Walk the World; End hunger

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... and get hungry yourself in the process!

Fe, Dara, Crystal, and I joined the United Nations World Food Programme's Walk the World–Pilipinas. It's a charity event conducted to raise funds to help keep children in school by providing daily school meals (which cost around P10 a student) in conflict-ridden areas of the Philippines, such as Mindanao. I guess this is our way of contributing directly to the U.N.'s Millennium Development Goals.

Instead of joining the 1k walk, we ended up running (and walking) the full 5k route. Noan and Tita Angie participated in the walk, complete with the marching band, the giants (higantes), the balloons, the tribal dancers, and the corporate participants.

I clocked 00:46:02 in my first 5k race, based on the time I crossed the finish line (unofficial race time). Not bad, I thought, since I was aiming to finish in under an hour. Dara and Crystal, also running 5k for the first time, finished the course earlier than I did. Fe, who walked the entire way, finished in 01:04:30.

Walk the World is also being done other countries in a 24-hour relay. According to the event's website, it began in Auckland, New Zealand and will end later today in Samoa.

Photos before and after the event are found here.

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