IE8 | 8 MilesI remember last year when a runner colleague of mine reported for work with colds. He told me that he got it from participating in  a road race the day before. He quipped : “You see the race pushed thru even if it was raining like hell”. Back then, I couldn’t understand why would someone do such a thing. Last Sunday, I got my answer. I woke up at 5:00 am – “I’m gonna be late!” (I thought the race would start at 5:30) I asked myself, now why would I want to run today ? I have a deadline and I still need to report to work later and it’s raining outside-I would just end up getting wet … then I realized that even if it wasn’t raining ,  i’d get wet anyway, and besides … I haven’t experienced how it feels to run in the rain yet. The way I see it, if there will be only a few runners today, then I would have a better chance of winning that laptop. Before I knew it, I was already in the parking area near the starting line of the IE8 race. This is a well-organized race : THis is the first time that I saw sponges in a short distance race. There were  lots of food and even cheer leaders in the aid-station .. talk about feeling like a pro! But wait … that’s not all: they even gave out coke in the last aid-station at the foot of the Kalayaan flyover! I finished running 13.4Km (I was also suprised at the distance) at 1:23 on my watch. My shoes were wet but what the hell, nothing beats running in the rain! In a nut-shell, I would give...

After what I have experienced with the previous race, I didn’t  have high expectations for this race. I woke up at around 4 and arrived at  Market! Market!  at around 5 am. It was the usual race day. I wore my shoes in the parking area and did some stretching; got in the mall to use the rest room and there I was,  waiting for the 10-miler to start. For the first time after a couple of races, this race started on time (thank God). The only other race which I could remember that started on time was the Condura 21k. Most races should be organized like this one: It started on time Lots of road marshals (so that no one gets lost) Lots of cold water (and cups) Powerade at the finish line I reached the finish line with a time of 1:41 (unofficial). It’s really difficult to set PRs if you don’t train-I’m just thankful that I still get the chance to run on weekends. Congratulations to the organizer for making this such a happy running experience for me. Image from...