Run United - Hot Hot Hot

Run United 2010 sponsored by United Laboratories and organized by Runrio.com has been allover the media in the last month in their promotion for the run scheduled on 7Mar07. It was therefore expected that the race event would be participated by a lot of running enthusiast from all walks of life. Indeed when the race day came it was one of those well-attended race events. I do not have the exact the figures, but, it should be around the same number as that of the “Super Bods Run” just a fortnight.

Run United may not be cheap in its registration fee, but in my vocabulary it has delivered your money’s worth in all aspect of the race. Coach Rio has more or less championed race organization of this magnitude. Further, whatever short fall he has learned on his last race has done corrective action and improve on the issue. For Run United one outstanding improvement is that you have more than ample supply of bananas for all the 21k participants, which was practically on all hydration station. The previous long queue to collect your finisher’s medal and loot bags are a thing of the past. Dedicated stations for the different race categories in the collection of loot bags were provided. United Laboratories being big corporations were very generous in their giveaways as well as their overall budget for the race event. With more than enough funding and with a competent race organizer is equal to a successful race event. Congratulation gentlemen.

For my 21km output its was for 01h43m21s and burning 2040 calories. Details as per my Garmin 310xt as follows;



Great as the race maybe, I have two suggestions, which I hope Coach Rio and his team would consider.

Run United is the first race that we have held on the country’s official summer time. On normal days, it is not until the 4th kilometer mark does l I start sweating, however, yesterday was HOT really HOT. I was just reaching the 2km mark and I feel like taking a bath in my own sweat. It even got worst when the sun started to shine. When I crossed the finish line I felt drained and needed 30 minutes to recover before being able to do anything. There were more than enough hydration stations, but, I think during summer time please consider to run start the race on an earlier time maybe 4:45 for races of 21k and above category. Just only during summer time. I cannot but help wondering how my dear friends who run the BDM 102 also of yesterday managed particularly on their case, but that’s another story.

For the last two races, Coach Rio has used the same route at Fort Bonifacio. It is a good route, but maybe next time lets try another route just for variety purposes and new trill for the running enthusiasts.




Two minor suggestions, which I hope, will be taken in good light. Thank you to United Laboratories for sharing their finances to the running community and to Coach Rio and his team for a great work and effort. Congratulations.