Shell’s eco-marathon for a healthy new year

Here’s wishing everyone a Healthy New Year!

And speaking of good health, what other form of exercise or sport can be the most demanding physically than running or the marathon?

In his book, “Sports in America”, James Michener speaks of the research he conducted to answer a specific question: “What specific sports (should we) sponsor if we wish to attain the best results for the health of our nation?” Michener states that in answering the question, emphasis should be (given) to those which promise maximum personal rewards and which can be utilized throughout a lifetime. He adds that it is necessary therefore that (we) analyse all sports and games to which (we) are addicted, or accustomed, in order to judge their relative values. Not all sports return equal rewards, and some kind of comparison between them is essential.

To clarify his own thinking on the problem, Michener selected 11 widely varied sports drawn from various nations. Michener wanted as complete a coverage as possible, and he particularly wanted to include several types which the average sports enthusiast might not be familiar. In short, he did not want the list to be parochial. When it was completed and the criteria for using it specified, he circulated the questionnaire among several hundred men and women interested in sports and asked them to rate the 11 types as to the degree of physical demand imposed.

In grading each one on a scale from 10, the most demanding physically, down to one, the least demanding, Michener asked that the following criteria be used: does this sport place a felt demand or heart and lungs?; does it require the repeated use of big-body muscles; does it induce substantial perspiration?; does participation require the athlete to be in top physical condition?

The results were, in Michener’s words, “interesting,” the figures representing the thinking of some of America’s top athletes and sports directors, the real experts who have competed in many of the sports described. Following are excerpts from the results of the survey: bicycle race (Tour de France) – 10; marathon race – 9; boxing -9; basketball – 8; soccer – 7; tennis – 6; jogging – 5; baseball – 3 and golf-1.

Michener clarified the rating of golf: “The judgment on golf was almost unanimous, but I must point out that the men and women I was interviewing tended to be younger than the average golfer and not yet ready for this slower but most exacting game. When older, they may rate golf somewhat higher but it would still stand at the bottom of the list.”

Michener adds that everyone (regardless of their sport) insisted (on) one point which ought to be emphasized: to perform at peak level in any sport or game – pentathlon, football, golf, bridge, chess-one must be in top physical condition.

The high rating of marathon race is certainly indicative of the wide interest in wellness and recreation and the emerging popularity of so-called extreme games that use the natural environment as the venue for sports events. Fun runs, jogging and half or quarter marathons are extremely popular for promoting the eco-systems (such as the save the Pasig river) and for raising funds for victims of natural calamities, human trafficking and even political causes where sport events become political statements.

Marathons have become so popular that the word is used to describe events that run over a prolonged time such as so-called “telethons” (fund raising over television) and are usually of a magnitude that involves a great number of participants for an urgent socio-civic cause.

One such unique marathon, which is in line with everyone’s wish for a Healthy New Year, is the Shell Eco-marathon (SEM) Asia which will be held in Manila from 2014 to 2016. The City of Manila represented by former President, Mayor Joseph Estrada, and Shell Philippines, represented by country chair, Edgar Chua, entered into a  Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) which inked the partnership between Manila and Shell to hold the SEM in an urban circuit around Luneta Park.

According to Chua, the SEM is in line with Shell’s goal of promoting innovation that will help overcome energy challenges today and the future. Chua proudly points out that Shell’s main advocacy is to always find ways to deliver more, cleaner energy and to help find ways to use it more efficiently.

Chua adds that the SEM will be participated in by about 1,500 students from 15 countries around Asia-Pacific. It is part of Shell’s campaign to promote smarter mobility by focusing on the development of energy efficient technologies, investing in lower carbon alternatives, offering to drivers fuel-saving tips and reducing CO2 emissions.

By conceptualizing the project as early as 1939, Shell is indeed a pioneer in the promotion of more liveable communities and eventually an environment more suitable for sports and recreation like marathons and fun races. Definitely, both the traditional marathon foot faces and Shell’s Eco-marathon lead to a healthy New Year!