Mary Grace Delos Santos: Cebu's new queen of the road

CEBU, Philippines - She was running in the 2008 Cagayan de Oro Milo Regional Finals when a motorcycle rammed her from behind. The impact was so strong she plummeted facedown, crashed to the ground, and for a while, lost consciousness.

She recalls, “I tried to sit down then stand up again and shook my head. My arms were getting numb, but then I told myself I could do this although the back of my head was terribly aching. I think I lost too much blood but there’s only five more kilometers. I thought I’ll probably die but then prayed I won’t because I want to finish the race.”

When her family learned of the news, her father was so furious; he wanted her to stop running that very moment.

Mary Grace Delos Santos, however, pleaded and succeeded to persuade her father that she’s fine. “I’m still enjoying it and would like to do it until I’m probably 35,” she told her father.

Unbelievably, neither her father, nor any of her family in Sibugay, Zamboanga, has seen her compete and win. They would only know of her exploits after she would text them or read the story in the papers.

That’s getting ahead of the story.

What rammed her was a motorcycle, hit by a wayward dump truck during that ill-fated race. The driver didn’t make it alive.

Delos Santos didn’t only make it alive, she won the race, bloodied and all. The wound required five stitches to close.

By winning the race, Delos Santos, the petite runner from Zamboanga City, who is barely five feet and weighs around 42 kilos, showed the determination and will that earned her the moniker as Cebu’s new queen of the road.

She deserves the honor.

Last Sunday was another one of her podium finishes, lifting the trophy in Roar to Grow - a fun run by the Lakandula Lion’s Club of Cebu. The week before that, she ruled the Rock and Run 2. She’s churning out wins faster than a taxi meter.

She couldn’t recall the other races she won but then since she started competing in Cebu in the 2008 staging of Holiday Inn Run to Max, a 10-miler, nobody has finished ahead of her.

Her room in the boarding house she is staying at is full of trophies, medals and newspaper clippings of her achievement.

She almost made it to the national team in 2008 when Coach Roy Vince invited her to come to Manila and take part in the training pool but then she declined because of her studies.

By this time, she had three more months left before completing her Commerce degree from Universidad de Zamboanga. She opted to finish school.

It was in school that she started her running career. She first competed as a Grade IV pupil in the middle distance races like the 800m, 1,500m and 3,00m. In high school, her first notable finish was in the 2005 Bacolod City Palaro where she finished fourth.

In college, she put Universidad de Zamboanga in the limelight after winning in the PRISAA. She went on to win every Mindanao Milo regional finals (Cagayan de Oro, Dipolog and Zamboanga) from 2006 to 2009.

In 2007, she made an impact in the national level, when she recorded her personal best of three hours and eleven seconds in the Milo National Marathon Finals.

Nowadays, she and personal coach/trainer Moh. Sherwin Managil, are seriously preparing for the Cebu Marathon on January 10, 2010.

When I last spoke to her Wednesday, in their boarding house, she just finished a long run of around 25 kilometers. She has to move her long run to Wednesday (instead of Sunday) because of the upcoming weekend race that she again will undoubtedly dominate.

Among the races in Cebu, she considered the 2009 Sinulog Half Marathon as most memorable. They have to borrow money to come to Cebu to race and relied on others for subsistence days before the event. She is truly grateful to people who had helped her, like Angelito Danao, Jane-Jane Ong, Rovie and Jay-R Aguilon and Steve Ferraren.

In that Sinulog Half Marathon, she showed her grit, with a scintillating run of one hour twenty-seven minutes.

The new time broke the previous record (1:28) set by erstwhile running sensation Liezl Gitaurelas. If you quantify that, it means that Delos Santos was ahead of Gitaurelas by more than 300 meters.

Other local runners couldn’t get nearer than that. In the Roar to Grow, fun run last Sunday her winning time was nearly three minutes faster that the second placer.

Her secret? Training, training, and more training.

Delos Santos and Managil start their workout at the oval at around 4:30 in the morning. Depending on what’s on the day’s schedule, they do speed work, circuit training or cardio drills. I chanced upon the duo when they were doing cardio drills and joined them. After a few exercises, I had to catch my breath! I also tried running with her at the oval and her pacing of one minute and twenty seconds almost gave me a heart attack.

The speed of De los Santos comes naturally because she has been a middle distance runner before competing in the 800m, 1000m, 3000m and 5000m. She dashes a kilometer in three minutes and twenty seconds.

“As of now, she’s probably between 70-80 percent in her preparation for the Cebu Marathon,” Managil said.

Delos Santos is dead serious in preparing for the Cebu Marathon because she said national runners might come. Aside from that, she wants some redemption after finishing second in the recent Milo National Finals.

She said she let that one slipped from her fingers after she lost to eventual winner Cristabel Martes, a member of the national team.

This time, Delos Santos and Managil are taking no chances. Managil said that after December 20, they will be going home to Zamboanga and train in the mountains. He said they have to get out of Cebu to escape from too many races.

Delos Santos said she’s targeting 3:05 for the Cebu Marathon. “I’ll try to improve on my personal time of 3:11,” she said but when asked about the time she’s aiming for, she sheepishly said 3:05.