While I rarely miss major road races in Metro Manila, every now and then I do make selective small road races during weekends primarily because of the routes these small races are held and also to the advocacy that the sponsor of the races are supporting of which I personally do also support.
Today 13Mar11, I have selected to join the RAT RACE “Race Against Trafficking” sponsored by ZONTA of Makati and Visayan Forum Foundation, Inc. The race was held at McKinley Hills in Taguig City with 1k/3k/5k/10k categories.
Small races are like boutique stores/hotels which could be more personalized, intimate and cheaper (entry fee) which if handled correctly could be a good/great race on a weekend for any level of a running enthusiast.
RAT Race for sure had a great 10k route being at McKinley Hills. In my experience the Mckinley 10k route is the most challenging in Metro Manila. It starts at Venice Piazza at McKinley Hills through the hills in the area then to Lawton then backtrack and lo Bayani Road all the way to Heritage Park and back. The route is mostly covering up/down hill inherent of the venue topography.
The 10k category was flagged off at 5:28am with I roughly estimate to be no more than 400 participants for the category. Although small in number the organizers have provided a very dissent and acceptable start/finish and logistical supports. As we progress through the race I was fully satisfied of the number of hydration stations made available and the manner the road marshals have controlled the traffic.
Overall I would like to congratulate the sponsors and organizers for a good race. However, two minor improvements could be done in the future. First the distance for the 10k registered only 9.58k in my Garmin 310xt maybe a double check on the distance measurement to verify actual distance. Second, there were no distance markers along the route. Again, as I earlier mentioned, I am pretty satisfied on how the race when through and the comment is only for future improvement.
01h06m28s after the starting gun was sounded I completed my 10k (9.58k) run unofficial. Considering the hill climbs and terrain of the 10k route I would consider myself on one my stronger finish today.
Small races could be good races and such was the RAT Race which was a boutique in its own.
Congrats, Amado! With races every weekend at The Fort & Ayala, you can choose the race to join and support. As for me, I am registered to 2 events only.
ReplyDeleteI was there at the race too. It was actually my first time. I joined the 5k. Id like to ask where and how will I know my official time? will they have it available on time?
ReplyDelete@Arthur - How are you? Hope that you are settled back in Long Beach.
ReplyDelete@Anonymous - try sending an email to jon@racemanager.com.ph for the results or just visit takbo.ph website every now and then as if they will be provided by results by the organizer Takbo.ph publish them.