7-Eleven Run 1500

After a 16 k run in Takbo.ph 20-Miler Run 2015 and a 10k run in Condura Skyway Marathon 2015, I ran 16k in 7-Eleven Run 1500 on March 15, 2015.

(Photo from run711.com)

7-Eleven Run 1500 was organized by 7-Eleven in anticipation of the opening of its 1500th store in the Philippines. Held in Filinvest City and Skyway, the run includes 500m, 3k, 5k, 10k, 16k, 21k, and 42k categories.

The route was good. There were a lot of sports drink in the hydration station compared to other running events unfortunately, in the last kilometers before the finish line, there were only a few stations and some of them already ran out of water or drinks. There were also no free bananas for runners.

Aside from the loot bag (which just contain the finisher shirt and a biscuit), there were a lot of freebies from sponsors. Del Monte even has free towel and back massage for 16k finishers. Most of these booths are okay except for the finisher kit claiming which was very disorganized. There were only 1 booth for all the finishers and there was no system at all. Everybody will be queueing for this and the organizers should have known that. I don't understand why this happened. Also, I am not sure if ther finisher shirts are supposed to have sizes or they are one-size-fits-all; fortunately, mine fits well.

According to Runtastic, I ran 15.95 km in 1:58:10.

(My 16k run at 7-Eleven Run 1500)

I was already able to have three runs in just three months! I just need one more to achieve my goal of 4 runs this year.

Trip to General Santos City

I was invited by STI to be one of their judges for the National Level of their Tagisan ng Talino 2015's App and Running, an Android App Development competition.

STI's Tagisan ng Talino will be held in General Santos City on March 5 although the App and Running already started in the afternoon of March 3 to give time to the participants to develop their apps. I commuted to NAIA Terminal 4 for our Tiger Air flight. It was my first time in NAIA Terminal 4. Our flight left 30 minutes past the scheduled departure time but we landed almost on time.

We were picked up from the airport by GreenLeaf Hotel GenSan van. We arrived in the hotel and met with the organizers from STI. Due to a problem with the hotel rooms, it took a while before I got a room and I had to work in the hotel lobby while waiting. There were two people in a room and the hotel only gives one access card per room.

Once I got inside my room, I charged my devices and rested for a few minutes. I had dinner in the hotel's Mint Cafe (grilled tuna belly, avocado shake, and tiramisu). After eating, I walked to STI General Santos to check out the participants who are still working on their apps.

Grilled Tuna Belly for dinner

I went back to the hotel and slept early. The next day, I had breakfast in the hotel and went back up for a video call. After that, I went to the STI campus. After a short briefing, the App and Running judges were toured around the other competitions. I met with Kuya Avel, Google Business Group (GBG) GenSan community manager, who is also one of the judges for the Photography competition.

With Kuya Avel, Community Manager of Google Business Group GenSan (Photo taken by him)

I went back to the App and Running venue (a computer laboratory). The judges had early lunch before the start of the judging for the different competitions. It took more than two hours for us to finish the demo and judging for the 8 participant teams in App and Running.

After judging, we went to the hotel for the awarding and had dinner in STI. I also went to SM General Santos City (just across the street from STI and the hotel).

Early morning of the next day, we went back to Manila. We only had a short amount of time in GenSan and I was not able to go around. Hopefully I can be back there soon.

App and Running

I was invited by STI to be one of their judges for the National Level of their Tagisan ng Talino 2015's App and Running, an Android App Development competition. Tagisan ng Talino (TNT) is STI's annual academic competition which includes impromptu speech, essay writing, culinary arts, programming, and quiz bee. This is the first time STI organized an Android app development competition.

This year's Tagisan ng talino was held in STI General Santos City. Over 200 students who won in STI's 9 cluster competition joined the National Level. There were 8 participating teams for App and Running competition: Bacoor, Caloocan, Dagupan, Davao, Lucena, Makati, Malolos, and Ormoc. Each team is composed of two students. They started development on the afternoon of March 3.

Aside from me, the other judges are Justin Jacob D. Isiderio (Chief Productions Manager of OrangeApp, Inc) and Darwin Jerome C. Tardio (COO & Co-Founder of Funguy StudioDeltek). We arrived in the afternoon of March 4. Around eight in the evening, I took a look at the participants who are busy developing their apps (they were there since 07:00 AM and stayed until 12:00 midnight).

The next day (March 5) was the judging. We gave every team 15 minutes to talk about and demonstrate their apps. Most of them were able to finish the app but not everyone answered the main problem set. The judging took almost three hours. Afterwards, we gave short messages to the participants.

The participants and judges, with Sir Dave and Ma'am Toni of STI

The winners of App and Running, along with the winners from the other competitions were announced during the awarding/closing program held in GreenLeaf Hotel GenSan's Pandan Grand Ballroom. App and Running winners were STI Ormoc (Champion), STI Makati (1st runner up), and STI Lucena (2nd runner up).