Marathon up in 5th National Geographic run

MANILA, Philippines –Responding to the clamor of the running community, a full marathon will be included for the first time in the Earth Day Run by National Geographic Channel (NGC) on April 27 at Bonifacio Global City in Taguig.

From 10,000 participants last year, organizers are now expecting 12,000 runners.  The 42K run will start at midnight, the 21K race at 3 a.m., 10K at 4 a.m., 5K at 5 a.m. and 3K at 6:30 a.m.

“We want to introduce something new each year so this time, we finally included a 42K division,” said event organizer Jeremy Go during a recent media launch.  “But we are limiting the 42K runners to just 500 so we can better manage the race.”

NGC will also work with the World Wide Fund (WWF) for Nature’s Banca for the Philippines project, which aims to train fishermen affected by Supertyphoon “Yolanda” last November.

WWF will train fishermen on site and help them build fiberglass boats to reduce the use of timber and plywood.

Online slots for all categories are already sold out.  Onsite registration for the fifth staging of the NatGeo run is still open at the ground floor of SM Aura in Taguig from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Kenyans David Chepkwony, Jackson Chirchir and Willy Rotich wound up 1-2-3 in last year’s 21K male division.  Fellow Kenyan Margaret Njuguna ruled the distaff side, followed by local aces Nhea Ann Barcena and Librada Tamson.  Romina S. Austria