Category Archives: Race Announcements

Anton wrote about the new 7 Wonders of The World on his blog and, not surprisingly, the Great Wall of China is still on that list. I haven’t been there myself, but if and when I do it will be sometime in May. Nope, not because it’s my birthday month nor is there any other special occassion to celebrate. It’s for a much more sublime and meaningful reason: The Great Wall Marathon! (What else did you think? This is a running blog remember?!)

The Great Wall Marathon is held every year on the 3rd Saturday of May. Runners can choose from a 5k, 10k, half or full marathon. Whatever one selects, this is by no means an easy course. The first half (9k) of the course takes runners through a portion of the wall’s 3,700 stone steps with frequent steep (uhm…very steep) ascents. (Ooh, I can almost feel the stinging pain in my legs!) After this, the course takes runners through the scenic local villages and rice fields of Tianjin province.

For the average human being, the Great Wall is a must see before they die. For runners, it is said that this is a MUST run. Runner’s World (Jan 2007 issue) included it in their top 10 list of marathons you should run in your lifetime. Lucky for us Filipinos, China is a hop, skip, and a run away. See you there one of these years! hah!

The next Great Wall Marathon is on May 17, 2008. Click here for more information.

More articles on the Great Wall Marathon:

Great Wall Marathon by John Lindsay
The Great Wall Marathon by Sean Fishpool (2001)

Video courtesy of Spreeker 

Wake up guys! Today is the first day of registration for the Milo Manila Marathon on July 22 with the starting point at the Quirino Grandstand.

Choose from a 3k (and run with the kids), 5k, 10k or—as my Coach has selected—the 42k!

Bring a 300g wrapper of Milo to register. If let’s say it’s a 1kg wrapper than that would entitle three registrants to sign in. Registration is at Vasquez Madrigal Bldg. 51 Annapolis St. Greenhills (same as Adidas’ registration). It’s pretty convenient because they have a booth right outside the building. Registration ends on July 20. For more information, call Mr. Biscocho at 727.9987.

So, who’s signing up?

I registered for Adidas King of the Road 10k yesterday morning! If you haven’t signed up yet, drop by the RACE booth at the Vasquez Madrigal Building in Annapolis Street—quick. There is no deadline for registration, but slots may be filled up if you wait till race day. (See my List of Races for more info)

Oooh, the bold red singlet alone makes me jump up with excitement. It’s the first singlet that actually fits me (finally!) and, even better, it is actually wearable in a race—so unlike all my other singlets that have been unofficially tagged “pambahay” (house clothes).

– More views of the singlet that everyone is going gaga over. Mine is not for sale. On second thought, it is. Bidding starts at P10,000. –

Enclosed in the race packet is the route map with the start and finish line at the Quirino Grandstand.  That’s reason number two why I’m all revved up for this race. All my other races were at The Fort. I think I can run the roads of Fort Bonifacio backwards already, blindfolded, with my shoelaces tied together while eating a peanut butter sandwich! Okay, if I pulled that stunt over there, I’d definitely end up in the city morgue…but seriously races in that area can get a bit predictable even for race-crazy runaholics like me.

The only thing that’s making me a bit queasy about this race is the thought of my business trip the day before. I’m going on an 8-hour round-trip to and from Pangasinan on the 30th. Gulp. Will I be able to rest well during the long drive? Will I feel strong enough when I wake up early for the race? Or, most importantly, will I even wake up? I’ll know the answers to those questions soon enough.

See you at the Adidas King of The Road on July 1! Who’s coming?

I should check my spam box more often. This is what I found there!

Below is an open letter from SportsConnection, the company behind Champion brand, apologizing for the lack of organization during the Champion Run. I don’t know about you, but running brings so much positive energy into my life that I refuse to taint it with any unpleasant thoughts or harbour ill feelings towards anyone.

