Kenny’s Open09 Urbanite Run last Saturday 15Aug09 gave a new meaning to a Family Saturday Night Out.
While in the past a typical family Saturday night out will be more of “mall visits or shopping” or probably a night to watch a long awaited movie on one of the cinemas in Metro Manila, a much different concept of quality family time was established by the Urbanite ’09.
On this blog I will not be dealing on the manner how the race was conducted and faired as I leave these things to others to comment on the specifics. However, what has gotten much of my attention was the atmosphere of family and friends bonding prior and after the race. There was a festive mood in the night typical of carnival atmosphere. The crowd consisted of varied sectors of the community, a good mixture from A to D sectors of the community. Runners were from the elite, intermediate, beginners and just curious and accidental runners.
Prior and after the race proper you could see crowd seated in clusters on the dark open field south of the starting area and all over the different parking areas adjacent to BHS. The grounds were turned into an instant Luneta Park with each crowd cluster busy and excited of the things about the race. There were even entrepreneurs who took the advantage to set up their mobile running apparel stores. This scenario was further induced by a very cooperative weather condition although it was unusually humid and hot. Unlike on morning races that each runner participant comes practically on his own, on this occasion, the gallery crowd has tripled to that of normal as most runners had brought along with them either a family member(s) or a friend(s) as a support or just in their own simple way of sharing their passion for running with a wish/hope that these “alalays” will someday pick-up the running bug themselves.
Congratulations to Kenny Rogers and to Finishline for initiating this innovative concept of running in the local scene which has given a new meaning to a Saturday Night Out for the family. It was a well attended race event. My hope and wishes is that such a concept would be adopted/copied by other race sponsors and organizers to continuously open an alternative to a healthy way to spend a Saturday Night with the Family.
