Breast Cancer Awareness Fun Run
The Breast Cancer Awareness (BCA) Fun Run was organized by the Rotaract Club of Dumaguete as a way of gathering funds in support of breast cancer research. It was held on the 13th of October this year at the Pantawan People’s Park in Dumaguete Boulevard. Because of the event’s nature, it also served as a way for people to get their exercise in through running, walking, or jogging, whichever way the participants would prefer. All the participants of this event were either avid runners, walkers, or joggers, or just people attending to represent their respective companies.
I initially expected there to only be less than maybe 300 runners registering for the event, but to my and my friend’s surprise, during the last day of registration, we almost couldn’t register just because of the sheer amount of people that had wanted to join the run. According to the organizers, more than 1,000 people registered to join the event that day. Among the many runners though, the ones that made the strongest impressions on me were the couples who chose to run together with their very young kids. Not only were the kids able to catch up to their parents' pace, they even outran me! The run was incredibly difficult for me since I was not prepared, but the satisfaction from finishing it and being rewarded with a certificate made it all worth it in the end.
I participated in this event with less than 8 hours of sleep, and so I did learn a valuable lesson from that, and that is to both truly mentally and physically prepare yourself for long-duration running events such as this BCA Fun Run. While I did struggle through the run, I did enjoy the experience all the same, and I cannot wait to join the next BCA Fun Run, which might be next year. Joining this event has two major benefits: one, it makes you run as a sport, and two, registering means you can help cancer research in the country. Not only would you be healthier with every step you take, you are also helping women in their fight with cancer. I consider that a win-win situation. Though if I could change one thing with this event, it would be that the registration process should really be made smoother for next time so that interested parties won’t have to wait in line for so long.
Because of this activity, I am now more interested in joining more fun run events in the future and also getting back into shape so that I can run even longer durations and farther distances.