All I can say to the management of SportsConnections is this: please learn from your mistakes and make sure that in next year’s run (if there is any) you will: 1) have more water, 2) more marshalls, 3) start on time, 4) provide water at the end of the finish line, and 5) coordinate closely with your race organizer (When you put your name on it, it is your race. Its success or failure becomes yours too.) Peace—I have forgiven and forgotten! I don’t know about the rest.

To other runners of the Champion Race, feel free to post tactful comments and suggestions for SportsConnection to realize areas of improvement.

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Warm Greetings!

On behalf of SportsConnection, we would like to thank everybody who joined the Champion Run. We appreciate your participation in our first run event.

We would like to take this opportunity to apologize to those who have been inconvenienced by lack of water in the hydration stations set up by Fort Striders, the group we commissioned to be our race organizer.

We have distributed (personally handed) to the runners more than 2,800 bottles of mineral water and soft drinks together with some snacks and the certificates.

Please note that as soon as our president, Adi delos Reyes, found out that the stations have run out of water, he immediately instructed our staff to go get more water for the runners.

The problems you mentioned (water and not enough marshals) were supposed to be taken cared of by the race organizer. It clearly states in the contract we signed with them that they will provide water in the hydration stations, take care of the race technical aspects as well as the sound system to which we have also heard several complaints. Their shortcomings had boomerang on SportsConnection especially our brand, Champion.

We do not mean to point fingers at anybody. We take responsibility for the problems in our event but have trusted that our race organizer would take care of these aspects.

Please be assured that we only want the best for the runners as well as the sport. It is our vision to help and support PSC athletes and Gawad Kalinga.

We hope that you understand SportsConnections’ side because we too have been a victim here. All these we have taken note of and we assure you that this will definitely not happen again.

Boycotting our future events and our products is most unfair. We appeal for your kind understanding.

Thank you.

I just registered for the Run For P.E.A.C.E., have you?

For the past week, I could simply not decide between the 5k or 10k due to the cacophony of voices yelling out their oh-so unsolicited advice. My legs were begging me to just go for 5k because I had abused them during the Champion Run. My laptop was telling me to run the 5k because, as iCal mentioned, I had a business trip to Batangas scheduled for June 9, the day before the race. My brain was telling me to sign up for 10k as it had intelligently concluded and I quote “the 10k would be highly achievable without undue stress to your body as intensive training shall prepare you for it.” Aaaah, decisions decisions.

This morning, I met Coach B, Annie, Mayi and Jamike for our usual run at Alabang. Annie and I ran for 1 hour covering around 10k at our usual pace taking our regular route. There was nothing unusual today, but my run was exhilarating. It was tiring (my legs were very stiff towards the end) yet it was pure bliss. Driving home from the run on an adrenaline high, I threw all rational thought to the wind and decided to join the 10k.

I dropped by NCRTS at Camp Bagong Diwa this morning to register for the run. Mr. John Familara, the affable Finance Officer of NCRTS, helped me out with registration and proudly spoke of the upcoming race. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the run will be carried out in 13 regions—from Baguio to Caraga—all at the same time with an estimated 3,000 participants in each race. Whoooaaa, incredible! For some reason, the thought of running alongside (well, in spirit) other Filipino runners across the country got me more excited for the race. As if I’m not excited enough eh?!

– Route Map For Run For P.E.A.C.E. –
(courtesy of Mon Domingo, H@ppy Feet Runners)

Run For PEACE (3k/5k/10k/15k/21k) will be held on June 10, 2007, Sunday, 5 a.m. at Global City, Fort Bonifacio.

Registration is on-going until May 31, 2007 at the National Capital Region Training School in Camp Bagong Diwa, Bicutan, Taguig City. (I had no idea where this was, so just in case you’re as clueless as I was, here are the DIRECTIONS: Southbound on South Super Highway, exit Bicutan. Make a left towards the market. Straight ahead. You’ll see Camp Bagong Diwa on the right) Or, of course, you can register on site! Call Prof. Jove Usana at 531.3487 or 0919.690.1295 for more details.