Press Release: Run United off to a good start

Congratulatios to Monica Torres (center) 

after winning the women's 21k trophy 

of the Run United 1 2014 over second 

placer Irene Kipchumba of Kenya 

and third place finisher Kristy Abello.

(photo by monleg)

This year’s first leg of the long-running Run United series of Unilab Active Health (ULAH) and RunRio Inc. at the SM Mall of Asia took off to a very promising start on Sunday (March 16) as over 12,000 participants raced with a purpose of exceeding themselves.

To keep the runners even more motivated and focused on their goals, ULAH has adopted the Olympics values of Citius, Altius, and Fortius in the 2014 Run United Series—latin words for faster, higher and stronger respectively.

“Our catchphrase ‘Exceed Yourself’ is all about inspiring race participants to set new personal records (citius), progress to longer distance categories (altius), or finish strong (fortius). And we can see that they are seriously taking up the challenge, given the results of our first run race this year,” said ULAH’s Alex Panlilio.

Kudos to Richard Salono (middle) as he topped the 

men's 21K race of the Run United 1 2014. Withy

Salono at the podium were second placer

 Benjamin Rana Jr and third place finisher 

Andy Pope of Great Britain. 

There were four race categories for Run United 1 namely: Ceelin 500-meter dash for kids, Hydrite 5K, Alaxan FR 10K and Enervon Activ 21K or half marathon. A sure sign that runners are really leveling up is the increased demand for longer distance categories.

“Two days after the start of registration, the 21K race slots were all taken already. And two weeks before the race date, registration for 10K slots was also closed. While there is clamor for more slots, we always stick to our target number of participants to ensure a better quality and safer race,” said coach Rio dela Cruz of RunRio, race organizer of the Run United, who celebrated his birthday on Sunday.

Besides Dela Cruz, another inspiration to runners is ULAH’s running ambassadress Jaymie ‘The Bull Runner’ Pizarro who continues to motivate women to include running in their health and fitness regimen.

The mix of participants in Run United is now a 70% to 30% mix between men and women, respectively.

Pizarro’s first ever marathon in 2009 was such a life-changing experience that she has made it her advocacy to encourage more people to get into running. She is the person behind The Bull Runner Dream (TBR) Marathon for first-time marathoners.

“In 2012, I partnered with ULAH for the TBR Marathon, which made it even more successful. In fact, in our latest Marathon in February 16, more than half of the 900 slots were taken within 30 minutes after we announced the start of registration online. It has been five great years of running. Together with ULAH, we make the running community grow and become better,” Pizarro said who also recently finished her 10th marathon outside of the country—at the Tokyo Marathon.

Rounding up the Run United Trilogy this year are two more races: Run United 2 on June 1 at SM Mall of Asia and Run United Philippine Marathon on October 5 at Bonifacio Global City (BGC)-SM Mall of Asia. The first ever Run United was held on March 7, 2010 with 8,000 runners, the number of participants has since more than doubled. On October 28, 2012, it launched the inaugural Run United Philippine Marathon (RUPM).

ULAH has also leveled up with the runners, from mere race sponsors, it has ventured into sports nutrition and apparel for runners and triathletes alike. We want to offer our loyal participants the whole package to cater to every aspect of their life as athletes, from training to running or racing,“ said Lester Castillo, ULAH’s sports events and public relations executive.

The singlets for Run United 1 2014 are even sweat-activated, when an athlete perspires, the words citius, altius or forties will appear on the series’ shirt’s back. This feature was a hit among the participants.

Besides run races, ULAH also sponsors triathlons and duathlons in partnership with Bike King. Tri United 1 2014 was held on March 9 in Subic, Olongapo. Lined up for the rest of the year are the following: Tri United 2 on July 6 in Playa Laiya, Batangas), Tri United 3 on October 26 in Subic-SCTEx in Porac, Pampanga and Tri United 4 on November 23 in Fontana Clark, Pampanga.

The duathlon will be on September 7 at SCTEx in Porac, Pampanga, while Bike United is scheduled on May 17-18 at Subic Bay, Olongapo.

Run United also supports a good cause— building healthy communities all over the country. Part of the registration fee in all Run United races is also channeled to ULAH’s beneficiary, Gawad Kalusugan of Gawad Kalinga (GK), which regularly conducts medical outreach projects and training of barangay health workers.

ULAH has also set up a health satellite clinic with the Caloocan Health Department and GK that will provide extended health services to the GK villages in Bagong Silang—the most populous barangay in the Philippines.

For more information and race results, please check the following websites: www.unilabactivehealth.com and www.runrio.com