Run United 2 - 16000 Runners

Today 21Aug11 as early as 3am all roads were leading to Bonifacio Global City (BGC) for the Run United 2 which is the 2^nd Leg of the Runrio Trilogy. The event marks also the 4^th year of RUNRIO in organizing local road races who are primariy one of if not the main driving factor in the popularity of running in the Philippines today which has never had it as big as what it is now.

In 2007 when Runrio did their first race event there were only1888 registered runners which at that time was already considered a big crowd. Today, after 4 years Run United 2 generated 16000 registered runners (21k/3500 10k/5000 5k/3k/500m/balance). For a single day event I think this number is something for the records. In this magnitude of participants a major factor is crowd management which I would like to congratulate RUNRIO to have a done a good job in making sure of safety and orderliness during the event.

Participants that joined the event have their own individual reasons for picking up the sport of running. Whatever they may be, it is still a step forward for the well being of each individual person. What has fascinated me were the smile and glow in the faces of the participants and even the non-participants who came along to see their family and/or friends.

As I was entered in the 10k event I was able to watch the gun start for the 21k which was a sight to behold with all 3500 runners just for the 21k event. The 10k event due to the number has reached 5000 the gun start was in two waves starting from 5:30am and folowed 3 minutes after for safety reasons. This was followed by the 5k/3k/ and the 500m events for kids.

I completed my 10k event in an unofficial time of 01h11m51s and a ton of joy in my heart to share the road with the different runners in all walks of life.

Happy 4^th anniversary to RUNRIO and may you continue to deliver world class road races in the Philippines.