Makati After Dark: A Participating Runner's Experience

Last October 31, 2013, I was invited along with many other bloggers to participate in the Makati After Dark Run.  We were told by Ed Uy, the PR (NOT organizer) for the event, that the media wave will start at 8 pm.  I was really quite hesitant to go since its a family tradition to go to cemetery on Nov 1, the next day, early.  But a co-blogger Christian Melanie Lee, promised that it will be a lot of fun since many of the bloggers as well as the media will be there.  I have been to many fun runs before but never with zombie so I decided to give it a go.

I arrived there around 7:30 pm and couldn't contact Ed so I asked the registration for him but they also don't know where he is. 

There was so many scattered zombies on sight but no runners.  I thought maybe it's because they started earlier as the announced stating wave was 6 pm.  The registration tent was really dark and they only made us of cellphone light for the participants to be able to fill up the registration forms. 

Good thing I saw two other bloggers there and they've been passed a message to register as media.  After we registered, we were provided a neon wrist band, a belt with three yellow flags and a choice of drinks: Vitwater or Sunkist.  We were also told to start already.

We didn't know where the starting line is as zombies are scared everywhere.

There were also random people who are not participants who are taking pictures.  There were also media cameramen for various networks such as Solar News who came and left.

The event was quite open and tourists even pass by just to take a photo with the zombies.

I saw some bloggers who volunteered to be zombies there too.  They don't know where to go also so we took some pics first.

My other blogger friends were standing when a zombie suddenly pulled their flag indicating that it was the starting point so they ran ahead of me.  I decided join this group of girls so I have more surviving chance than being on my own.  After all, what I was expecting was a "wave" and we were just a group of five I think.  It's a bit weird that the zombies are moving forward while we were waiting for other runners so we decided to just proceed. 

 

The make-up of the zombies are really good.

There were so many of zombies just before the first corner that I lost two flags already.

These group of runners decided to stay put and wait for reinforcements as the zombies are too many.

It was really difficult to tell runners or participants as anyone can just walk-in.

As I reached Jupiter st., I was holding on my cellphone on one hand and camera on the other, I was frisked. =(  There were cars on the left side so I had nowhere to go.  I told them I had no more flags but they continued.  I had a gift certificate for milk tea nearby and pocket money safely inside a secured pocket.  But the zombie managed to get the gc and I had to get it back all torn and crumpled.  I didn't realize that my pocket money must've been dropped somewhere until later too. 

I saw fellow a father and daughter runner tandem up ahead and decided to join their walk in returning to the starting point as we didn't have any flags left.  The other zombies were really nice and polite.  They told us they are not allowed to touch or lift shirts and were begging for flags.  We told them we were out of flags but we'll take a picture instead and they were ecstatic about it.

They were water stations along the way.

At around 10 pm, we decided to meet up with all the bloggers there and take photos.

We were really disappointed with the event and decided to go home after so we might as well make the best out of it.

My friends who survived with a flag were told to sign up with their address so that a free shirt will be sent to them.

That's me! The girl on the lower left =)

From this picture, you can see that I am wearing a very long over-sized shirt.  Yet when I went home to take a shower, I realized I had scratches on my right elbow and waist!  I guess I didn't notice that when I was frisked to that extent when it happened.  Frisking is an illegal violation of human rights that even police officers are not allowed to do it without a warrant.  

Before going, we checked out if the concert was about to start and found a photo booth.

There was also these guys. 

The boys had a bit of fun.

There were surprisingly a lot of people dining.  But, they are not the runners you see. 

And, there's a stage but no band just random beats for the enjoyment of those who were dining.   Since we were all dead tired and hungry, the boys invited and treated me to Mc Do for dinner.