A few years ago,

I remember that i loved running especially when i play tag or basketball. But nowadays, i haven't been running but because of this opportunity, i am able to reminisce the feeling of running back then.

Recently, my school encouraged me and my classmates to join the RED CROSS fun run. Although I haven’t ran a 5 kilometer-distance before, I thought that I would give it a shot. So, I joined the RED CROSS fun run, which was held along Roxas Boulevard with the starting point at the Quirino Grand Stand near Luneta Park. My classmates also joined, which made the event more fun! There were two distances to choose from. One was the 3 kilometer- run and the 5 kilometer - run. We chose the 5 kilometer run.

The call time was 4 am and the race for the 5km runners would start at 5:30am. I woke up at 3am, readied myself for the run. I brought a small sling bag that contained water and a face towel. Upon arrival at the venue, I saw a lot of people wearing the Red Cross shirt.

Source

My Experience

I was feeling excited! I looked for my classmates and we were happy to see each other. It was around 4:45am and there were some people who were introduced and a person who guided us to a short warm up exercise before the run starts.
Soon, they flashed a 10 second countdown for the runners. 10, 9, 8,7,6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, and it has begun. There were a lot of people, so I had to find my way through the crowd of runners just to get pass them. I passed some runners and some passed me. I ran and ran, after about 500 meters, I felt like I wanted to rest. So I would rest by walking then when I am ready, I would run again.

I think one of the fun things in running with fellow runners is that I could entertain myself a bit by challenging myself to try to outrun other runners.😋

As I continue running, I felt like my bag was bouncing that was throwing me off of my rhythm in running. So, I decided to hold my bottled water instead. Later on, I have reached the half way point and I began to walk more than I did in the start of the run.
I tried to do 20 seconds of running and 10 seconds of walking so not to tire myself too much. I saw more and more people walking but I kept on running and walking alternately. While running, I tried to look ahead to see how close I was to the finish line. I was sweating a lot and I thought of simply walking to the finish line. But I decided to try to challenge myself to keep running until the end. Finally, I reached the finish line and I was so happy!
It was my first time completing a 5km run and i did it in about 28min!
Although my muscle got sore the next day, at least it was a new and fun experience for a good cause. 😃

Red Cross Shirt

Starting Line and Finish Line

Event Stage