OB Montessori 45th Anniversary - Fun Run

Operation Brotherhood (OB) Montessori is celebrating its 45^th year in operation for the year 2011 and to celebrate the occasion the school branches in Greenhills, Sta Ana, Fairview, Las Pinas and Angeles City joined forces for a fun run. The OB Fun Run 45^th Anniversary was held today 04Dec11 at Venice Piazza at McKinley Hilles in Taguig City for a 5km,3km and 1.5km fun run with its students, families/friends of students and school faculty and staff.

Today is also a red letter day in running as the 3^rd Quenzon City International Marathon also took place. With my youngest son DENNIS being a 1^st year high school student in OB Montessori Greenhills, I have but to support my son and his school in its endeavor in running.

I have no high expectation of the OB Fun Run 45 Anniversary as the same is more of a school event and gathering. However, immediately upon arrival at the Venice Piazza in McKinley Hills I was surprised of the preparation and magnitude the school has taken for the event. We arrived at 4:30am and parking was already at snail pace (I will highlight more on the issue of parking later). It was a nice feeling to see on a running event students, parents/friends and school faculty and staff bonding for a running event. The place was filled with a fiesta like atmoshere and you could just feel the energy in the air. I was expecting no more than a handful of participants, but there were a great number of participants. Iam not sure of the exact number but my safe guess would be about 2500 runners from the 60+ (like me) to even as young as 3 years olds)

At 5:48am the 5km was flagged start with the suceeding 3km and 1.5km at 15minutes apart. McKinley hill iunlike other running venues in the city is hilly with stiff ascent and rapid descent in its road characteristics. I joined my son DENNIS and daughter-in-law PAMELA in the 5km event with my son DAX as our support and cheerer. Halfway into my first loop I saw my daughter in law PAMELA already on her way to complete her first loop and about the same time I was also overtaking my son DENNIS.

31min 55sec after the starting gun I crossed the finish line with PAMELA already waiting for me. Pamela won 3^rd place in the female category (we didn’t get her exact time) and she won P5000 for the feat. Not bad. My son DENNIS crossed the finish line in 34mins plus. 

Congratulations to PAMELA for her 3^rd place finish.

The event, food, booths, entertainment and the overall handling of event was superb and earns my respect to the schools organizers and the technical assistance of RunningMate in handling the race proper itself. To OB Montessori Management it was a successful event and my best wishes for the for the coming years.

Having said the above, I wish now to tackle on a minor but important issue that I have personally witnesed during the event. I have as ever been a strong supporter for equality in life and believe that whatever you teach should be practised. It is about the parking issue. In Venice Piazza the parking areas have an electronic board that do indicate the occupied space and the available space. At 4:30am the electronic board in the Parking Area near the fountain was 1showing 2 slots vacancies, however, the SCHOOL SECURITY not the VENICE PIAZZA SECURITY (who understand they cannot reserve public areas) would not allow entry into the parking area on the reason that the same is already RESERVED for school VIP and FRIENDS. I almost lost my cool and ignored the matter but gave my piece of mind to the head of the SCHOOL SECURITY. The school are teaching students on punctuality, equality, discipline in life and of good character education, but, contrary to such values in life whoever gave the order to provide PRIVELEGE to individuals particularly for the faculty/staff should be ashamed and re-educated that public areas are always on a FIRST COME FIRST SERVE BASIS. The school even came up with a memo to students to come early to be able to avail of the parking space near the starting line. I have said my piece on this issue and hope that whoever had this bright idea come to his/her sense.

Even with the above complaint, I find the event a success and congratulate OB MONTESSORI on its 45^th anniversary.

FAM On The RUN - Medical City Department Of Pediatrics

The MEDICAL CITY Department of Pediatrics are the sponsors for the FAM ON THE RUN held at Venice Piazza at Mckinley Hill Taguig with the RUN FOR CHANGE as organizers for the run event covering 10k/5k/3k categories.

When I arrived Venice Piazza at 5:20am today 25Sep11 most of the participants have already arrived although some where still queued on the parking lot. Unlike on other venues that pay parking is the name of the game, in Venice Piazza parking is FREE for participants of the running event. I am not expecting much of this race not being the commercialized running events of the usual but more of a fun run and fund raising event in particular for the Medical City Department of Pediatrics Charity Patients. If I may say this is a very worthy cause by the doctors of Medical City.

At 6:00am the 10k runners were started making use of the usual Mckinley Hills route which is very hilly then to Lawton both ways before proceeding to Bayani road all the way to Heritage Park and back to Mckinley Hill ending at Venice Piazza. There were more than ample supply of hydration fluids and marshals stationed on major intersections to guide runners. The organizers RUN FOR CHANGE did their job well and for a fun run this race was well handled.

I completed the 10k with unofficial time of 01h 15m 31sec. To my surprise after crossing the finish line I was handed a FINISHERS MEDAL which was very generous of the sponsors to make the fun run a memorable one.

To the Doctors of Medical City Pediatrics Department thank you for a great Sunday morning. Take of of those sick little children who have less in life.

Venice Piazza McKinley Hills - Arias On Sunday Evenings

It has been more or less a rule of the thumb for my family that we have a family dinner or lunch once a week together with my sons and my grandchildren.  This family eat-out is normally done either dinner on a Saturday or a lunch on a Sunday.

However, lately I have accidentally discovered a relaxing place which is at VENICE PIAZZA at MCKINLEYHILLS wherein you could have a dinner “alfresco” on any of the restaurants at Venice Piazza. So since March of this year the place has been our nest every Saturday evenings. The place was perfect, your choice of good food from any of the different restaurants (I prefer KUSE and OLD VINE) , a cool breeze and open air for my grandchildren to play around while the adults discuss family matters.

I have not before considered Sunday dinner as I would like to have an early night on Sundays to be ready again for Monday work. However, by accident one Sunday evening last April due to some reasons the family instead had a Sunday dinner at Venice Piazza and to my surprise I found out that there were two performers (husband and wife) rendering ARIAS, Broadway songs, ballads and even Tagalog Kundiman music which were not only good but magnificently performed with great soprano voices performed in the middle of the piazza. To add a make believe Italian scenery, they have real painters whom you could commission (for a fee – I already had mine and my wife done) to draw you on the spot. There are also around six supposedly Italian ladies (third sex) dressed in ballroom costumes moving about the piazza with two or three pantomime performers to create that make believe Italian scenery. The whole performance is open to the public so it does not necessarily will cost you any. To attest to how good these performers are I have been back trice already.

The performance starts at 8pm and usually last for an hour an a half. I highly recommend the place to any family, those who are on date or even on your own to visit Venice Piazza every Sunday evening for a relaxing evening that would guarantee you all refreshed to begin your Monday work schedule.