RUNNERS will have extra motivation to push themselves further as the 2019 edition of the 7-Eleven Run will be dangling a whopping P500,000 to those who can break the Philippine record for the 42-kilometer distance.
Philippine Seven Corporation general merchandise manager and division head Jun Ang announced this in yesterday’s official launching of the cash-rich running event at the 7-Eleven regional office at the Bigfoot Building along F. Ramos Street in Cebu City.
“We decided to give a P500,000 cash prize for the male and female marathoner who will break the Philippine record to make this race more exciting at the same time encourage our marathoners to give their very best during the race,” said Ang.
The men’s Philippine record is currently being held by Eduardo Buenavista, which stands at two hours, 18 minutes and 44 seconds. He logged this in February 2004. The women’s record is Cristabel Martes’ 2:38.44 logged in July 2005 in Manila.
The 7-Eleven Run 2019 will be held on February 3 simultaneously in Metro Manila, Cebu City, and Davao City.
The running event drew more than 35,000 runners in the three legs held early this year. The winners of the 2018 edition, which included Cebu’s “Marathon Queen” and Olympian Mary Joy Tabal, were given a chance to compete in the Jeju Island Marathon in South Korea.
The top three in the 21k, 32k, and 42k from all three legs in 2019 will again represent the country in an international marathon race.
The 42k champions of this race will receive P25,000. There will also be 32k, 21k, 16k, 10k buddy, 10k, 5k buddy, 5k individual, and 3k distances. The non-competitive category is the 500-meter dash for the kids.
Race director will be Joel Juarez of Coco.
Those who want to register can visit any of the 179 7-Eleven stores in Cebu.