Run United Cebu Caps Off a Busy Year for Unilab Active Health

Run United Cebu next weekend, which is expected to attract 5,000 participants, is a fitting finale to what has been quite a busy year for Unilab Active Health.

The run race in the ‘Queen City of the South’ is the fifth and final leg of the Run United Provincial Series, which had successful runs in Davao, Bacolod, Cagayan de Oro and Baguio.

“We could not have chosen a better venue for our culminating event this year. We hear that response for Run United Cebu is quite good and that the number of registrants is nearing our target number of participants,” said Alex Panlilio, Head of Unilab Active Health.

Registration sites for Run United Cebu are Toby's in SM City Cebu, Runnr in Ayala Center Cebu, and the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) office at the Cebu City Sports Center (CCSC) or online through www.runrio.com. To avoid errors, Run Unted uses the first ever iPad automated registration in the country.

“Our target number of participants for Run United Cebu is higher than in races in other provinces because Cebu ranks second to Manila in terms of number of runners. So we expect the highest turnout, among our provincial races, next weekend,” said Rio dela Cruz, Head of RunRio Inc., the organizer of Run United series.

There will be five race categories at Run United Cebu, which includes 500m dash for kids, 3k, 5K, 10K, and 21K. It will be held on December 18 at the Cebu IT Park. There will be no cut-off time for the 21k category.

Registration fee is P500 for the 21K, P400 for the 10K, P350 for the 5K, and P200 for the 500-meter dash, which will have two age categories—kids 5 to 8 years old and 9 to 12 years old.

“We want every member of the family to participate, so we have a race category for kids as well. We were the first to feature a 500m dash. We want to start them young and to keep the kids active, away from too much computer games and television,” said dela Cruz.

Run United participants will get a limited edition race singlet, bib-tag timing chip and a finisher's sports bag. Runners as well as their families and friends can get more freebies and product samples at the Unilab Active Health Village for the Active Kids, Active Adults and Active Seniors. Fun games and photo booth stations are also available at the venue.

The Run United series and the other events of Unilab Active Health — Bike United and Tri United, are in line with Unilab’s advocacy to promote a healthy and active lifestyle among Filipino families.

“More and more Filipinos are really getting into the active bandwagon. We will remain committed towards providing them with high-quality events to keep them active and healthy,” added Panlilio.

Indeed, Unilab Active Health has lined up bigger and better things next year. Dela Cruz and Panlilio recently announced the inclusion of a 42K or full marathon in the Run United race categories.

Thus, Run United Philippine Marathon will be the culminating event of the Run United Series in Metro Manila every year. Thus, the sequence of events would be as follows: Run United 1 in March; Run United 2 in June; Run United 3 in September; and Run United Philippine Marathon in October. The exact dates are yet to be finalized and announced together with the full 2012 Unilab Active Health Calendar.