After all was said and done about the Del Monte Fit ‘n’ Right Run, there was one thing I didn’t mention in my post about it: I won an award.

O hai. What am I doing here?

Apparently, there were special prizes up for grabs at the run: Press Photo (for the best photo of the run published in the press), Blog Post (for the best blog post written about the run), and a special award for the runner who “dared to be Fit ‘n’ Right while looking good in the process!”

Out of the hundreds of photos, they chose this?

Yes, dear reader, I was that runner with bib number 1695. I was informed a day or two after the race via a text message from Marianne Tapales of CEMG, much to my surprise.

So tonight I went to Bonifacio High Street (site of most of the runs I’ve done this year) to the awards ceremony and blogger event at The Stock Market. Aside from a great dinner, I came away with a framed photo mosaic of me at the run, a water bottle and wash bag, two sacks of Del Monte goodies, and a box of Fit ‘n’ Right bottles — I’m set for the rest of the year, juice drink-wise.

Rodel the Argonaut of Takbo.ph was a finalist for the Blog Post award. (He won 2nd place, yay!) According to Rodel, I looked completely different from my photo. I told him, “I had my race face on.” What I didn’t tell him was I was simply thankful my photo wasn’t anything like the one taken of me at the Urbanite run. Ü

Apparently, I was wrong in assuming that Del Monte had promoted the Fit ‘n’ Right Run through the tri-media. Rather, they had taken a blogger-centric approach to the media campaign and had been overwhelmed with how large the turnout to the race was. According to Alvin, the group manager for Fit ‘n’ Right, they got to taste first-hand the power of feedback from blog posts after the race and were taking the feedback to heart for next year’s run. (Alvin also looked for Parkie at the blog event; it was on Parkie’s blog that Alvin wrote the apology from Del Monte for the way things had turned out.)

Like I said in my earlier post, I really hope next year’s run will be a lot smoother. With the way Del Monte and CEMG seem to be paying attention to bloggers and blogs, I think it could happen.

Tags: Del Monte, Running, Award

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