UAAP Game Experience

I've always been proud to be an Iskolar ng Bayan. Imagine the indescribable feeling I've had during my first experience to witness Game 1 of UAAP Finals between Ateneo and La Salle live in Araneta Coliseum!

I did not quite understand my husband's excitement (he is a true-blue blooded Atenean) to watch Game 1 as well as him being proud of getting us tickets for 2 to watch the finals. I previously thought it was just some trend rather than a long history of rivalry between the 2 schools. With the various newspaper articles on Ateneo/La Salle UAAP game finals recently, I essentially got curious, willingly tagged along and decided not to argue with my husband this time on buying game tickets from a scalper that were almost worth a week of our palengke expense.

We left the house around 2 p.m. to make it to the 4 o'clock game in Araneta Coliseum. We decided to park our car in SM Makati and took the MRT instead. I was relatively surprised to see quite a number of people clad in blue and green outfit going towards the MRT station! Apparently, it has been a regular practice to park your car somewhere and take the MRT going to Araneta Coliseum! I secretly smiled watching some of them wearing their green school jacket unmindful of the heat while waiting in the MRT station. The ride was pretty quick and hassle free. From the MRT station, I was pretty amazed that we already arrived in Araneta Coliseum in just a few steps. (Pardon my ignorance as the last time I rode the MRT was about 8 years ago!)

As we walked our way inside Araneta, one could feel the intense school spirit looming in. I was relatively amazed to see a lot of people watching the game! I think I haven't seen Araneta Coliseum that full in my entire life! What I've relatively observed though is that even if the Blue Eagles outnumbered the Green Archers in attendance, La Salle's voice seem to be louder wanting to make their presence felt. It was relatively a great game to watch indeed. I think home viewers enjoyed the game as much as we did!

Ateneo rightfully won Game 1. After the game, I felt a sense of pride witnessing a great event in UAAP game history!

My Milo Marathon Story

For about 2 years now, my husband has been trying to convince me to join the Milo Marathon. I am not an athlete nor am I a health buff as I am the opposite. Last year, we signed up for the marathon but was not able to go since it was raining hard. This year, we decided that we participate in the Marathon whatever the weather may be. It was both our first time to join the Marathon but it was not my first time to witness one. My first Milo Marathon experience which was about 6 years ago was almost a forgettable one as I woke up late then and when I got to the event location, all the runners were in the different race paths.

I've managed to have a better Milo Marathon story since then. At around 5 o clock in the morning, we got up, got dressed and tried to reach the race area by car. There was a re-routing for vehicles on these times as runners were trying to assemble in the starting line. It took us about 30 minutes to reach Km 0 and the race just got started.

I was mesmerized by what I saw, I used to think that only ants can gather in such a number! There were a lot of participants all having their own Milo Marathon story to tell regardless of age, gender and socio-economic class. Rain poured heavily and a lot of participants did not mind the weather at all. We managed to walk first in the starting line as it was quite hard to run given the volume of race participants.

We managed to finish the 5Km race and was amazed to see that the participant of 42K already was about to go to the finish line with almost the same time as ours. My husband and I vowed to ourselves that we will make it a yearly ritual to participate in at least one Milo Marathon. If weather permits, we would bring our kids for them to experience such a glorious event while they are still young.