Running Against

300 or so runners. That's the number of runners who, back in 2008, gave a flying fuck about the Nike 10k Human Race. It was my first, and so far worst 10k at 1:08 in an official race. It's the one that sculpted my backbone, the one that reinforced my metaphorical outlook of running. In the 2008 run, registration was free.

8,000. That's the limit of registered runners allowed to join the 2011 Nike We Run Manila.

Registration fees are up to PHP1,300 per participant. I arrived almost an hour early, but this orange dri-fit tee-clad crowd was so thick I only got to cross the starting line 3 minutes after the gun start. This choking-hot afternoon race was not the race to earn your best 10k PR. But yes, with the running bug gone viral in the city a lot of people are a lot faster.

Nike is one of the corporations we love to hate. The swoosh is part of one of the logos in that 1% Occupy Wall Street is struggling against. Nike must make gazillions selling cheaply manufactured shoes at expensive price tags and exploit laborers in the process. Needless to say, they invest heavily in branding, advertising and marketing and I must be an idiot for buying the idea and slipping comfortably in invented fictions such as "Hit the road, not the wall" or terminologies such as "Dynamic Support" or "Lunar Glide." I even felt like it was designed for me.



It's immature to admit I don't like it. The 1% is positioned towards increasing their profits, influence and marketing capabilities. Nike also sold ideas and ideologies that they put on their shoes and shirts. They were good and we bought them. We enrich the 1% and keep ourselves to the 99% And yes, that is something I should run against. At the same time, I won't fool myself and say that I'll protest on buying a good product.

Besides, I've got ideas of my own that were born of out my running. To run along is what's important.

Thinking of my own immaturity, I've hit a lot of walls and no longer think of what I am running away from, but what I am running for. And never to forget what I am running against.

I still wear them, but I also struggle to keep my Nike shoes and shirts off. As one of their ads say, Running is always a beginning.