Philippine Star: Makati After Dark - Run & Survive Hallowfest
THE CONJURING
As the PhilStar article in the link above goes, `MAKATI AFTER DARK’ was supposed to be a Fun Run that promises to give participants the most thrilling running experience right at the heart of Makati’s financial business district, with an All-Night Street Festival featuring several bands and DJs, a car show displaying exotic and high-end custom cars, the GTMACCON Pinoy Komiks and Cosplayers Convention and the Mercato Centralle Food Fest for the biggest food bazaar, not to mention street performers, magicians, stilt-walkers, mimes, fire breathers, dancers, zombie movie marathons and LAN games!
Exciting right?? That’s why I registered...
DRAG ME TO HELL
Traffic going to Makati on a day before a long weekend was nothing but horrendous. Transportation was moving at an excruciatingly slow pace. The exorbitant P1000 Registration Fee we paid was enough motivation for me to continue with the run. No Run, No Finisher’s Shirt and loot bag. So from my place of work, I ran 1 km all the way to Gate 3 of BGC, took a jeep going to Walter Mart, and walked all the way to Makati Avenue corner Buendia.
At the Registration Center, I showed my receipt, after which I got my life belt with 3 `lives’ (yellow ribbons) which the 3000 Zombies plan to snatch away from you. (they are AFTER your LIFE). We were fitted with a yellow wrist tag, which enabled us access to the various events, and P100 food entitlement. At the side, the sponsors were giving away Sunkist, Vitwater, and Alo Green Tea.
My colleague / running buddy came, and although we were late for our Wave (they call it `Colony’ here to differentiate themselves from the Outbreak franchise), it turned out that there were no official gunstarts per wave, which was most unusual. You may start running after you get your lifebelt. No starting line, just head along Buendia Ave. and into Zombie-infested streets.
FRIGHT NIGHT
Despite having no starting line, we headed off together with Bane, Harry Potter, and a Jedi Knight. The zombies were quite a number near the starting area, and they gamely posed with us for photos. As we veered to the right going to Jupiter Street, that’s where things turned for the worse. Jupiter Street had one lane reserved for the Zombie Run, but the other lane had vehicles plodding along, and there were NO MARSHALLS and NO TRAFFIC AIDES to keep the runners in the reserved lane.
Further on, an unruly batch of kids dressed as zombies CLUTCHED onto our clothing (they’re not supposed to do that, they’re only supposed to get hold of the yellow life ribbons and snatch it off our life belts!). Some runners even traversed hurriedly across the other lane to avoid the chasing zombie kids. As I mentioned earlier, the other lane was open to public vehicles, so it was VERY DANGEROUS to run left and right, lest you become roadkill. There were no barricades, marshalls, or traffic aides along this route. We learned later on that some ladies had actually been sexually harassed, as they were groped, and were even asked for their cellphones. WHAT THE….???
We turned right again, then onto Buendia Ave once more, and soon we were already at the Finish Line. It didn’t feel like 5km, only about 1km. Turned out we were supposed to turn LEFT from Jupiter St. into Bel Air, but again, there were NO MARSHALLS to direct the runners, and there was HEAVY VEHICLE FLOW on the other lane, not even SIGNAGES to show us that we were supposed to turn left.
As we approached the non-existent Finish Line, we saw the food stalls, and the car show. Didn’t the poster say `Run and Survive with 3000 Zombies’? There were even more Spartans fighting Persians in the Battle of Thermopylae than Zombies chasing runners. Over at the other side was the stage. But no band was playing. Where was 6-Cycle Mind? Sandwich? Callalily? Where was the Horror Filmfest which was supposed to run the whole night through?? NADA! NYET! NOTHING!!
So after we got back to the Registration Booth, they told us to sign the paper and indicate how many Life Belts we came back with. The prizes, which were supposed to include a medal and a certificate, were commensurate to how many life ribbons you had left. They will send it to the address you indicated upon registration. I was surprised and disappointed that I will have to wait for it in the mail. Anyway, time to claim my Finisher’s Shirt…..
