May 10, 2010 - Running Workout And The Presidential Election

Today 10May10 is a very special day for all Filipinos. It’s the National and Presidential Election Day.

Being a public holiday, I took the opportunity to spend the early part of the day to my daily work out. At 5:28am I started my run at Fort Bonifacio area with the clear intention of completing a 10k distance. The temperature as early as it was at the said time was already at 26.5deg C and with a very humid atmosphere. Unlike normal days, there were not as many runners today probably they have instead decided to go on the polls early in the morning.

At around 6:48am I have already completed 10.26km with a time of 01h18m55s and burned 911kcal in the process. It was a really hot and then was soaked in my own perspiration and literally dripping all over.

By 8am I have already taken a bath and was on my way to my polling place, which was at Highway Hills Elementary School in Mandaluyong. From previous elections, I have already taken note of my precinct number, which was 0476A, and finding the place was the easy part. I have to queue to get a number and again I got the number after about 5 minutes. Then the long agony of waiting started. Up to this time I though I was an early bird as the number I got was no.9. Then I heard that they were calling number 18. I though I missed my turn only to find out that my number 9 is for the second batch and that each batch consist of 70 numbers. My watch at that time was showing 8:45am. During these times the temperature was about 32C and very humid with lots of people losing their temper. I promised myself not to add chaos to what was happening and instead just sit in one corner and await my number to be called.

At 10:20am my number was called and finally I got to sign the registration roll book and given my ballot. By 10:25am I have feed my ballot to the PCOS machine and finally the screen showed “CONGRATULATIONS”. The whole process took me 2.5 hours, which was longer in time compared to my running workout earlier.

Today was indeed a great day, I have done my workout and fulfilled my obligation as a Filipino citizen in participating in the election process. Whoever wins as President I pray that he be guided by the Almighty to lead this country for the betterment. To the losers, I hope that they have the dignity to accept defeat instead of the usual alibi that they have been cheated. God bless the Philippines!