Last year, I really felt so bad when I was not able to run at Run United Philippine Marathon - RUPM 2012. I was scheduled to go to Mindanao for a work-related trip and my return flight was exactly just a day before RUPM, practically just a few hours before gun time. So, when I left for Manila, I made sure to set everything in gym bag including my shorts, shirt, energy gels, race-bibs, etc. and I placed it near our door, so that upon my return, I will just rest a few hours and grab the bag and go. I even rehearsed that in my mind. But when it was time for me to go back home to Manila, the weather turned so bad that airport had to cancel all flights going to Manila. My flight going back was delayed for a day and my first RUPM experience was simply snatched from me by a natural calamity. A lesson learned. Never schedule a running event very close to work out of town trip.
This year, after a couple of few marathons I did early this year, I thought I’m ready to do another one before the year ends, so I registered at the Milo Marathon via a group registration in our office. So confident that I’m secured for a 42k slot, I began to do some vigorous training. But after a week, just a few weeks before Milo Marathon, I was informed that my registration was down-graded to 21k, because there was no more 42ks available. It turned out that the liaison who supposed to submit our registration failed to submit it on time to RunRio. My disappointment lasted for a week. But then, I need to psych myself to positive vibes before a long run, even if it’s just 21k. After that, I thought, the last chance I have left this year is the RUPM. So, I made it a point to complete the first two legs of the trilogy so I can have the three piece medal. As a Runner Blogger, RunRio is so generous to grant us (media) with free race kits so we can promote the running event in the social media. For three years running in Run United and blogging their events, this was the usual practice.
As the days drew closer to RUPM, I was getting news that the 42k slots are running fast, I thought that maybe RunRio no longer need to promote it through bloggers since in the absence of it, the event was selling fast. So I thought, I have to register on my own before I run out of slots, again. But unexpectedly, RunRio announced a bloggers event for RUPM, just over a week before the race day. To our delight, most of my media friends, including me, didn’t bother to register anymore since every media event of RunRio, there are always a race kit prepared for us. And so I thought. The media event went through the usual program, a review of last years’ RUPM and some new elements Active Health prepared for this year, including the launching of the newest product of Unilab; the Active Health Energy Gel. In the launch, they even had everyone to get a first taste of the gel and invited us all to a blogging contest about it.
Soon after the event was over, Coach Rio dela Cruz announced that the 42k slot was 100% sold out. So it means, there’s no more left for us. From that breaking news, everyone was bit disappointed, because even if we decide to buy, there was no more left for sale. So I guess this was another RUPM failure for me. Exactly five days to go before the run, I accepted the reality that I’m not going to run on October 6. In desperate attempts, I even asked around all over social media if there was one who’s selling their race bibs for RU, but with no avail. Surprisingly, just two days before RU, my running blogger friend Rene Villarta of JazzRunner.com messaged me about a RUPM race kit for sale. Without blinking an eyelid, I met up with him to buy the kit at P1,300 only. I’m so happy to get it at cost because he told me that there were race kits for sale in the black market in exorbitant rates ranging from P1,500 to P2,000 and they’re all selling like hot-cakes. And so, after several days of desperation, I finally ran in RUPM after all.
Last October 6, 2013, I crossed the finish line with a brand new personal record for a full marathon; 4:39:25.
Run Untied Philippine Marathon. An elusive running event which I finally bagged and added up to my running list this 2013.
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