It was about 9:00 in the evening, Friday , June 20 and I was running late. I needed to make a phone call to Jon (Coach Rio’s brother-in-law, who also happens to be one of the people handling the online reservations and payments) to ask if I could make my payment for Rush to Infinity the following day since I doubt I was going to make it in time to the Mizuno store at Bonifacio High Street.

“Kuya, si Eric po ‘to… kakatapos ko pa lang sa klase. Ok lang ba na bukas ko na bayaran yong mga na-register ko. Mukhang di na ako aabot sa BHS ng 10pm. Paalis pa lang ako ng UP.”

“Ah, ganun ba? Tawagan mo si Rio… tanong mo sa kanya.”

I tried to get in touch with Coach but I think he was still busy with his personal training [Rio is also personal running coach aside from being a race organizer and coach of the UP Track Varsity].

Jon texts me and says, “Extended until Sunday.”

Whew! That was a relief. I had 4 other participants I needed to register for the Rush to Infinity on June 29 and they would kill me if they found out that I wasn’t able to register for them.

I woke up the next day to a text message from Jon, “Kakatawag lang ni Rio, wala na daw extension.” Uh-oh! I was in deep trouble… So I call up Coach Rio.

“Coach, Eric ‘to… wala na daw extension? Paano yun? Di kasi ako nakabayad kahapon kasi late na ako natapos sa klase. Tinawagan ko si Atan para i-reserve ako ng kits. Nakapag-register naman ako sa online eh.”

“Naku, Eric… wala tayo magagawa dyan. Deadline kasi natin June 20 for online reservation at payments. Naubos na yong 5k at iilan na lang yong natitira sa 10k at 15k.”

“Ah, eh… Coach… baka pwede naman na ipasok na lang natin sa 10k pero dun na sila sa 5k tumakbo tapos ilipat na lang natin yong data/info nila sa final tally?”

“Ah, hindi pwede yon… magugulo yong data natin… Bakit kasi ngayon ka lang nagbayad?”

“Walang oras Coach eh…”

“Ayan… sorry, wala na bib eh. Mag 10k na lang sila.”

“Sige. Sige… Hehe… ako pa naman ang nagsabi na lagyan natin ng deadline… at ako pa yong nagpopost ng announcements mo.”

That’s the conversation Coach Rio and I had when we saw each other Saturday afternoon at the Mizuno store at Bonifacio High Street. I was hoping for consideration, considering the fact that I’m the one who maintains and updates RUNRIO.COM… But what Coach said was right, I was the one who suggested that we put a deadline so that we wouldn’t have any problems with the registration. Another thing why I was not upset and that I had to face my own mistake… Coach and I have been talking a lot about “runner’s discipline” and how we should instill that kind of discipline to the Philippine running community. Well, if we make the rules, we shouldn’t be the first to break them.

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In my last post of Runner’s Discipline and looking at the different comments on Coach Rio’s website, there have been different views on the matter. Some say that they don’t have the time nor the facility to register early or to go out of their way just to register or pick up the race kits at designated pick-up points. Well, don’t worry, we’ll try to come up of more ways to accommodate and take into consideration the different schedules, locations or circumstances of different runners. Perhaps we can also have a “group registration” in the future. If you have any comments or suggestions, please do tell me, Coach Rio or drop us an email at feedback@runrio.com