Reflections on running

I have been so busy lately. More than usual. Largely because of The Pasig River Run, and my visits to the islands. The Pasig River Run is such a great opportunity for people to come together under one banner. It was also the first time we did it during New Moon. Our previous runs were held at the Full Moon that landed on a Sunday. Full Moon is a time of celebration. The energy is high and buoyant. 

New Moon is a time of No Moon — no light, so the energy is on an upward trend. It is a great time for New Beginnings.

I woke up at 2 a.m. to meditate. I make it a point to do a long meditation before the run — to offer the event to the Divine. Just to make sure it does not rain. To make sure the run is peaceful. So far, so good. The worst thing we have had was a snakebite in the SM Mall of Asia fields (somewhere in the grass). And it was no big deal. 

Two in the morning: I ended up going to sleep again. Finally got up at 3:40. Wow. The energy was amazing. I could feel electricity in the air. Maybe it is because I live in Quezon City and the run was in Quezon City. At that time, literally thousands were converging onsite. Some of my staff had been up there since the wee hours of the morning. 



However, my “wow” is not coming from the experience of activity or busyness; it comes from the “fullness” of the space when I sat down. Actually when I woke up, I already felt it. I just knew in my heart it was not going to rain. 

I felt an immediate connection to the Divine. It wasn’t one particular presence — it was stillness and an experience of a Multitude watching over us, showering blessings to me — to everyone. It was a deep experience, still and deep but very full. I felt this during the run and even the day after. First, I think the moon phase facilitated the experience; second, the fact of thousands converging because they believed in the cause created a vessel of sorts for the energy to land.

I was on a high, running. (Though my security man did remark: “Ma’am, you need to practice more, you stopped too often.”) Sigh. I had a hard time on the uphill inclines. What I did notice is that feeling the Divine space enabled me to go longer and steadier. 

I need to make special mention of the Air Force under General Raul Dimatatac. The Air Force personnel were 3,000 strong. They were sponsored by the SM Foundation. But they took care of their own transportation and food. They had already begun shuttling at 1:30 a.m. General Dimatatac said they had practiced formation the day before and proudly said that the public would be pleased to see what they were going to do. They asked to be the last cluster. I saw them on TV, running all in line, chanting. It was so inspiring — 600 came from the Navy, 500 from the Army, and 425 from the Coast Guard. So altogether that is almost 5,000 from the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Not bad at all.

STI also deserves special mention: 12,000 ran. They have been great supporters of the run since the beginning. A total of 35,000 ran from the school community. 

I was so happy to see ABS-CBN executives in the wee hours of the morning. Ging Reyes, head of news, proudly said: “Oh, Gina, I am here, ha!” She had woken up at 3:30 in the morning.

The finale saw winners from The Voice singing, much to the delight of the crowd. I had the MMDA Chair Francis Tolentino and the NHA General Manager Chito Cruz come to give inspiring talks. We owe it to this administration for the vision of supporting this cleanup. I love this administration. Corruption is being thrown out the window and P-Noy is actively supporting the environment. Our future is very bright.

I particularly liked repeating the oath at the beginning and end of the run: “Nanunumpa ako sa integridad, sa pagmamhal, sa pagtutulung-tulungan, sa pag-aalaga  ng kalikasan at sa  malusog na pamumuhay. Ginagawa ko ito mula sa puso  para sa Diyos, para Sa Bayan at para sa magandang kinabukasan para as lahat.” 

I particularly felt the energy go through me when I said “Para sa Diyos, para sa Bayan.... and when I said Ginagawa ko it mula sa puso punun-puno ng pag-asa...” Hope. Hope is everything. 

I so love the work I am doing. I literally could feel divine forces surge through me into the crowd. This process gives me tremendous joy. 

I love being with people and feeling the magic of what happens when people work together. 

We are such a beautiful, heart-feeling people. The future to me looks very bright. It doesn’t look easy. But it does look bright. There are challenges that have to be hurdled.

This PDAF scandal is such a bane. But what a relief that it is now being exposed! I don’t like it when decent individuals like Butch Abad are being targeted under P-Noy’s government, being accused because of the transgressions of the previous administration. But whoever said life was easy? Or that transformation is easy? But the future is bright. 

In closing, I want to share a casual chat while I was talking to Butch Abad. He said he had just come from Batanes. They had just had the worst typhoon on the planet. Wow! Gusts of wind more than 300,000 miles per second. The worst in 25 years! And yet no one was killed. No one was even hurt? That deserves headlines. 

We have typhoons yearly in Manila and nowhere near that magnitude and yearly, people die. How did they do it in Batanes? He told me the key is to live in harmony with nature. The houses they build can also withstand the travesties of nature. The houses that had been swept away were because they had gotten complacent and started building with lighter building material. But hey, no one was killed, or even hurt! That’s one for the books. 

We keep our eyes on the ball. We go forward as a people... This is my repeated experience in life. As long as one is pure, and one proceeds along the straight path, there may be difficulties, but the heavens will help. 



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I can be reached at regina_lopez@abs-cbn.com.