Philstar.com Run reset to Dec. 20

MANILA, Philippines - In light of the recent tragedy that hit the country, Philstar.com’s Celebrity Run 2009 was postponed from its original date in October to Dec. 20, Sunday. Now called Philstar.com Celebrity Christmas Run, it will have a starting time of 5:30 a.m. for the 21k run at Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City.

Runners are invited to come dressed as their favorite celebrity or Christmas character/icon with the best in costume winning prizes. Christmas goodies will also be given away to randomly-picked runners. The beneficiary of the project is the GILAS Foundation (Gearing up Internet Literacy & Access for Students) to promote information literacy in public high schools across the country. This is in line with Philstar.com’s corporate social responsibility, which aims to nurture not just the online community but to help spread online literacy as well.

 “The Philstar.com Run is about bringing together our community members who are also running enthusiasts,” says Philstar.com general manager Katrina-Sandejas Mañosa.

Mañosa explains the idea was formed in February this year when running events began happening left and right, “There seems to be a big running and triathlon craze right now and since we are into lifestyle we thought why not make a Philstar.com event as well?”

Although track and field has been around since the 1970s. the running fever, according to race director Ian Alacar, began in 2005 when small and medium enterprises began having weekly runs with 200 to 500 participants. “Corporate entities realized the importance of incorporating health and fitness into their lifestyle and so small running communities were formed,” recalled Alacar.

By 2007 the boom became widespread with the help of Web bloggers who gave a higher value to running events. Alacar cited, “Unlike other fads, there’s actually a sustainable development in track and field because there are different communities and organizations that can sustain and take care of the sport.”

Alacar describes running as an affordable, low-maintenance sport. Pre-run preparation is also easy, for first-time runners, at least two weeks of training is good enough to achieve a decent finish.

The Philstar.com Celebrity Christmas Run is sponsored by Adidas, Yahoo! Philippines, E-Games, Brazilian Agaricus, Crocs, Nail Files, Nutribar, Smart, Coppertone, Agua Blue, Mizuno, Paul Calvin’s Deli, Mckinley Hill, Sport Beans, Timex, Chris Sports, Vitwater and One Tagaytay Place, Action & Fitness magazine, Men’s Health Philippines, Women’s Health Philippines, Magic 89.9, Jack TV, Jobstreet, Chikka, People Asia, The Philippine STAR, NU 107 and takbo.ph.

For more information go to www.philstar.com.