Free for all

How long do your think Laila Ali would last in the ring against Mike Tyson? Would women’s world marathon record holder Paula Radcliffe (2.15:25) land in the top ten if the field included men’s record holder Haile Gebrselasie (2:0:3:59). In my honest opinion, Laila Ali will be killed in less than one minute while Radcliffe could not finish in the top 20. This will be the scenario if we make the women compete physically with the men. As I touched down in Mactan after running in a Mall of Asia race, I was shocked to read in the local dailies that a run held Sunday, made the male and female runners tore each other for a common prize. In my more than 25 years of organizing races, this is the first time that there was a single prize for men and women. Of course, you don’t have to be a seer to predict the outcome. Now the organizers said, they ran out of bullets este… money. If you’re not ready with resources, “ayaw patuga-tuga”. I believe this is unfair to women. It was only in 1984 that women were permitted to run in the Olympic Marathon in Los Angeles. Even the prizes before were biased, the males got bigger, although the reason is ratio, meaning, if you have 30,000 runners and 2,000 are female, more male runners fight for the top purse while women have better chances. In the early Milo Marathon in Iloilo City for instance, (was it 1981?) there were 150 male and 3 female participants. While the men elbowed and hacked each other, the three female runners made it a stroll in the park. The third female even stopped at a store and took a snack and still won third place. I was told there’s an ongoing debate in the US to eliminate the categories and just have one, just what happened that Sunday. Whoever thought of that idea must be nuts, it’s like feeding the women to the wolves. However I’ve got a solution, if you really want to match the women against the men, then give a handicap (“partida”). Give the women a 2-kilometer head start. Manang Krisanta could only wail “Ano va yan?

ELVIS AT MOA

I wanted to say no when Pilipino Star Ngayon bigwig Angie Isidro invited me to run as Elvis in the Philippine Star – organized Run for Cause last May 15 at the Mall of Asia grounds. I know it would be super hot running in my Elvis jumpsuit at Manila temperatures that have hit 38 degrees Celsius. But since it was for a good cause, I obliged. It was too late for me to assist the race that attracted 3,000 runners. Anyway, Pilipino Star Ngayon’s Mylene Anahit acted as race coordinator and got an IT group to handle the timing that used bar codes. It wasn’t as accurate as the chips resulting to some delays in the results but all went fine. As we always say there’s no perfect race. It was an honor running alongside PNP chief Jesus Verzosa and 300 other police personnel. Never felt so secure. I had a field day posing with runners who wanted to have a photo with “the King”. Remate’s Ed Paez jokingly said we could have made a thousand bucks had we charged P 50 per pose. I told Ed it was a fund-raising run to build a school in the Mountain Province to replace the one destroyed by typhoon Peping last year.

GRAND REUNION

When this column comes out I’m probably still in Bacolod City for the Uytiepo Clan Grand Reunion that drew all our relatives from all over the country and abroad. This will be a 3-day celebration that starts with a musical showcase among clan members and end with a sports festival in the mountain hideaway owned by one of my cousins, in Enrique Magalona town (Sarabia). The musical event would be a riot what with a lot of talents trying to out do one another. There’s the family of June Torrejon Rufino, Philippine Movie Managers president and GMA producer (Michael V’s shows) Bang Arrespacochaga whose husband is Paco’s uncle. Paco is Geneva Cruz’ ex-husband. We also have the Torrecareons with Ced (former teen actor) and his sister acoustic guitar instructor Izzy. A special number will be performed by Tito Pancho who used to sing in the US bases in Vietnam and composer of the Masskara Festival theme “Bacolod, Bacolod.” But of course they have to get past our family, Joey, former member of the Ateneo Glee Club, Dr. Jun Uytiepo of St. Anne’s Cathedral Choir, New York City, former Iloilo disco queen Chiquit Armonio and the marked man himself, Elvis (yours truly). Well I’m sure well give the rest of the clan a run for the money.