ateneo sesqui cross-country run

Since I’ve been receiving newsletters from the Alumni Association through “The Blue Post,” I got to know about the upcoming fun run in Ateneo for the benefit of funding the scholarships of 500 students. Owing my free education to Ateneo, I realized that I should join this fun run as a way of giving back.

At first, I was hesitant to join since the first press release was that the fee was P350 for a 2.8k run without a singlet. Thinking that the fee was a bit expensive given such deals, I already didn’t consider joining anymore. Since running is still a fad in the office, some invited me to join the Animo run and Timex run. I almost signed up for Animo run but I was not quite comfortable of wearing a La Salle jersey. Not that I have anything against La Salle nor I am one of the staunch believers of school rivalry, even if it was any other school, I would still feel uncomfortable wearing something that does not represent my alma mater. The Timex run, on the other hand, was quite expensive with a fee of P500 since they are bringing the technology of microchips to accurately measure each runner’s time. I’ve been telling them that my threshold for running fees is P350 – I won’t consider joining a race with a fee more than (at least for a 5k run).

However, I changed my mind upon reading another issue of “The Blue Post” saying that a 5k route was already open and there would be free singlets to the first 1,000 registrants. Without worrying if I’d come alone or not, I immediately signed up for fear of not receiving the limited singlets. While doing her usual rounds of asking us for our lunch orders, Ms Sally asked me when I would sign up for the Animo run since some of my officemates already submitted their application forms. I told her that I wouldn’t join anymore since I already signed up for the Ateneo fun run on the same day. Since she wanted to be with me, she told me to sign her up also and I volunteered to pay for her registration since I would use my credit card.

Since I knew that my dad could be lazy to drive for me, I already prepared myself to commute via the MRT and LRT. I even asked Ms Sally to meet me at Mini Stop so we could ride the tricycle together. But fortunately, he was kind enough to drive me all the way to Ateneo High School area. Since I couldn’t meet her in Mini Stop as we initially planned, I sent a text to Ms Sally that I already went ahead and was waiting for her near the registration booth.

While waiting for my companion, I asked one of the people at the registration booth if I could still change my route to 5k since I registered according to my age bracket and I probably overlooked that I was supposed to register in the Open category so I could run for 5k. Since the technical team has not yet arrived, they just asked me to wait for them so I could have my route changed. So while waiting, I decided to open my race packet and I was quite disappointed to see that the size was medium! The size was so large on me that the length was way past my mid-thigh and the arm hole was till my torso. Really ugly. I approached them again to ask if I can replace my singlet size since in the first place, what I indicated in the online registration was size Small and I even called their office to change the size to Extra Small after reading in certain blogs that the sizes were quite big. I was disappointed to know that they didn’t have small sizes anymore so I had no choice but to bear with the humungous singlet. Since I was also carrying a bag, I also asked them where the baggage counter was. Alas, they didn’t realize that they needed to have a baggage counter! The seemingly panicking volunteer asked me to wait for their advice and gave me a double-sided tape where she wrote my singlet number.

Worried that Ms Sally might not make it on time, I tried calling her phone but it was already unattended. It was then that I realized that she might have backed out the last minute. Hence, I was officially alone in this race. Since I am an independent woman, I didn’t let the thought of being alone bug me. As soon as I got the advice from a volunteer that the technical team was already there and I could already leave my bag, I proceeded to the designated room immediately. After changing my route to 5k, I asked one of the volunteers again where the baggage counter was but alas, they still didn’t know where to place it that time so they requested me to wait inside the room first. A couple of minutes have passed and they already told me to leave my things inside the other room. Since I was thirsty and the drinking fountains barely had water, I asked them where I could get drinking water. Seeing how demanding I could be, the volunteer who assisted me with my baggage gave me a bottle of drinking water. I downed it immediately and almost finished it but I controlled myself thinking that I might feel the urge to pee during the race.




The race began at around 6 am and after a few meters of running, I immediately felt thirsty and my mouth was unbearably dry. As such, I walked for the most part and just ran for a couple of meters. Also my shoe laces kept on getting loose so I had to tie them every now and then, as a result, I was stalled most of the time and I’ve been losing my momentum. Based on the results I got from the website, I finished the race with a time of 37 minutes and 26 seconds. Yeah, that’s slow, but I think that’s not quite bad at all considering that I’ve walked for 60% of the race. Yay!

The 2.8k race began a few minutes after I finished the race. And I learned just recently that Ms Sally saw me cross the finish line but she didn’t bother to call me anymore since their race was about to start. I didn’t change my sweaty clothes immediately, instead, I just sat in one of the benches to see if I would come across people I know or if I would chance upon the guy who kept staring at me during the bonfire [too bad we didn’t even had the chance to talk since I found him cute].

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