Singapore only country in SEA to host Nike+ Human Race 10k

Contributed by Lenny Lim

Singapore will once again host the Nike+ Human Race 10k race this year.

Last year, the Nike+ Human Race 10k was the world's largest event with nearly 780,000 runners taking part. This year's multi-city event, termed as ´the Day the World Runs', will take place on Saturday, 24 October, 2009.

The physical race is hosted in 24 cities, but through Nikeplus.com, every city and road will become a race day course. Some of the cities hosting races this year besides Singapore are New York, Sydney and Rome. By combining the virtual running world with the physical, the Nike+ Human Race will be open to anyone, anywhere.

Runners also have an alternative to choose to run wherever they like on race day by using their Nike+ iPod Sport Kit or Nike+ Sportband to log the run as opposed to being present at the physical race.

The race will also be celebrated by famous names such as Thaitanium, the Thai-American hip hop music group, and other bands like Estrange from Malaysia and Composition B from Singapore. The musical performances will start at 8.30 am at the finishing point.

"The music will certainly liven up the atmosphere and spur runners who are nearing the finishing line!" said participant Joey Tan.

There will also be four categories for participants to enter. The School Team Challenge Category A is for students from secondary schools, junior colleges, ITE and polytechnics, while Category B is open to university students.

The Men's and Women's Under 25 category welcomes any participant aged below 25 on race day while the Men's and Women's Open Category opens its arms to all participants.

In Singapore, the 10km race will commence at 7.30am and the registration fee of $20 (for runners 24 years and below) or $35 (for runners 25 years and above), before GST, includes a Nike race t-shirt with a pre-printed number bib and a finisher's bracelet for all participants who finish the race. The physical race route will be announced at a later date.

Prior to ´the Day the World Runs' on 24 October, a Guys Vs Girls challenge will be held via the Nike+ challenge to raise funds for Charities.

While MediaCorp Artiste Tay Ping Hui roots for the guys, Hype Records' artiste Rui En will support the girls. The boys will run for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the girls will raise funds for the ST Pocket Money Fund.

Glenn Heng, Nike's South East Asia Marketing Manager explains, "Once again, we are excited to be the only city in South East Asia to be hosting Nike+ Human Race 10K and from the initial response we have been getting, our race should be a sell-out in the next few days."

"As part of this race, we will be launching The Guys Vs Girls challenge on Nike+, this is part of Nike's hope to inspire young runners and encourage them to take part in worthy causes. We picked the ST Pocket Money Fund because we believe it is the people's charity in Singapore, not just a newspaper adopted charity while WWF has been Nike's global adopted charity. With more participants anticipated this year, the virtual challenge would lift logistical and space constraints, and allows more people to run for a worthy cause!"

The first group with the most distance clocked in every week starting from the 26th September will emerge victorious. For the first two weeks, the winning gender will win $5,000 each week for their charity. $10,000 will be up for grabs for the third and fourth week each. The fifth week will see the winning team pledging $20,000 to their Charity. There is no limit to the number of runners joining the groups and both genders can run for either team.

Rui En, the ambassador for the Girls' in the Challenge, enthused, "This challenge will allow the youths of Singapore to take part in a worthy cause while simultaneously facing a healthy challenge. Apart from running myself, I will be getting as many friends as possible to join the girls' team so as to raise as much funds for the ST Pocket Money Fund! I want to do something for these kids!"

Tay Ping Hui, who will be captaining the Guys' team, is equally gungho and quipped, "I'll definitely be rounding up more people to support the guys' team. The WWF needs our help and we guys are going to give our all!"