It has been the venue of several Milo Marathon regional elimination races these past few years and I see one big reason why that is so. General Santos City has a vibrant and growing running community.
I had the opportunity of getting in touch with General Santos runners when I was invited by Gensan Run Club's John Apollo Bautista to give a talk on running basics May 18. There was a good sized crowd that night at the lecture, runners of different abilities coming from different clubs. I counted at least four - Mason Runners, Rotary Runners, Tampakan Runners and Gensan Run Club which seems to serve as a group that brings all these clubs together.
The next morning's group run at Robinson's showed me more. People of all shapes, sizes, gender and ages were walking or running at the mall grounds, some even going barefoot. People who were not at the lecture the night before joined us in doing warm-up exercises and ran a few rounds with us. It was both elating and inspiring.
Even the number of races that are organized locally shows how much running is picking up in this premiere city of Central Mindanao's SOCCSKSARGEN region.
On June 17, the Masons of Dadiangas Lodge No. 225 is holding the Wheels of Hope Run, a charity event to raise funds for a project that provides wheelchairs to indigent persons with disabilities. The 3k, 5K and 10K event which starts and ends at the East Asia Royale Hotel Parking Grounds hopes to gather quite a crowd with participants coming from all over the region.
On June 23, the EnviRUNment Takbo Para Sa Kalikasan takes center stage with its 1.5K, 3K and 5K runs which start and end at the Mindanao State University High School Campus.
I'm sure more will be coming and more people will be joining with such a vibrant running community keeping the sport alive and well in Gensan. And with new-found running friends in this city to inspire and motivate me, maybe my dream of running a race in Gensan's relatively flat fast course will now come true.
