Three weeks ago, I had one of the best Saturdays I've ever had. And it's all thanks to the Nike+ Run Club. Three days before that day, I got a call from Nike inviting me to a group run in BGC on the morning of June 25. I was told that there will be a surprise. 

On the day itself, I arrived at Nike Park in Bonifacio High Street an hour before the call time. They've already set up the event area. I got inside the enclosed area, registered, and deposited my bag. I was given a black NRC shirt to wear during the run. We were told that we were required to wear Nike running shoes so I was also handed a pair of Nike Free RN Motion Flyknit.
wearing the official runner shirt of the Nike+ Run Club MNL

When we were all decked out in Nike, we were asked to get ready as we were about to go on our 10k run. We did a quick warm-up led by Coach Ico and then off we went on our run.  For this particular session, there were no pace groups. The goal was for everyone to just run together and finish strong together. The route was just around BGC with a couple of hydration stops. 

When we got back to the event area, Coach Rio told us that if we want to keep the shoes that we were wearing, he had one more task for us. We must finish the circuit training to wrap up this NRC session. We were divided into four groups, and we were supposed to do a series of workouts in one minute. On our last set, somebody said through the microphone, "Hey! Hey! Stop what y'all doing here." I was in the middle of a lung-busting burpee then so I looked up and I saw Kobe Bryant himself. I let out a fan-girl scream.

He then proceeded to give us a small talk about the Mamba Mentality. Then as a challenge, he made us do a squat hold that lasted for three minutes. After which, he had another challenge for two people, one from the runners group and one from the pacers group. They were made to do squat hold challenge, wherein they had to squat for as long as they could and whoever wins gets to have his or her group line up to have their shirts signed by Kobe. No one seemed to want to lose, so in the end, they had to just endure a total of fifteen minute squat hold and Kobe signed all our shirts.  
runners' shirt and pacers' shirt signed by the Black Mamba

After Kobe has signed everyone's shirts, we had a short group photo with him before he left the venue. Before the session ended, Coach Rio announced that we do get to keep the shoes that we were wearing. On top of that, he give everyone a ticket to the Mamba Mentality event happening that night.

It was indeed a super fun Saturday. I made some new friends and had a good run with them, followed by a killer workout. I scored a Nike shirt and a new pair of Nike running shoes. On top of that, I got to see Kobe Bryant, the Black Mamba himself, live and in the flesh, and had a photo with him while he was signing my shirt. It was such a priceless experience. Again, thank you NRC! <3