The Green Miles Run

I had three previous consecutive runs organized by the best race organizers in the country. I knew it was only a matter of time before I feel the disappointment of a sub-par race event.

Me and my running friends received an invite from Chrissie to join The Green Miles Run, the event having been organized by a batch from her alma mater UST. The Green Miles Run boasts of Piolo Pascual as an endorser, with his Hebreo Foundation as the recipient of the proceeds of the event.

Running addicts would know that Piolo set a record during 2009's Timex Run, introducing the term "sub-Piolo" - meaning you're better than Piolo if you beat his 10k time of 47 minutes and 54 seconds. On this event, he'll run 15k. It would be an ego boost for anyone who could beat him to the finish line. I wanted to earn that bragging right.

March 21, 2010 - Race Day. First 15k, first time to run at the Mall of Asia grounds. I heard a lot of feedback that experienced runners did not favor the flat route of MoA, with long distances just doing numerous loops around the mall area. Good thing the 15k route stretches out of Roxas boulevard until the U-turn at the US embassy.

Here's a pre-race photo of me and my running friends:

During the 15k assembly time, we decided to go in front of the starting line; we figured Piolo will be there right in front for publicity shots. When he arrived, the excitement of beating him started to kick-in. As you can see on the shot below, that's me and Earl just behind Papa P.

I followed Eugene's pace initially and it didn't take long before we overtook Piolo (if I remember correctly, this was when we passed the mall center's gigantic globe). Keeping up with Eugene's pace was difficult. I knew there will come a point when I had to slow down and let him go on his own. Between the 6k and 7k mark, I was on my own.

I continued with my own pace, enjoying the route which I consider as a breath of fresh air. I was confident that I was still doing a sub-Piolo. I didn't see him overtaking me but I was quite puzzled that I didn't see him when I was on my way back along Roxas Boulevard. When I got to the finish line, Eugene was already there, as well as my non-15k friends. Guess what? I received bad news that Piolo already crossed the finish line, ahead of me by 5 minutes. T_T

Later, I overheard from some runners that Piolo had his own 15k route. Most probably he just went around the MoA area, and for security purposes he did not take the Roxas Boulevard route. Unfair if you ask me, but if you're a celebrity you really get special treatment. This is sour-graping at its best.

The official race results were released a week later, with very poor accuracy. According to the results, my time was 1 hour, 15 minutes and 25 seconds. I believe this was around 3 to 5 minutes advanced from my actual time. That's what you get from manual barcodes. Piolo's time never got announced.

Bottomline, it was a wrong race choice. If I had learned about the Globe Ayala Run earlier, I would have joined that event. Oh the eternal battle between Globe and Smart! Did I mention Smart was Green Miles' major sponsor? Go figure.