World Run Day

Sunday, November 8, is World Run Day.

An active.com article describes World Run Day, the 11th since Bill McDermott conceptualized the global event in March 1999, as an annual and unique one-day fundraiser which benefits both local and international charities by celebrating running and charity.

Runners register to run their favorite distance and pledge a donation to their favorite charity. Results are posted and then calculated for a worldwide total. It's uniquely structured for donations to benefit "any charity on the face of the earth" and is commonly referred to as "an International Day of Charity." In 2006, McDermott partnered with the United Nation's World Food Programme to help end child hunger with World Run Day. Nearly 100,000 hungry children were fed as a result of the event.

World Run Day is reported to have raised money for more than 1,000 charities to date in the United States alone.

Two events in the Philippines coincide with World Run Day this Sunday.

Feet on Fire: Race Against Cancer fires off at 5 a.m. at McKinley Hill, Taguig. Presented by McKinley Hill, San Mig Coffee, Mizuno and the University of the Philippines Circle of Entrepreneurs (UPCE), it features 3k, 5k, 10k and 15k events. A 6k relay is also included for groups of 3. Dubbed as a cancer awareness campaign and fundraiser, Feet on Fire will benefit Cancer Warriors Foundation, Inc.

A much-bigger event is the Philippine International Marathon . Staged by ABS-CBN Foundation on a course starting and ending at the Quirino Grandstand, the 42-km race is titled “A Run for the Pasig River” and aims to help the program to rehabilitate the Pasig River. Organizers are said to be expecting 20,000 participants in the marathon (individual and relay), 3K, 5K and 10K runs.

Nothing in the write-ups about these races say or indicate that they are part of the World Run Day events, but the spirit is obviously there. Runners doing the thing they love best, and sharing the little treasures they have while running.