Ang sarap pakinggan/basahin ang walang sawa ninyong pasasalamat sa pagsuporta namin sa inyo. Ang aming sagot mula sa puso: Wala pong anuman!

To witness and share in your triumphs is enough for us. I’m living vicariously through all of you. That is, until I get enough hutzpah to do something as crazy as this. lol.

To the Finalists: Wilnar, Natz, Vener, Jay (di ko kilala si Jay); to the old and new 42km Finishers: Rico, Bongyu, Ziggy, Aries, Dhentz, Doc Roy, Rod, Mar, EO, Chris, Mr. Robert Garcia, Sam, and Steven  (I hope I didn’t forget anyone); to the 21k Finishers: Ellen,Doc Lyndon, Ferdie, Carlo (all the way from Cebu), Argo, Doc Eric, BongZ, Timmy, Team Loagan: Craig, Michelle, Justin, Prince, David V, Ian, Eric A and Emilee A (if I forgot anyone, please add na lang po)—-all of you are such an inspiration to us. Cheers. Clink.

Now for the fun part.  Snippets of fun at the Aid Station on Buendia:

Pat texted by 4:20AM saying he was at the Buendia Station already. By this time, Iris and I were at Buendia/Makati Avenue. Got to Caltex before 4:30, saw red shirts all over, and we thought, “Wow, aga!” Ay, mali, Caltex Pump Boys pala. .

Pat texted saying he’s running after the runners on his bike after Gunning Off.  Gene arrived .Neil and Rachel came in their pick-up, Eire and Bryan in their Fortuner. We were strategizing how to cross the other side of the street to station the station (huh?), made googly-eyes to the men in uniform and yey, they allowed us to set-up. Chugging along the coolers, chairs, food, and all our bags, we crossed the street. Rachel took charge right away : set –up cooler her, trash here, other stash here….Done. Now picture time. Lol. Cherry and Julie arrives, then Shel. Picture ulit. At some point, Francis (Rico’s friend) came and we were set. At siyempre si Carly.  In the middle of things, dumaan din ang mga finishers-Cindy, Doc T, Edu, Vicky, Vic, Tim, Ferds, Neil, Prince. Siyempre the bikers: Julius, Ronald, RJ, & Neil. (again if I forgot anyone, it’s not my fault).

Our weapons: Water Spritzers, Choco Mucho, Banana, Piyaya, Polvoron (yup, we wanted to give this to the kaaways. Who? We don’t know. lol) Water, Gatorade, Vit Water, Powerade, Pompoms, Ice cold towels, Dry towels, Liniment, Alcohol, and of course, my BenGay.

(Please note that Mar and Rico were the men of the hour: preparing, coaching, etc. Thinking of the smallest details such as, stickers, represent takbo.ph well and not be mean to the runners who need aid, and of course the hand signals: 1 (pointy finger) for liquids-water, gatorade, etc; 2 (peace sign) for food; arms crossed means cuddle.)

Incoming! It’s Mar! Go Mar, Go! Clap. Clap. Go! Mar makes the number 1 sign and what do the wonderful people at the aid station do?  ‘Gave him the same sign, and shouts, “Number 1! Number 1!” A few seconds after he passed us, we looked at each other and realized,” Crap! He needed water!!!!” Oh nooooooo! We started laughing, but we all felt so Du-h! We let Mar down….*sniff. Pat to the rescue! As Pat wheels to us, he was signaling that Mar needed water. Hala, lagay ng water and Gatorade sa backpack ni Pat. And he was off! Whew! Possibly being banned from takbo.ph averted.

Si Rico! Clap. Clap. Clap. Go Rico! He was doing the hand signal for drinking water and saying Gatorade, Gatorade. Dhanggit! We were not ready. We had no water or Gatorade on hand. The cooler had something on top of it, hence taking us a few more seconds to open the dheng thing, and by this time, Rico was jogging in place patiently waiting for our clumsiness to subside…Go Rico!!! And off he went. Kahiya!

Anubah? What kind of Supporters are we?! We let down our Masters! Of all the people we needed to make ‘pakitang gilas’ to, we failed on both counts (shame. head bowed). LOL! Bawi. Bawi. We assigned spritzers, water, Gatorade, food, cameras. Hidden behind our backs so we wont inadvertently give our supplies to non takbo peeps.

In my head, it was okay to use the spritzer on non-takbo peeps because it was just water, right? But, nooo. Bryan told me he’d tell on me kay Rico. Ayan. Tinago ko tuloy.  But then I see him, a few minutes later, spritzing anything that moves—us, runners, aba, trigger-happy. Bryan actually has a shot where he’s spritzing someone straight at the runner’s ear. Pasalamat ka, di si BR or else, ma-blog ka! Lol.

Don’t pass our station walking because we will get you to run, or we will get you to run a wee bit faster.  It seems almost comical that the Aid Station had this power, but it’s not comical because we know the runners were just so tired, but because we were cheering them on, they had to move faster. Tsk. Tsk. We were too efficient, I think. Lol.

Some thought the Aid Station was the Finish Line. Oooops, sorry, we’re just an excitable bunch.

“Incoming Orange Sticker!”

“Incoming…ay mali…fuschia pala.

Spell!

P-I-N-K

Woohoo! Clap. Clap. Go Runners, Go.

And of course, my favorite part of the day was when my first BenGay  Botak ‘customer’ passed by on the turn-around and blows kisses to me. Itago na lang natin siya sa pangalang, Isko.  (Walang pakialamanan, blog ko to!) Peace!