MYCHIP & Road X Trail by Finishline

A lot of my friends and colleagues are addicted to running.  It seems they are not the only ones joining the craze.  There has been a lot of running events recently and it’s good news actually!  Everyone wants to be healthy, everyone wants to be fit and strong through running.

Last saturday, Finishline presented a new product to us runners & new media called MYCHIP.  MYCHIP is the 1st multi-sport timing chip in the Philippines.  It uses MYLAPS Championchip technology, a worldwide leader in mass race timing.  A technology that is used in the largest races in the world such as Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore, Berlin Marathon, Madrid Marathon, Boston Marathon, Hong Kong Marathon, Nairobi Marathon and Melbourne Marathon.

This was totally new to me.  I never thought that technology has already caught up with our beloved sports events.  Just as I thought that the only high-technology thing in running are products like sports watches, pedometer and other stuff that are mostly for personal tracking.  I was wrong.

Using MYCHIP, it can send code to the Finishline timing mat which in turn can capture thousands of runners per minute!  How efficient!  We listened intently while Finishline explained to us what the product is about.  Having Rovilson Fernandez as host made it even more awesome.  I was actually seated next to him before the event started and I made a lil comment that it was him who caused him and Marc Nelson to lose the Amazing Race Asia competition 😛

Anyway, Finishline has been arranging lots of events (running, cycling, aquathlon, swimming, triathlon and duathlon).  With MYCHIP, you will instantly see your results through finishline.ph.  It doesn’t stop there, you can also use the gadget in MYLAPS Championship timed events worldwide.  It costs only Php 2,500 and is good to use for life.  Why?  It’s shockproof, waterproof and most of all, no batteries required!

There were 2 videos shown to us presenting how MYCHIP is being used.  MYCHIP contains the chip, bike clip and ankle strap.  We can use the ankle strap for running, duathlon, aquathlon and triathlon.

While we can use the bike clip for cycling

To make things more exciting, the organizers arranged a game for us to participate in.  One table is one team.  We were asked several questions and the team with the most # of correct answers wins a MYCHIP for each of the members.

Unfortunately, we didn’t win.  History is definitely not my favorite subject but I enjoyed the game.  Learned quite a bit too!  While I wasn’t able to own a MYCHIP that day for myself, I was able to check it out for a short while.  It’s truly just a chip, but boy that small chip is useful especially for active people like us!

Lastly, Finishline also shared with us their upcoming events this December 2010.  They have cycling (February 13, 2011), Running (January 15, 2011) & Duathlon (January 16, 2011).  All will happen at Nuvali, Sta. Rosa, Laguna and is called Road X Trail.  If you own a MYCHIP, you get discounts with the registration fee.  That doesn’t end there, all future events of Finishline, as long as you have MYCHIP, you get discounts!

I have registered for the running event originally set on December 18.  It was rescheduled to January 15, 2011.  Well, let’s see.  I hope I can see some of you there!  Race on!