Who says running isn’t expensive

One may have thought that running can be the cheapest way to have a good physical exercise. All you have to do is to put on your favourite sportswear and rubber shoes and you’re off to a good workout. Nowadays, there are nice places to jog or run. UP Diliman even dedicated a jogger/biker lane inside the campus. Bonifacio High Street and Mc Kinley Hills in Fort Bonifacio are also frequented by runners. Others may have the privilege of living in a village where one can have a good running experience. With all these, one may really say that running can be cheap.

As you begin to run and reap the benefits of it, one began to feel the drive to be better in it. And so, you begin to look for better running shoes, desire to wear nice running apparels (e.g. branded singlet, shorts) and accessories (sports watches with gps capable, iPods, etc.) that are now available in the market. Running gears are now readily available to runners with the rise of specialty running store. They even offer services such as gait analysis to determine the type of shoes suitable for your running form. Even the staffs in these shops were experienced runners and are knowledgeable to be able respond to their customer needs and queries.

With the running boom experience in the country, the interest of people getting into running had raised its level from a simple form of exercise to a competitive one. Running clubs were formed in different offices and even asked the services of experienced runners and coaches to conduct running clinics. When I started running just a year ago, there were limited numbers of races you can join. Today, simultaneous races are held in weekends. There were times were two races were held within Fort Bonifacio alone. Last weekend there were at least three races held simultaneously within Metro Manila. These September, almost all the weekends offers good quality road races. Registration fees for these races vary depending on distance categories. Common price ranges from 200 – 500 pesos. Most of them are giving portions of the proceeds to charity. Others are promoting advocacies and for some it was part of product promotion. A runner will put in his budget a considerable amount of money to be able to join races. Of course, joining races may not be compulsory but once you get addicted into running, I’m sure you would surely want to try it.

So, who says running isn’t expensive. For whatever it’s worth. I just hope that running as a sport for everyone will be here to stay because we all love to run! Keep on running runners! See you at the following races!