FUNd Racing : Fun + Donations in a Run.

Last Wednesday, November 30, I got to join the Michelle EStuar’s FUNd Racing at the ULTRA.  My son, Marcel, was supposed to join me but it got vetoed by the mom via the exams week principle.I got Ron Hemady,  a classmate from the Ateneo de Naga HS 1983, to join me instead. 

I found the FUNd Racing a delightful surprise.  I felt real fun in this fun run.

Bibs and runner's guide

Considering that this fun run event had no registration fees, except for a donation to Tuloy Foundation (minimum of Php 100), I was not expecting much in terms of running amenities.  But the organizers  delivered beyond expectations.

I post pics of the running.

Dash to start 10K

5K start

Up the Meralco flyover

Teaching them young the love for running

Piggyback running of father and daughter

Mother and Child running version

Ateneo de Naga HS Batch 1983 representatives

With Milo running clinic classmates and our coach

     

I guess, the key to the success was the charisma of Michelle Estuar, who celebrated her birthday via this fun run event.   With such a charisma , it was easy for her friends, running clubs,  and corporate sponsors to give their time and resources to the fun run and its intended beneficiary.  Many of her friends volunteered as emcees and running marshals.  More than a handful of running clubs (Team Boring, Power Puff, and  Chicem Runners to name a few) manned the water stations.    

At the Chicem runners water station

 

Corporate sponsors were in abundance, too.  I counted more than a dozen group logos at the back of the finisher shirts.   The group Eat Pray Run provided delicious ice cream to the finishers.  Unilab and Bosch medicines were part of the give aways, plus magazines from Frontrunner.  Globe Telecoms had the cool pink baller bands.  Many of the running marshals were wearing A Runner’s Circle shirts. 

A birthday celebration will not be complete without this

Generous sponsors to thank

Given this huge support, I would imagine that the Michelle Esstuar’s FUNd Racing was able to generate substantial funds for the Tuloy Foundation, the priest  of which I was fortunate to talk to and have a picture with.  This priest  is a first cousin  of Michelle.  It was thru the good priest  that I got to know that the dad of Michelle is Tito Castrillo, an old school gentleman who was my boss for a couple of years in Phelps Dodge.

With Tuloy Foundation priest

Speaking of the birthday celebrant, I was not able  to talk to her nor get a picture with her.  She was sooo busy all over the place, getting interviewed by the media and making sure that the fun run would go on smoothly for the runners.  A true runner indeed, thinking of the welfare of her fellow runners.

Michelle Estuar being interviewed

“Will the Michelle Estuar’s FUNd Racing  be an annual event?” the emcees inquired from the public present at the ULTRA.  The resounding answer of course is a booming YES.  

Yes to using running to raise funds and make a difference in the lives of the children of the Tuloy  Foundation.  Yes to fun in the run.