Maricel & Anthony among Pinoy runners at NYC Marathon

MANILA, Philippines - Here’s Maricel Laxa-Pangilinan, writing from New York City where she and husband Anthony Pangilinan joined the New York City Marathon (they should be home by now):

Hi Ricky!

It is with great excitement that we share with you our having finished the ING New York International Marathon. It was an amazingly surreal experience as we couldn’t believe we were actually able to run with more than 70,000 runners from all over the world!

There was a bunch of us Filipinos who ran. I was not able to keep a tab at the complete delegation but Anthony and I were blessed to have been part of the Timex Philippines official delegation. Other Pinoy friends who ran were: Fernando Zobel de Ayala and Geraldine Santiago of Polo Tri team; Leigh Carcel, beauty queen Thea Robles; Team Takbo’s Paul Loiz; Steve Romasanta; Baby Banzon; Asa Mendoza; and Paul Casino.

Our friend Garlic Garcia couldn’t have described it more aptly when she posted on her Instagram site that she was proud to be with the Filipinos who ran the largest marathon in the world. 

We also ran alongside international celebrities like Stephanie Abrams, Joe Bastianich, Pamela Anderson, Bill Rancic, Michelle Beadle, Richard Blais, Nick Kypreos, Greg T, Patrick Wilson and Christy Turlington Burns.

It was quite touching when we were sent off with the song New York, New York by Frank Sinatra. We were also transported back to the memory of having been here last year only to find ourselves unable to run because of a great tragedy that hit New York City when it experienced the devastation from Hurricane Sandy. The race has been cancelled as a result of that. Then we were reminded about the outcome of the Boston Marathon where there were casualties from having it bombed. So you can imagine how emotional this whole event was plus the fact that it is really a huge fundraising event with a variety of people running for different causes.  We had rounded up our friends to give us their prayer requests and we dedicated each kilometer for them.

Last Sunday, Nov. 3, we conquered the five boroughs of New York — Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx and Manhattan — to cover 26.2 miles or 42 kilometers.

The crowd was incredible as we passed each town with a variety of ways to welcome the runners through their singing, dancing, cheering! For me, it was a great sight-seeing adventure. Live bands were playing for hours and hours and the streets lined up with people dancing and having a great time. This is truly one race I will never forget. The warmth of the people who reached out with their encouragement and support also the nourishment we so needed at each mile — all of them are precious! Thank you for the chance to share this with you and your readers.