Condura Skyway Marathon 2012 - Running is more fun in the Philippines

For  only a short span of five years Condura Marathon has gained popularity and respect as one of the premier race events in the Philippines. This year Condura Marathon has for the third sucessive years made use of the Skyway and has added the word SKYWAY in its official race event as “Condura Skyway Marathon 2012” with this years’ theme “Run For The Mangroves”. This years’ race categories 42/21/16/10/5/3 all made use of the Skyway an achievement in itself.

When the venue for the event was made known to be shifted to Ayala Alabang I had my apprehension because of the distance from Metro Manila but after witnessing the way the race was organized and handled the event, the manner in which the organizers has made use of the natural layout of skyway entrance tunnel as chute for wave starting formation it was a genius conceptualization of an ideal race event.

Another first for this year was the starting time for the different race events which has the full marathon flagged down at mid-night, 21k at 3:30am, 16k at 4:00am, 10k at 5:30am, 5k at 6:30 and 3k at 7:10am was a great idea to have full control of the road and race at all times. This may have entailed more time, money and manpower, but, the organizers are willing to spend to deliver an ideal race.

I wish to congratulate the Concepcion brothers, Tonton and Patrick for been the driving force behind the race advocacy of Condura. I have witnessed the development of Condura Marathon in the last five years and have only admiration of their commitment to deliver a race for runners by runners being themselves.

I have only one wish for Condura Marathon for 2013, that is hoping that the Department of Tourism (DOT) will adapt this event as an official tourism event for the month of February 2013. Condura Marathon 2013 could showcase that race events in the Philippines are not only handled at par with those of the world but even better. They could make use of the slogan “ RUNNING – is more fun in the Philippines”.

Nature even was with the race event today as the temperature was really cool at 22 degrees centigrade making it another contibutory factor for an ideal race event.

Congratulations to the Condura Team!

“RUNNING – is more fun in the Philippines”

Condura Run 2011 - A Dream Run

For the next couple of weeks there will be stories and experiences told of the CONDURA 2011 Run For Dolphins. A great number of them if not all of them will be of how great and wonderful was the event! To the Concepcion brothers Ton and Patrick thank you for your commitment and dedication, we also acknowledge your well and able CONDURA EVENTS TEAM who left no stones unturned to ensure the success of the run.

The Condura Run premiered on 2008 dubbed as “Run for Tubbataha Reef” was attended by 2000 participants. On 2009 dubbed as “Run for the Whale Sharks” it tripled its number to 6279 runners. Last year 2010, dubbed as “Run For The Dolphins” it attracted 8500 runners and this year 2011 also dubbed as “Run For The Dolphins” it has reached 13000+ runners. The main attraction of the Condura Run for the last three years has been their partnership with the SKYWAY. With forthcoming completion of the Skyway all the way to Alabang it would be a runner’s dream to have a point to point running event from Alabang all the way to Global City via skyway with adjusted starting points for 42/21/10k categories and all finishing in one place. Realities were once but only dreams and I hope that this dream of mine will be a reality soon.

As a seasoned participant of running events abroad and locally, I have only but good comments of the Condura 2011. In fact I feel proud that we have now race events (include those of Coach Rio) that are not only comparable to races abroad, but, are even BETTER and well organized than those that are already long running events abroad. And to think of it was only in 2007 that things started on a roll locally on road races.

As there were 13000+ for the Condura 2011, there will be 13000+ different stories and experiences of how they performed and faired during the event. For my personal performance in the 21K it was my worst clocking at 03h00m18s (unofficial my Garmin 310xt). As the race event was perfect, weather condition was great (great weather with cloudy skies) support ample (hydration and banana station with portalets even on the skyway) I need to find a good excuse. On the night before the race I was at the Manila Peninsula Hotel to attend to a family wedding reception in which I was only able to leave at 11pm and be in bed only at 12 midnight only to wake up at 3am or just barely 3 hours of sleep. To add to this as the occasion was a happy one, I do not think it was “carbo loading” but more of “wine loading”. As earlier mentioned this is my excuse, but the reality I think is that AGE is fast creeping in on me. Hopefully I would still have five more years in my running life.

Condura Run 2011 – “Run For The Dolphins” was a great success for runners, family bonding, social life of friends, athletic and sports oriented individuals, even for arts with the 300 foot dolphin mural. I cannot wait for next year! Will my dream be a reality?