WITH the start of the trail season, the Recreational Outdoor Exchange (ROX) launched the sixth year of the Mapawa Trail Series, which will be held from May to December at the Mapawa Nature Park in Cugman village.
The Mapawa Trail Series is part of the Asia Trail Master Series and has been participated by not only local marathon enthusiasts but also international runners from Hong Kong, Japan, or Malaysia.
Riyadh Balbotin, the race director of the 2017 Mapawa Trail Series said that their participants have been growing in number since its founding six years ago.
The trail series will have its first leg on May 28 with the Trail Run Mapawa. This leg will have two parts, which are the 21-kilometer run and the 5-kilometer run. The organizers encourage everyone to participate in this event phase as there is no strict qualification for the runners. However, participant slots will be limited to 150 per part so the Trail Run Mapawa will have at most 300 participants.
Gun start for the 21-kilometer run will be at 5:30 a.m. on May 28 and will have a six-hour cut-off at around 11:30 a.m.
The 5-kilometer run will start at 6 a.m. but will have no cut-off time for participants. Race briefing will be at 5 a.m. at the trail run's assembly area in the Mapawa nature Park.
Registration fee for the 21-kilometer run is P1, 000 while the 5-kilometer run is P500.
Mandatory gears for these events will be hydration bottles, extra trail food, mobile phone, and whistle. The organizers will be distributing the race kits on May 24 to 27 at ROX Centrio Mall for registered participants.
Come August 13, the Mapawa Trail Series will have its second leg with the Mapawa Trail Marathon with its 42-kilometer run and 10-kilometer run. As this part of the series will have more challenging trails, the organizers advise prospective participants to train ahead of time in order to be fit and qualified for these events. Like the Trail Run Mapawa, this leg will have a limited slot of 150 participants per part.
Gun start for the 42-kilometer run will be on 4:30 a.m. which will be followed by the 10-kilometer run at 5:30 a.m. The organizers will be giving participants a 9-hour running time for the 42-kilometer run and 3 hours for the 10-kilometer run.
Registration fee for the 42-kilometer run is P1, 800 while the 10-kilometer run is P700.
Mandatory gears for the Mapawa Trail Marathon are hydration bottles, trail food, mobile phone, whistle, and flashlight or headlights for the 42-kilometer run. The race-kit distribution date for this leg will be on August 7 to 12 at ROX Centrio Mall for registered participants.
The trail series commence with the Ultra Trail Mapawa on October 29 with the 50-kilometer run and 15-kilometer nite trail run. Much preparation will be expected of participants as the 50-kilometer trail will run as long as 14 hours.
The 50-kilometer trail run will start at 3:30 a.m. and will have its cut-off at around 5:30 p.m. However, it will have its intermediate cut-off after 7 hours at the Koreano Trail at 12:30 noon.
On the other hand, the 15-kilometer night run will have its gun start at 5:30 p.m. right and will end at around 9:30 in the evening.
Registration fee for the 50-kilometer run is P2, 500 while the 10-kilometer run is P700.
The race-kit distribution date for this leg is still to be arranged at the Centrio Mall Gardens for registered participants.
Organizers will be providing event shirts, meals, race bibs with timing chips, finisher's medals, and finisher shirts inclusive of the respective registration fees.
The official finishers within the assigned cut-off time of the 21-kilometer, 42-kilometer, and 50-kilometer races within one trail season will be awarded as a Grand Slam Finisher by the Mapawa Trail Series organizers.