Back in school, nobody would tell us the proper running technique or motivated us to run unless you were a part of your school's athletic teams. All we usually did was slip on our shoes and just dashes away.

Nowadays, things are different. Kids are able surf the internet to look for references about proper techniques and latest news on running. Sometimes, the experts themselves visit their school to give a hands-on experience. Such example is the Nike Run For My School Challenge that was launched earlier today.

The program will saw around 1000 students in seven secondary schools around Kuala Lumpur - running for a chance to win RM 10,000 worth of Nike products for their school. Before that, how does this event related to tech outfit such as Lowyat.NET? Mmm hmm, guess you haven't met the Nike+ Sportband yet, have you?

Story continues after the jump.

Sanctioned by the Ministry of Education, the Nike Run For My School Challenge program will be bringing Nike Malaysia to a number of selected schools for training runs sessions with students. Together with them is an entourage of national athletes and celebrities that will share their running know-how to ignite some interest and also, motivate these students to start running. Who wouldn't be motivated if the encouragement comes from sportsmen such as the Olympic silver medalist, Datuk Lee Chong Wei, right?

After the pre-run briefing is over, this is where Nike's running technologies comes into the picture: each of the student will be equipped with a pair of Nike+ enabled showed (such as the LunarGlide+ that we tested a while ago) and a Nike+ Sportband that will track the distance of their run which will then be accumulated and uploaded to each school's account on www.nikerunning.com.my. The winning school shall be known when the program ends 30 November 2009.

The Nike Run for My School Challenge is not the first program that utilizes the Nike+ technology, as there was another one that has just concluded last week, called Nike+ 10K Human Race Ambassador Challenge. To mark the conclusion of that program, Nike Malaysia donated RM 10,000 to WWF Malaysia during the same Run for My School Challenge launch event earlier today.

According to Nike Malaysia's Country Marketing Manager, Menaha Nadaraja, the Nike Run for My School Challenge is a strong testament to Nike Malaysia's commitment to build the running community in this country. However, for fans of other sports, don't fret as Menaha hinted us that they are also planning more grassroots programs for them as well.

Wish we could tell you which sport it is...the only hint that we can give you is that the program MIGHT involves a different kind of technology altogether. Guess you have to wait the good news from Nike Malaysia themselves. Meanwhile, for school kids all across the country, check out some pictures from today's event. Who knows, Datuk Lee might be coming to your school soon.

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