So this volunteer named Zack, a rotund guy in a red shirt, tells me `Oh, I am very sorry, but we ran out of Finisher’s Shirts’. Hello, it’s only 9:30pm, and there doesn’t seem to be many runners around, how could you run out of Finisher’s shirts? Zack tells me a new batch will be coming, if I could wait for awhile. Weren’t the shirts supposed to be reserved depending on the number of registrants?
By this time, finishers who had gathered around were sharing their utter disappointment, disgust, and disenchantment at the disorganization of the whole event. Some runners were angrily complaining about everything – no starting/finish lines, no marshalls, no guide, no loot bag, no finisher’s shirts, groping and attempted robbery by zombies, no medical aide to attend to injured runners, lack of safety considerations, no band, no filmfest…..the list goes on. There was only one thing on our minds – REFUND!!
THE OTHERS(ide)
`I’m really sorry about what happened’, says Zack, `but I’m just a volunteer here. Give me a few minutes, I’ll run over to the other side and talk to the organizers, so they can come here and give you the refunds. Please write your name and phone number on this piece of paper’.
So why are the organizers on `the other side’, and not here to attend to the complaints? Why leave the volunteers at the mercy of the angry runners, who shelled out P1000 for a fun-filled evening as described in detail in the flyers, social media, the Press?
We wrote our names on the list, and he brought it with him to `the other side’. So the waiting game now begins…. In the meantime, ABS-CBN, TV5, and GMA7 were reporting the fast-paced happenings at the start route with zest, with runners happily dodging zombies, and other horrific creatures, screaming in delight, oblivious to the hell that awaits them…..
EXTINCTION LEVEL EVENT
After a while, the whole running event was shut down due to the numerous complaints / injuries. The zombies were asked to go home. Runners who had just arrived were flabbergasted. "What’s happening? I paid P1000 for this run!!" Police which had been stationed at Bel Air were surprised there were no runners passing their posts. How could they, when the runners aren’t told they were supposed to head in their direction? In short, it was already Game Over for the Makati After Dark zombie run.
And to think that this Halloween fest has received the endorsement of Makati Mayor Junjun Binay and the full support of the Makati Tourism Office!
OBLIVION
15 minutes went by, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours. Still no sign of Zack and the (Dis)Organizers. Have we been taken for a ride? Did they just add insult to injury? The volunteers had secretly hied off away from the complainants and disappeared quietly into the night. By now, no-one was manning the registration table. They had all left the complainants to rant among themselves, leaving the mountains of unused lifebelts, the admin table, the receipts, the yellow wrist tags, and other logistics equipment in their wake.
Next to the deserted table, the Vitwater sponsors were clueless how to proceed, so they just left the boxes of watered drinks behind as they, too, vacated the site.
One of the complainants had seen Zack talking to a mysterious Indian-looking guy at Food Ave. in Petron Station. By the time we decided to go there, Zack had gone, but the man he was talking to was still there, sitting alone. Some complainants approached him and we vented our frustration and iterated our claim for a refund. He said his name was Richard Castillo, and that he was a `consultant’ to the event. I noticed he was holding the receipts and the list we had made out for the refund, and I pointed this out to him. He promised he will get back to the organizers and arranged for our refund, and told us to mark with an asterisk our names which were listed down. A complainant named Neil got his cellphone number. Richard said it is advisable to have only one contact person, so Neil will be `it’. We all got Neil’s number for follow-up. Having done that, he left.
After having waited for 2 hours, we set out to have dinner at the foodfest on `the other side’. Our yellow wrist tags entitles us to P100 free food, which we were almost denied. What happened felt like something straight out of a horror movie, perhaps aptly so, being a Halloween Fest and all. We started off with high expectations of a fun-filled evening, but ended up like survivors of a chainsaw massacre.
Having said all this, I can sum up the `MAKATI AFTER DARK’ experience in just two words:
EPIC FAIL!!!___________________
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