Be healthy by running and help the environment at the same time by collecting trash along the race route this Saturday in the Basura Run. (CDN PHOTO/CHRISTIAN MANINGO)
From a mere 50 runners when it started, the “Basura Run” of Cebu Ultrarunners Club (CUC) president and environmentalist Tony Galon has grown into a nationwide event with a simultaneous run this Saturday in 13 different venues around the country as well as in Mexico City, Mexico.
Galon initiated this 5-kilometer run that requires each participant to pick up trash along the route last June. The race went viral in both the social media and the running community that several running groups from
different parts of the country vowed to hold their simultaneous race this Saturday at 6 a.m.
The Cebu run will be held in seven different places namely Cebu City, Lapu-lapu City, Cordova, Minglanilla, Carcar and Bogo. Davao City, San Carlos City, Surigao City, Manila, Catbalogan, Dumaguete, Tacloban, Tagbilaran, Bacolod, Butuan, Baybay, Ormoc and Ilo-ilo City will also join the event.
Galon was overwhelmed when he learned that his friends from Nuevo Laredo Tamaulipas, Mexico City, Mexico pledged to hold their own race.
“Despite the big participation that we expect from different venues around the country and in Mexico, it’s still much better if each one of us are disciplined enough to dispose our trash properly to prevent floods in our cities,” Galon told CDN.
The first ever Basura Run last June which started and finished at the Fuente Osmeña Circle has 50 runners that grew to around a hundred when Galon decided to make it a monthly race.
Galon also initiated cause-oriented races in Cebu in the past including a distance run to honor the fallen 44 SAF officers killed in an encounter in Maguindanao last year. Earlier this year, he and a group of runners ran 8k all the way up to Tapul Elementary School in Talisay City to deliver arm-chairs and conducted a feeding program for the kids there.