Women’s Run PH to bring its act to Iloilo City

Growing the number of women participation through a series of running events is what Women’s Run PH founder Nicole de la Cruz hopes of achieving following the highly-successful University of the Philippines Diliman edition of this year’s event that drew over 6,000 female runners. 

The number of women who participated leaped from last year’s inaugural event which only recorded 1,700 runners, which propelled it to a record-breaking milestone for the running event exclusively for women.

“It was a big jump from 1,700 runners to 6,000 this year and we were able to achieve this because we asked help from different communities, companies, and people who are actually supporting women in different events also,” said de la Cruz during the Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) Forum at the conference hall of the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex.

One of the initiatives of the organization is to provide free training runs in order for women to build confidence and embrace their strengths as some women perceive running competitions and fun runs as competitive and intimidating. 

Inclusivity is also part of their purpose to create an environment where women could challenge stereotypes and break barriers, which is why they arrange awards for age group categories. De la Cruz also added that the 1K and 5K events will be retained for future races in an effort to attract more newcomers, including children and even seniors.

“We have different awards that we give out,” said de la Cruz. “And more than that, we also motivate more women to join. No matter what their age is. That's why we provide awards for the age group categories. We have young runners. We have 18-year-old runners. We have different age groups. We also have 60-year-olds and above.”

The second Women's Run PH event of the year will take place in Iloilo City on November 10 at Megaworld Boulevard. 

The Iloilo-native race organizer expects this edition to attract at least 1,000 women but truthfully insinuated that it won’t be easy to attain that target number since running events’ usual population are men and women.

“I'm happy to say now that our current registration is at 800. So, I hope we can reach our target. I'm actually looking for 1,000. But I'm really hoping. It's difficult, I'm telling you now, it's not easy to get, because the usual population of the event is male and female. So for me, it needs extra effort,” remarked de la Cruz. 

In addition to next month’s event, Women’s Run PH is also conducting races in Davao slated for January 19, while talks are underway to stage one in Cebu City.