New format, new route, more prizes in eighth edition of SM2SM Run

From left: SM Prime Holdings Vice President Marissa Fernan, race director Joel Baring, and SM Supermalls Visayas Assistant Vice President for Marketing Jenjen Amigo unveil the official singlet for the upcoming SM2SM Run.
(CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA)

THE SM2SM Run has just become bigger and better.

The eighth edition of the annual footrace will offer more raffle prizes, longer distances, a new format and a new route when it gets underway on February 18 starting at the SM City Cebu.

“I cannot believe how far we have reached after organizing this race for eight years,” said Marissa Fernan, the Vice President of SM Prime Holdings Inc. in a press conference yesterday. “I think over the years we were able to encourage both young and older people to start running and we were able to provide the Cebuano running community a quality race that they look forward to every year. More importantly, we were able to help a lot of people as our beneficiaries.”

The beneficiaries are the Cebu Newspaper Workers Foundation (CENEWOF) and the Cebu City Task Force on Street Children.

Over P1 million in cash and raffle prizes will be given away to participants of the race.

Aside from the cash prizes for winning runners, there will also be raffle prizes at stake for all participants. Among the prizes include eight Cathay Pacific Cebu-Hong Kong round trip tickets, eight Samsung Galaxy Note 8 cellphones, eight Samsung LED Televisions a Fuji X Series Camera, and an Instax Camera.

“This running event is meant to be fun even though it’s the biggest in terms of prizes. Our idea is to make everyone experience a quality running event at the same time have fun,” added Fernan, who was joined by Jenjen Amigo, the assistant vice president for marketing of SM Supermalls Visayas, and race director Joel Baring.

The two new distances are the 8-kilometer and 4k. It replaces the 7k and 3k last year. The other distances offered are 21k and 12k.

And since the Cebu South Coastal Road (CSCR) is now off limits to footraces since late last year, the route will also be new. It will now be using the S. Osmeña Road, Osmeña Boulevard, Escario Street, Salinas Drive in Lahug, Banilad Road to Talamban and vice versa.

The run will also use a new format as it will now have age groups in the 21k and 12k distances.

Meanwhile, five-time women’s 21k defending champion Mary Joy Tabal is expected to compete in this year’s race, according to Baring.

Tabal, a Southeast Asian Games gold medalist in women’s marathon, is supposed to leave for Italy to prepare for the upcoming Asian Games stint this year in Indonesia. She is still waiting for her visa to be approved.

“She already confirmed that she will be joining the race on February 18 since she told us that she is still waiting for her visa to be approved,” said Baring.

Registration for the footrace is pegged at P950, P750, P650 and P550 for the 21k, 12k, 8k and 4k, respectively. Registration can be done at selected areas inside SM City Cebu.