Howling success

Longer preparations, teamwork and a good logistics are just some of the ingredients for a successful event. Our sacrifices that included sleepless nights paid off with the howl-ing success of the Aboitiz Race 2 Reduce Challenge the other Sunday at the South Road Properties. The field attracted over 2,500 and it could have been bigger had we not stopped receiving entries after the deadline.

We wanted to accept but we were out of singlets and race numbers. The whole stretch of the SRP was a sight to behold as runners occupied almost all of it . I could recall memories of my runs in Hong Kong and Singapore were the bridges was crowded with over 50,000 runners. Even the heavens cooperated. Releasing heavy rains that cooled the route. With the success of the run.

Aboitiz is now looking at a bigger race next year looking for more improvements after accessing the run. I believe we could have a good race with better logistics and I'm very thankful Aboitiz has a lot of it. For instance, race chairperson Jovy Tan and I were apprehensive as we did not have ice to cool our Gatorades and water. But presto! 2 GO sent a refrigerated 20-footer van that served as our cooler. "Bisan tawo puwede isulod."

As expected Kenyan Simon Losiaboi who wore a Casa Ilongga singlet, proved once again that he is still Cebu's king of the road when he clocked 1 hour and 13 minutes to leave Elmer Bartolo by a mile, Bartolo timed 1:15:56 while Sherwin Mananggil pocketed third in 1:16:03. Mary Grace Delos Santos, who else, won the distaff side in 1:23:06 letting second placer Madelyn Carter (1:40:40) eat her dust. Mereeis Ramirez salvaged third in 1:43:06. I got some text messages regarding the absence of a timing clock. As I announced in the presscons, all the Timex electronic timers were sent to Camsur for the Cobra Ironman Triathlon.

Somebody suggested if we could use a wall clock, but I said we would look stupid. And besides, we must not always assume that everything is at the organizer's beck and call. Actually it's only visual, your exact time is in your chips. In some races, timer display conks out but still you get your time. As a runner we must always carry our gears including our Garmins. ( I still wear my reliable Timex Ironman.) It's like requesting somebody to bring your race number to the run. Remember Simon Losiaboi's disqualifi-cation in the Rotary Run? His friend did not wake up on time and he was carrying Simon's number. Oh yes, a runner said "walay race route in singlets." If he claimed his number personally, the race route was given at the registration center. Again as disciplined runners we must claim our singlets and bibs ourselves "walay muchacho." Anyway these are the least of our worries. The bottom line is that the race went smoothly as most runners claimed.

Cebu Ultra Marathon

As I write this column, there are only 15 slots left in the first-ever Cebu 50K Ultra Marathon that fires of on November 27 at Mt. Manunggal, in Balamban. Front Runner Magazine publisher and Bataan Death March Ultramarathon veteran, Jonel Mendoza has designated me as race director and tasked me to screen the participants. Beginners with no marathon experience need not apply as the route is kind of hard or even dangerous. Registration forms are still available at RUNNR in Ayala Center.