The 19th Philippine Hot Air Balloon Festival – The Weekend where Everything Flies

It was February 14 and everyone is thinking about Valentines, but I have other event in mind. This is the weekend where me and my sister will be going to Pampanga to watch the 19^th Hot Air Balloon Festival. We intend to watch the festival on the morning of February 15 (Sunday), but we already went to Pampanga on Saturday to avoid the early commute of going to Clark, Pampanga.

We arrived at Dau Terminal at around 3 in the afternoon. After checking-in at our hotel we decided to go to Clark, the venue of the festival, to buy already the tickets for tomorrow morning. During the ride going to Clark, you can already see some exhibitions of planes at the sky. I am not sure if these are the remote-controlled planes that we saw the first time we went to watch the Hot Air Balloon Festival last 2011.

Tickets can be bought at the entrance of the event at Php 300.00, and since the ticket is generic for the 4-day event there are no worries to buy the ticket in advance. It was already getting dark and from outside the field we saw one hot air balloon already in the sky and other balloons already getting ready to fly.

On Sunday morning, we left at quarter to five since the event will start at five-thirty. It was hard getting to the venue as there are only few PUVs going inside the Clark Airfield due to the traffic caused by the event. We hired a tricycle to bring us to the main gate of the airfield just to be in time for the festival. At the gate we walked for less than a kilometer to get to the entrance.

The place was already full of people when we arrived. It was already hard to get a good spot to have a full view of the balloons. After squeezing and bumping from a lot of people we managed to get a good location to see the balloons as they are getting started to fire up. As the balloons are still getting ready, paragliders are dropped from the sky together with the Philippine flag, which is known as the flag drop. A flag drop and the singing of the national anthem signals the start of the event.

After several minutes of waiting, a dog shaped hot air balloon started to lift up. There was a loud cheer from the crowd as the dog-shaped balloon rises. The other balloons soon followed to lift up. The crowd is very enthusiastic to see the different shaped balloons like the farm house, devil, octopus, elephant, shoe house, a face of a boy and a girl and Van Gogh. The sunrise serves as a beautiful backdrop as the hot air balloons stayed in the air for thirty to forty-five minutes. 

  

Aside from the hot-air balloons other attractions at the festival are the different airplanes, race cars, exhibitions of remote-controlled planes, paragliders and the sky full of kites. There are also live band performances at the stage to keep everyone entertained.

Food and souvenirs are also available at the venue, so there are no worries for breakfast and lunch. There is also a booth of the Medical City, where they give free medicines for those who might feel sick during the event.

Condura Skyway Marathon 2015 – Run for a Hero

After a long wait, the Skyway was again filled today with runners, running for a good cause. The Condura Skyway Marathon – Run for a Hero 2015 happened today, after the event was cancelled last year to be one in solemnity for the victims of Typhoon Yolanda. For this year the Condura Skyway Marathon will be donating the proceeds of the run to Hero Foundation Inc., a non-profit organization helping the families of our fallen soldiers.

I have been waiting for this run since my first time to join the event last 2013 for Run for the Mangroves. For me running at the Skyway was such a wonderful experience. It will really test your strength and stamina, especially the climb going up the Skyway. While running at the skyway, you also have the chance to see the beautiful sunrise.

The marathon starts at 12 midnight for the 42K runners, while the 21K starts at 3:30am, the 10K run starts at 5:00 am and the 6K runners at 6:30 am. We arrived early at the venue since we know that the place will be jam-packed immediately and also to get some early freebies based from my last experience you can get freebies as early as 5am. But when we arrived at the race venues there were few people and most of the booths are still closed and have not started giving freebies. There were stalls that are selling foods and some shirts and running merchandise but there are no booths giving out free items.

Before the start of the race tributes were given to the 44 PNP SAF that have fallen recently at Maguindanao. Prayer and a moment of silence was given to the soldiers, and to commemorate them upon crossing the starting line there are soldiers aligned holding pictures of the 44 soldiers. Runners were asked to give a salute as they ran past the pictures of the 44 new heroes. It is such a big coincidence that this tragedy happened before the Condura Skyway Marathon that aimed to help the families of our fallen heroes.

But I have also some concerns during my race. Running uphill the Skyway is very tenuous and adding the cold weather, one could feel dehydrated easily, I expected the first hydration station at the 2km mark but you have to wait until the 3km for the hydration station. Unlike my first experience running the Skyway, this run is so crowded especially after the U-turn for the 10km runners. You cannot gain momentum or run at your pace due to the crowded lane. I find it also hard to overtake other runners that are walking because they are scattered along the lanes, some are even at the center. From the other runs that I have joined, participants that have opted to walk should be at least at the sides and not block the center to give way to the other runners. Hopefully these concerns will be given attention for next year run

As I said, it was really a wonderful experience running at the Skyway, challenging at the start and fulfilling once you have crossed the finish line.