My 4 year old’s 1st Road Race (Race & Shine)

After months of promoting the race, I was excited to partake in this event. My youngest son Chito studies in Shine Intervention, a school in Kapitolyo specializing in educating children with special needs.

Since Shine was one of the prime supporters of the Let it Shine Foundation, Chito’s school was naturally turned into a channel to market Race & Shine, a fundraising event to raise funds for the foundation.

Let it Shine Foundation is one of the few groups setting up research for the creation and sustainability of VOCATIONAL PROGRAMS for individuals with autism to provide them the equal opportunity to work and earn. The foundation created a research team to evaluate which jobs are best suitable for individuals with autism. This research will hopefully lead to the creation of a variety of therapy programs that will develop the skills necessary for them to work independently.  Information from this research will be shared to all schools and centers that cater to individuals with Autism. For more information, please contact the foundation at 218-2362/ 0920-9244282 or email shine.foundation@gmail.com. More Information on our foundation may be found on:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/LET-IT-SHINE-FOUNDATION/128336142230.

As soon as I found out about the race, I immediately spread the news to family and friends. I wanted to make sure the event would be a successful one as I believe in the cause that the event was supporting.

Registration

After helping friends to register, I realized that I haven’t registered myself and my family! With the race just 6 days away, on the morning of the Pacquiao-Cotto fight, I immediately took the kids to Libis to register in All Terra, Club 650. I chose to the 3k relay so Chito and Ben can run as well. I was pleasantly surprised to have received great quality singlets for this race. Too bad they didn’t have extra, extra small for Chito. That would have been really cute J

Race Day

Chito had a bout of cough and Noy felt that we shouldn’t push through with the run L After convincing him that our baby will be fine, we started to get ready. Our 3k relay would start at 7am. We were just leaving the house at 645am. Crap! We’re late again! I really hate being late during races. I lose all motivation to finish strong. Then again, this was about the boys running their first race not about me beating my PR. I had planned to let Ben run the 1^st km, Chito with daddy the next and I would finish the remaining 1k. When we got to the venue, the race hasn’t started yet (Relief!)

waiting for the race to start

3k relay here we come!

Chito was starting to become anxy, he actually wanted to cross the starting line, away from the crowd, as soon as we got to the venue.  Thankfully the host started to prepare the 3k runner after about 15mins or so of waiting.

8,9,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 and off we go!

run chito run!

I decided to let Chito and daddy start the relay run, since my little one has very little patience. It was a good call as we found ourselves running with his favorite teachers. Chito sprinted the 1^st 50m but decided to walk when he found himself amidst a sea of runners (more of a pond of runners J). He then was cajoled into continuing his run but after 200m, he decided he had enough and sat in the middle of the road. Good thing Teacher Jaybee was there and he helped motivate Chito to continue his run/walk pace until the finish line. I took tons of pictures of Chito and Daddy while walking under the warm sun. After about 900m (was wearing my trusty Garmin J), we finally saw the finish line but Chito was growing tired, he wanted daddy to carry him. Noy instead ran ahead and pushed Chito to run towards the finish. I must say, he’s a natural. Hand in hand, my beloved Chito and Daddy Noy crossed the finish line marking my baby’s 1^st road race.

i will be a future hardcore runner 🙂 (mommy wishes)

i'm tired!

finally! the finish line!

i finished my part 🙂

Now it was my 12 year old’s turn. I decided to join him for his part of the relay. I still remember the 1^st time Ben ran with me and Noy. We convinced him to join us for a short run to Greenhills from home. If he can run/walk 5k, 1k shouldn’t be hard for him. I was right. He just breezed through it with sprinting pace.

My share of the relay race was uneventful. I was photographed close up by FPS and I looked bloated. Not my best picture. Noy tried to take a picture of me as I crossed the finish line but he was about to just take a millisec video. Oh well, again…it wasn’t about me.

I saw a few running peers supporting the race, Sam (the running Ninja), Sir Mon of Happy Feet, Roselle (the Running Diva). Thank you so much for being there! J

We capped off the morning by driving thru Mcdonald’s and grabbing breakfast. The free breakfast was not enough for my 2 growing boys (Daddy and Ben).

happiness! 🙂

I look forward to another race with my family.

Keep running! No barriers…