How do these people do it?

Final time: 2:30:05. After the starting gun went off at the 2012 Vaseline Men Xterra Challenge in Liloan, Cebu, Australian Ben Allen crossed the finish line to clock in the fastest time in the men’s category. Less than half an hour later, Renata Bucher of Switzerland would break the tape and come in first among the ladies. Each one was able to finish a 1.5k swim in the open sea, a 32k mountain bike trail ride, and a 10k cross-country run in under three hours. That’s nuts. How do these people do it?

There are the usual suspects. Training. Proper diet. Discipline. Believing in yourself. Even more training. All that Jack Canfield/Deepak Chopra stuff that’s supposed to make you a better person. And by any measure, it produces results.

But after witnessing the Xterra weekend in Liloan, there might be one other thing that gets overlooked. It’s not exactly something that these top-tier athletes can actually prepare for, but it’s something that surely has a positive effect on the way they race: the environment.

The Vaseline Xterra weekend was set up in the little coastal municipality of Liloan in Cebu, and just the word “coastal” already conveys that the place is quite picturesque. The relaxing view of the ocean, the regular crashing of the waves in the background, and that beautiful ancient lighthouse in the distance must do something to you as a racer — like putting you in the meditative state of a drunken Kobe bull. The pain must be insignificant when at this point of racing Nirvana. Without a doubt, one’s surroundings affect this.

And even in the more non-picturesque parts of Liloan, the racers are sure to have gotten another kind of high. Since the course passed not only through trails and seaside cliffs, but also through the town and various barangays, everyone was out to watch them. Giving the participants glasses of water, seeing the children running by them chasing for high-fives, hearing people cheer for them with smiles and in an unfamiliar language (in the case of the foreign competitors): that must produce some good runner juju.

“More than just a race to be won, Xterra is an event to be experienced. It is an occasion that promotes sports tourism in the Philippines because a global audience, through the participants and the media coverage, will actually see the breathtaking beauty of the Philippines through the course of the race,” says Fred Uytengsu, Alaska Milk Corp. CEO and organizer of the Xterra event.

The concept of sports tourism is perfect for a country like ours. We don’t have to deal with the hassles of being snowed in; our weather, when caught at just the right time, is great for holding outdoor activities; and it’s a great way to showcase the natural wonders of the country, while not being exploitative. Sports tourism on a double date with ecotourism: now that’s a great match.

And the requirements for holding things like the Xterra Challenge, as far as keeping the environment pristine, are not high at all. Sure, the logistics and planning and all that behind-the-scenes stuff will drive you crazy and keep you up late at night — Uytengsu mentioned that he hadn’t slept for about two weeks prior to the race weekend — but the environment does not suffer. And everyone benefits from it.

And this is true even for the racers. They get to travel, see new faces and places, and tick more items off their bucket lists. It’s anything a true-blue athlete would ever want from a competition.

But triathlon is a different story. To refer to it as “taxing” barely scratches the surface. But regarding his thoughts on the sport, Uytengsu makes it clear that there is more to it than just “swim, bike, run,” or “training, training, training.”

“You ask people, ‘Why do you even attempt the triathlon?’ and I think that people are looking a little deeper into themselves,” he says. “And they’ve got their bucket lists and they’re saying, ‘I need something a little more challenging in my life’ and the triathlon is the epitome of this. If you ask them: ‘What’s the most difficult sport that you can imagine?’ triathlon is at the top of the list. And I think that’s why triathletes are, so to speak, racing against themselves more than anything else. Yes, when you get a little bit better, maybe you’re racing to win in your age group. When you’re very good, you can become an elite triathlete or a professional. But at the end of the day, you’re challenging yourself.”

Spot on, sir. And I guess that a nice backdrop of a seaside vista and smiling locals makes that challenge a little less tough.

Vaseline Men Xterra 2012 was sponsored by Alaska, Timex, Gatorade, Summit Water, David’s Salon, LBC, AirPhil Express, Prudential Guarantee, 2XU, Dusit Thani Manila, the Department of Tourism and media partners The Philippine STAR, Multisport, SBR and Studio 23.

For more results, visit www.Xterra phil.com.

E-mail me at enricomiguelsubido@gmail.com .