From left, Joel Baring, Charmine Nograles, Sheryl Althea Sia, Alyssa Jan Gaisano, Chrisley Ann Hinayas, Major Christian C. Uy and Adrian Aban during the press conference for the 26th Anniversary Run at the Mandarin Restaurant of the Gaisano Country Mall. CDN Digital photo | Mars G. Alison
CEBU CITY, Philippines—Some 308 students in Nug-as Elementary School in the southern town of Alcoy will get raincoats, slippers, mural painting materials and school supplies as they have been chosen as the beneficiary of the 26th Anniversary Run of the Gaisano Country Mall.
The run, which is already on its 8th year, will start and end at the Gaisano Country Mall on October 27, 2019.
Store Operations manager Charmine S. Nograles said that they chose The Dream Big Project that picked out the school in Alcoy because the Gaisano chief operating officer, Alyssa Jan Gaisano, is an advocate of education.
“We chose The Dream Big Project as our beneficiary this year because I personally am an advocate for education,” said Gaisano who added that she hopes “we will be able to earn enough funds to support them.”
The run will also serve as a start for a lot of changes for the Gaisano Brothers Merchandising Inc., of more to come, new buildings and new stores to come, said Nograles.
The run which will have Joel Baring as race director will also continue its tradition of providing “generous” loot bags to participants in appreciation of being known as one of the best races in Cebu.
“This run is our way of giving back because the prestige of being one of the best runs in Cebu is more than enough for us,” said Nograles.
The run also continues to do its part of continuing to care for the environment as after starting using paper cups last year, this year they will be using a paper race bib.
This year, organizers are expecting about 3,000 runners, about 200 more than last year’s 2,800.
Interested participants are urged to register early because unlike in previous years, organizers could no longer accommodate late registrants.
Nograles explained that this is because suppliers of the medals, finishers shirts and race bibs are from outside the country.
Start of registration will be on September 16, 2019 and deadline is usually set a week before the run date.
The run will have the same distance categories—5 kilometers, 10k, 15k and 21k.
Registration fee is pegged at P500 for the 5k, P600 for the 10k, P700 for the 15k and P800 for the 21k. All inclusive of snacks, loot bags, raffle tickets and singlets.
Registration centers are at the customer service centers of Gaisano Country Mall and Gaisano Main, northwest and south Gaisano branches, RUNNR in Ayala Center Cebu and Toby’s Sports in SM City Cebu.
This year, all finishers of the 21k and 15k will get a finishers shirt and finishers medals. Before, only the 21k and top 100 of the 15k will get finishers shirt and medals.
A total of P100,000 will be given away as cash prizes for the top finishers.
This year’s edition promises to be livelier with fireworks on the arcs. /bmjo