My First Fun Run in 2013: Philhealth Run

Posted by Carlo Andrew Olano February 21, 2013

My First Fun Run in 2013: Philhealth Run

It's a new year and I have not been writing much. Well, I guess I spent so much time on myself and in trying to set my priorities for the year. I sort of started my happiness project. For the first 2 months of 2013 my focus was myself and my health. I really gained so much weight in the last few years and I even reached over 105 kilos just a couple of months ago. Now, I spend around 2 hours daily in the gym and I have seen some good results. I lost pounds and inches but I am still overweight by health buff standards ( I don't think I could reach the ideal weight of 75 kilos that the BMI watchers suggest).

Since I lost some weight, I decided to sort of test myself if I can now somehow run in the pavement. I still do not feel that my knees are ready for such punishment. An opportunity came as I was invited by some friends to join the Philhealth Nationwide Run. I got a lot of friends from Philhealth and I was really excited to join. I also had many friends who signed up for the run.

During the race, I made way to Cebu Business Park before 5 am. I was able to join the warm-ups led by one of my favorite fitness instructors at Fitness First, Francis Cire Isidro. Cire was the leader of the winning group in the presentations in last year's Fitness First Cebu Christmas Party which I belonged to. He also happened to be an employee of Philhealth. I saw a lot of familiar faces near the stage during the warm-ups.

After taking pictures during the start of the 18k run, I spent a couple of minutes waiting for my supposed companions for the 3k fun run. My cousin Lotlot and her husband Titing arrived just a few minutes before our run started. Our other runmates; TJ, Clyde, and Kim are nowhere to be found. I decided to run with my Sony A57 DLSR cam. Once in a while I stopped running to take photos of people I know.

A few minutes after turning at the halfway mark, I saw Clyde and Kim lagging behind the field as they were probably the last starters for the 3k. I finished the 3k in about 29 minutes with all the stops and the picture-taking. It was not bad for a first run of the year. TJ arrived to join the join group for the post-race festivities as she failed to wake up early.

After the event, we had breakfast at Sinangag Station in F. Cabahug. Running surely gives your appetite some boost. All in all, it was literally a fun run and I am looking forward to joining more in the coming months as my knees and feet were not acting up after the race. Hopefully, I will have a better time then and also better companions. Here are some of the pics I took in the 2013 Philhealth Fun Run Cebu: