Distance: 10 Kilometers
Date: January 5, 2014
“ Start the year the colorful way! With the early morning skies of Bonifacio Global City enveloped by assortment of colors, Color Manila Run 2 gave everybody a solid workout and a colorful visual display to welcome 2014.”
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Happy Colorful New Year!!!
I’ve been raving about Color Manila Run 2 since November when the event was launched because it’s already getting to be a tradition of starting the year the colorful way. Color Manila Run is a cross between a good workout and having a really fun time doing it. It can give a first time runner a fulfilling first medal and a memorable run. It can also give experienced runners a chance to build on their mileage and start their running year on a positive note. We started squeaky clean and ended up being a colorful masterpieces. Here’s a colorful toast to cheerful 2014 and my first post in 2014 too!
Race Course
The race is the same as the previous year which I can divide as the fun zone and the race zone. The first fun zone is the first 3 kilometers along the International School Area passing through the Pink, the Blue and the Yellow color stations. The second fun zone would be the last 2 kilometers is the 8th Avenue to the finish line passing through the Purple, the Green and the Orange color station. Kilometer 4 to 8 is the race zone where you can try to do a faster split and falls on the other half of Bonifacio Global City passing through 11th Ave going to Rizal Drive and back via 39th Street and 5th Avenue. The course is relatively flat though there are some elevation gains and losses which can add or reduce effort in the run.
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The Race
I was at the race area really early as I don’t want to get the usual parking problems with over 5,000 participants for Color Manila Run 2. Since I was early, I was able to say hi to some of my running friends and organizers who are also in the area. The mood was really festive even an hour before the race as people were upbeat in doing their first run of the year and have fun doing it with the color explosion that’s about to happen. The plan was to do a solid 8K run and enjoy the last 2 kilometers playing in the color station. I ended up being part of the second wave of 10K runners to be launched which would be unleashed a few minutes from the first wave. Since this is just a chill run, I didn’t mind starting a little bit later. After the first wave had their gun start, we got our own start a few minutes later and bang…
Since the legs was a bit warm already, I didn’t hold back at the start and slowed down only to enjoy the color stations since I was also judging on which color station would be the most creative and entertaining. The first station was Pink which replaced the dark morning skies with a hue of pink. The next was the blue station which had costumed super heroes throwing color powders at you. After the blue station, I added some speed and met some running friends (Titanium Runner and Enrico Caramay) who I chatted a bit on the walk intervals. The next color station came like a large cloud of yellow and it was an awesome sight.
After crossing back to other side of the course, it was time to enjoy the race on the fast lane and tried to do my splits faster heading to 11th Avenue and Rizal Drive and back. This part felt exhilarating and felt like a breeze but this is the part I like about Color Manila Run, while it’s mostly a fun run, it can give you a really good sweat if you choose to. I also wanted to finish in time for the color powder toss ceremony. This is the way I want to start my year, having a good sweat and a solid workout so I enjoyed this stretch before heading to the fun part.
Approaching this area, I would need to assess the next 3 color station and eventually choose who would be the best. So I hit on the breaks and enjoyed the last two kilometers. It was congested in this area as a lot of people are just having fun playing around the color stations, throwing powder at each other, doing selfies and lying around the powders. The Purple station had a lot of people playing around while the Green station had nice costumes. Approaching the end of 8th Avenue for the final U-turn, there was a fiesta setup for the Orange station and a lot of people enjoying the station. After seeing the last station, I knew that the Orange was the winner based on the criteria. I then headed to the finish while enjoying the color stations again on my way back.
I completed my 10K and got my medal. I got my color packet and was still able to chat with some friends before the powder toss ceremony. The color visual display with thousands of fun-loving participants tossing powder to envelope the skies was just AWESOME. It’s the Color Manila Way of saying, Happy Colorful 2014! Great job Proactive Sports for another great Color Manila Run.
I’m still not out of the color fever so I went back in the route to pass some time and enjoy the color stations once again and also a chance to have photos like this.
Post Race Meal
And the Color Fever Continues
How was your #ColorManila2014 Experience? For those still having the color fever, the fun does not end there as Color Manila Nite Run 2 is happening February 22, 2014. See you there!!
For more photos visit the following Facebook Pages:
- Photo-ops
- Running Photographers
- Pinoyfitness
- Justin Gomez Photography
- Tara Trip Tayo
- We Run for Good Health
- Spongebob Runner
- RAR Martinez Fotorun
- Red Knight
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