Men's Health Urbanathlon & Festival 2009

I'm an Urbanathlete! Another greatly challenging and one of a kind run from Men's Health Philippines - the Urbanathlon and Festival 2009.

Contrary to the previous races of Men's Health -- the Miracle Run 2009 with failed results, this year's Urbanathlon event paved way for a record breaking organization of race results! Yes, it is already out, very fast considering that this event didn't use a timing chip like the one used for my previous run. Many thanks and salute to the organizer (I heard it was also Coach Rio, is he the owner of Finishline?).

On the 3rd flight of the vertical run

Aside from the on-time and accurate release of the race results, every details are also included for each runner. I am glad that I still finished at sub-60 time. And to my surprise, out of the 286 10k male finishers (39 females), I made it on the 59th rank, with an average pace of 0:05:57 min/km. My rank for my age group is 15B, or 15th in the age category 'B'. The first finisher was 0:20:23 ahead from me.

One of my favorite obstacles of this event was the vertical run. A staggering 8 flights (not floors or storeys) going up and another 8 going down made my quads ache sweetly. I really missed that kind of leg pain, it did stretched my legs and lungs out to its fullest considering that it is just in the 2-kilometer point of the total 10-k race. Another favorite was the wall-climb, it measured 20-feet as advertised by Men's Health, maybe 10-feet going up and another 10-feet going down. The 10-feet measure is from the ground up to the horizontal metal bar above the wall's height where the ropes are tied. Remembering the 2008 Urbanathlon wall-climb, it seems that this one is much lower and easier to climb. The hurdles are too easy also compared to last year's. I was able to jump from it without the need to hold or support my body weight. The weaver and crawl were also a good resting-point. In addition, the total distance seems to be more than 10-kilometer, Men's Health may have offset the shorter distance from the previous year which was only at an approximate of 9.75 km.

Last Obstacle - Wall climb

The photovendo team were also out on the race track, shooting photos of every runner. But, this time, the photos are no longer available for free, so goodbye for the more than 100.00 increase in this event's registration fee. You may choose to order a soft-copy or 4"x6" print-copy or both, for Php 95.00 each. You can still download your photos, but you'll have to stick with the small resolution and the watermark, like this one:

After the descend from the vertical run

The festives courtesy of Kenny Roger's are sumptuous enough, though we were not able to choose from Roast Chicken Sandwich, Cold Chunky Tuna or Cold Chunky Chicken.

You may download the race results from the links below:
10k Male     10k Female     5k Male     5k Female     Alternate location

Strathletes Team with Coach Rio

Race Profile:
Distance: 10 km.
Official Time: 00:59:32
Official Ranking: 59th out of 286 male finishers

Race Info:
When: Nov. 22, 2009.
Where: McKinley Hills, Taguig City
Event: Men's Health Urbanathlon and Festival 2009