Happiness is P30,000, ‘bulalo’ soup for Allan

Allan Ballester just couldn’t wait to get home after ruling the Metro Manila eliminations of the Milo Marathon yesterday at the Quirino Grandstand.

“Nagluto si misis ng bulalo (My wife cooked beef bone-marrow soup),” said Ballester who had just texted his wife, Gemma, of his victory worth P30,000 and a slot in November’s national finals.

“Pero parang alam niya na mananalo ako kasi nakapag-luto na nga daw siya bago ako nag-text (I felt she knew I was going to win because she had cooked it way ahead of my text),” he added.

Home to Ballester, his wife and two kids (10-year-old Alex and one-year-old Alessandra) is Los Baños, Laguna.

Alex, he said, will run in the 10K side-event of the San Pablo, Laguna leg in August. He said it’s not the first time his son will compete, having finished second in the same race last year.

It was in Los Baños where Ballester trained hard for yesterday’s race, up in the mountains of Makiling. He said he runs 20 to 30 kms a day, six days a week except on Saturdays.

He said he’d train even harder for the national finals where P75,000 will be up for grabs.

Ballester said he had to leave home Saturday morning and billet himself at the Orchid Gardens Hotel, which is very near the Quirino Grandstand in Luneta where the race started and ended.

“Buti nang sigurado (Just to be sure),” he said.

Ballester said he was asleep as early as 8 p.m. Saturday, and woke up at 1:30 a.m. or just two-and-a-half hours before the start of the race. He said he had rice and soup for breakfast.

“Kanin lang at sabaw. Walang ulam (Just rice and soup, nothing else),” he said. – Abac Cordero