Great start for sports

We are six days into 2012 but already, big events are scheduled for the weekend. On the local front, there is the on-going volleyball invitational at Looc, Mandaue City where some of the country’s top women’s teams are matched with top Cebu teams.

To usher this year’s Sinulog festivities, the Cebu City Marathon fires off at 4 a.m. on Sunday, starting and ending at the Cebu IT Park. Close to 8,000 runners, from the elite to the forget it, will pound the pavement in their running outfits, with a good number in costumes that defy description, best seen live and in person.

Running, as well as any other sporting activity, is a lifestyle choice. The interest in this sport obviously has health benefits that real runners, read, guys that regularly do 21-K’s and two full marathons a year, are thin, lean and mean. How I wish. The best that I can do is mean, never thin and lean.

Of course, there are individuals with twisted sense of priorities, taking advantage of running’s popularity, holding races without an iota of the related logistics involved. At the finish line, they are at the receiving end of complaints ranging from the lack of race marshals and water stations to “discounted” prizes.

The Cebu City Marathon is always 12 months in the making. If it involves the Cebu Executive Runners’ Club people with the likes of John Pages, Meyrick Jacalan and similar individuals, I’ll bet my column space runners couldn’t ask for more. Well, maybe more kilometers?

I have longed to joined this kind of event but age and body structure are factors that I have to consider. I’m targeting the last quarter of this year to run and finish my first 5k, that is if all these freaking doomsayers won’t shut up and insist that the world will end. At my own pace, I can run about a wee 6 minutes but hopefully, by the time my target period comes, I’ll be able to run the distance within 30 minutes. Hala bira!

But if all else contradicts the plan, might as well look good in Under Armour outfits and Nike Air Max 360s without breaking a sweat. Magbuot mo?

Let’s shift to Manila. Internacional de Madrid, a Spanish third division football team, will fly in today for a charity/benefit match dubbed “Dili Kamo Nag-iisa” against our Azkals tomorrow evening at the Rizal Memorial Football Stadium. Why the Visayan-Tagalog interplay of words? Unsa’y nangyari ani? 

Organizers, recognizing the bond between Visayan and Tagalog speaking footballers and supporters, gave birth to the phrase to show compassion to the victims of Typhoon Sendong that washed away Cagayan de Oro, Iligan and parts of Negros Oriental.

As per reports, the Spanish team welcomed the opportunity to be in the country and play with the Azkals for a worthy cause. Our boys are not exactly unknowns in the country of Jamon Iberico and Jamon Serrano since they get feeds from the internet about our own kind of football.

Stephen Newman, a British expat who now calls Madrid his home, is the club’s big boss and is also married to a Filipina. Needless to say, the Spanish club is not exactly alien to our guys.

Another Azkal charity match, also for the benefit of Sendong’s unwelcome visit, is scheduled on January 21, this time with a South Korean team, the Icheon Citizens, who also play in the SoKor 3rd division. Considering that we have a Korean invasion in the country for the past several years already, it’s only fitting that organizers also recognize relations between Filipinos and Koreans.

And me and the wifey have learned to like samgaetang and bibimbap. By the way, samgaetang is a good remedy for hangovers.

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