometer road which encircles the grounds of Quezon Memorial Circle which houses a monument and a park as bounded by the elliptical road. The Quezon Memorial Monument was started in the late 1950s and was only completed in 1978. The monument is structured of three vertical pylons, representing the three main islands groups in the Philippines, Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. It is 66 meters (217ft) tall which was the age of Quezon when he died.

Staying in Mandaluyong City it was a good 20 minute early morning drive to the place. Not knowing where to find a safe parking area, I needed to turn one loop at the elliptical road before deciding to park my car at the Quezon City Hall parking area for security purposes. Later on as I was taking my run, I found out that there are a pay parking areas inside the circle itself with entrances at the East Avenue Road and Commonwealth Avenue sections of the circle. However, parking areas only opens at 5:00am.



I started my run at 5:07am, it was still dark then, however, the jogging pathway at the elliptical road was well light by vehicles using the road. Although the elliptical road is 2.0km in distance for a single loop at the inner most lane, it only registered 1.85 km at the jogging pathway. Having determined the distance of the loop, I decided to make six loops for the workout.



Should you be within the Quezon City area then this alternative running route is great for you. The distance is just right and for an 11km run, it will only require you six loops. The early morning air is quite fresh and is not affected by the vehicles along the elliptical road. In fact, the flow of vehicles makes the run easier as your mind gets entertained by the flow of traffic. Security wise it is a little concern as there were a lot of homeless people sleeping inside the park area, but, in as much that the jogging path is at the elliptical road itself, calculative risk is on the positive side as the pathway is exposed to vehicular flow making it a security advantage.

Before I forget, today was my first experience to use the Belmonte Underpass which connects the Quezon Memorial Circle Grounds to that of the Quezon City Hall area. The underpass is quite new and is well lit with guards on both ends for security purpose of users.

As a recap, my Quezon Memorial Elliptical Road Run covered a total distance of 11.02km in 01h18m42s burning Kcal of 763.

It was another running adventure completed this holiday season. I am now thinking which will be my next run.