PhilStar Celebrity Fun Run 2009

Last run for the year 2009, a run for Christmas, and a run with the Celebrities. This event was one of the "Ondoy victims" as this was originally scheduled last October 11, 2009 and re-scheduled more than 2 months after the onslaught of typhoon Ondoy.

Organized by PhilStar.com, the event aims to raise fund for the benefit of GILAS (Gearing up Internet Literacy and Access to Students) program of the Ayala Foundation.

Aside from it's beneficiaries, the runners got the chance to meet and run with some of the Philippine Celebrities. Some of the Celebrities that we saw and were present on the event were Carlos Agassi, Maricel Laxa, Anthony Pangilinan, Christine Jacob, Manny Paksiw, Freddie Cockroach, and Ronnie Rickets. I was able to pace with Mr. Agassi on the 5K mark, going up the McKinley Hill. He was not that fast as compared to other runners, but he can surely maintain his pacing even on the sloping hill of McKinley that I was eventually left behind.

Another Photo-op with Coach Rio

The event has been full of excitement for us, after waiting for more than 2 months, specially to me and our new 10k buddy from the Strathlete runners group - Jose "Jun" Forneloza. The excitement has lead to my premature adrenaline push right at the gun-start where I have almost run at my top speed for the first 2 kilometer. In return, between the 2k and 3k mark, my two 10k competitors (MoonRunner and Jun) passed ahead of me and I never had the chance to reclaim my honor anymore, lol! Jun was able to finish ahead of us, having an unofficial time of 0:44:xx, while MoonRunner passed the finish line at 0:51:xx, while me, the last among our group's 10k runners, finished at 0:53:24.

It was a great accomplishment for my two 10k running buddies, specially to Jun who is a first timer for a 10k run. For MoonRunner, it is also his first time to out pace me in all our runs. Their progress was so great and we're even so amazed for Jun's achievement.

The 10k Runners of Strathlete

It was after the race that we found out our 5k runners were not contented with the outcome of their category due to misguided and chaotic race route. We never knew what happened to the race and marshalls of the 5k distance category who are supposed to make the route easy for the participants.

Aside from these, the race results have been messed up too. Out of the 9 runners in our group, none of us were included in the results, same situation with another blogger-runner buddy who also joined their group with total of 11 participants.

One of the good thing that happened to us though aside from those record-breaking achievements were, all three of us who joined in the 10k race category won some small prizes raffled out during the post-race program. I got a small PhilStar speaker bag, enough for small devices such as an mp3 player.

Race Profile:
Distance: 10 km.
Net Personal Time: 00:53:24
Official Time: 00:00:00 (race results were messed-up)
Official Ranking: xxx

Race Info:
When: Dec. 20, 2009.
Where: Fort, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig
Event: Philippine Star Christmas Celebrity Fun Run 2009

Click here for the official race results.