Sky Ranch Half Marathon in Tagaytay 2015: The Worst Run Event!

I’m a running enthusiast. I try as much as I can during weekends or whenever it is a holiday and I have free time. I have joined several fun runs but I’ve never done a 21K run because I feel that I’m not yet ready for that. The farthest that I’ve able to join is a 15K rum that was organized by Takbo.PH. It’s seldom that fun runs have a 15k run it’s only usually a 5k, 10k and 21k. I didn’t hesitate when a friend invited me to a run that has a 15k and will be held in Tagaytay. I thought that it will be a great opportunity to surpass my limitations and check if I’m ready for a 21k.

The run is Sky Run Half Marathon which will be held near Sky Ranch. Since the run will be held in Tagaytay, we opted to find a hotel which is near the venue. We weren’t able to get many details about the run because they didn’t include any race map when we claimed our singlet. There is also no information about the time of the run. We’ve only found details on their Facebook page. It was a day before that I learned that the run was organized by Prince Multi-Sport.

The gun start for 21k was at 4:30AM while for 15k and 10k for my surprise was both at 5AM. My previous runs usually have 30 minutes gaps in between to ease congestion of runners.

The street that doesn't have streetlight

We arrived at the venue of the run 10 minutes before 5AM but the starting line feels chaotic. There is just a small distance from the starting line to the baggage counter and the booth of Columbia which is one of their sponsors. There is no stage so I wasn’t able to see the guy who is giving a brief orientation to the runners. There was no warm-up as it was only 1 minute left. There was not even a gun start, just a lady who announced that the run has started. At that point, it was not a big deal. It doesn’t matter if there are no proper warm-ups or gun-start.

So I started to run. There was a part that you have to cross the road and I saw two to three Marshalls. I didn’t know that they will be the only Marshalls we will be seeing on the entire run. Since it is 5AM, it is still dark and there is part of the road that has no streetlights. Should I blame the organizers or the city government? Other run events I have joined set-up lights on places that are dark or there are Marshalls to assist the runners.

The thing that irked me very much was the water station. At more than 3k there was still no water station. My sister who also joined the run was able to catch-up on me and she was also angry because there was no water station. Then we saw the water station which is just made of two mono blocks table with two girls pouring water on the plastic cups. My sister asked them at what distance is each water station and they said that it is at every 2.5k. A runner said that it’s already more than 3k which means our GPS is correct and the place of the water station isn’t right. We continue our run but we have already doubts of continuing.

When we reached the next water station, to our dismay there is no plastic cups. We asked the guy on how should we drink and suggested that we can drink on the cover of the water jug which was also used by other runners. My sister and I decided not to continue the 15k and made the U-turn for the 10k. I don’t think that I can possibly run dehydrated.

no cups for water

 Jeepneys and buses started to pass by us. Every time there is a vehicle we have to stop or slow our pace to ensure we will not be hit. There was even an instance wherein I almost bumped a 21k runner who is on his way back. There is no portion of the streets which is closed and there is also no sidewalk so we really have to check if there are any passing vehicles.

It was a very disappointing experience. My worst run! There were no Marshalls, no markers for the distances, water station is not fully equipped and the venue doesn’t even have enough parking. Well, there are some runners who seemed to be happy. Even our friends who invited us seemed to enjoy the run. I don’t know to them but for me it’s a huge crap!