the running boom

I still remember the early years of my running life. I would check the races against my schedule, plan my training, and then register. As I was not (and still not am) an avid racer, I only joined a few events per year, based mostly on the organizer and the distances. Choosing the race was a big thing for me; there were only two middle distance races then, Yakult’s 16k run and the New Balance Power Race (25k). If I missed those, then I had to be content with the 10k’s being offered.

Now however, I was amazed to realize that the number of races with over 15k in distance has ballooned. From one to two a year, there are now eight 21k runs, seven 15-16k races, and amazingly, four international marathons (Milo, Run for the Pasig River, Quezon City, Subic)—and that’s just for the months of September to December! Quite impressive.

What happened? It may be as another blogger said, that running is alive and well in the Philippines. A Polish friend of mine, looking at the schedule of races, remarked that Filipinos must like running so much, given that we have a race somewhere in the country every weekend. I told him that it had not always been that way; before, running was for athletes, for the select few. Nowadays, anyone can—and do—run.

Indeed, the future of running in the country seems to be flourishing. That can only bode well for all of us runners. Maybe someday, when running becomes so common, I would not get as much attention as I do now from the people in my community when I run. Gone would be the second looks, the whistles, the off remarks, and the comments that I must have a loose screw somewhere for running in the rain, or in the evenings, or even at high noon.

I can only hope. 😀