Saturday in the Park

Before a race, I focus on my goal and the hard training I’ve done. It motivates me to let it all out that day. For me, races are the celebration of my training.
-Dan Browne, 2007 National Champion in the 5-K and 20-K

In July we first got wind that the Cebu Press Freedom Week will, for the first time, include a road racing event exclusive to media workers in Cebu.

The Marathon Foodie wasted no time and spent the next two months recruiting friends at ABS-CBN. The plan was to assemble a big number of runners, enough to match the Sun Star Daily runners. SSD was the team to beat since they had the most number of media workers, and as they say on TV, the more entries you send, the more chances of winning!

Renante Labrica and Carinne Asutilla

The reaction at the ABS newsroom was lukewarm at best, not because they didn't like running but because they were intimidated by the sport and made excuses ranging from -- "wala koy hangin" to "wala ko'y practice" to "duty ko ana".

The Marathon Foodie pleaded, cajoled and groveled, until a handful showed interest and signed up such as the boys at engineering and editing -- Joel, Gaddie, Odo and Jerome and our Sr. Reporter and Maayong Buntag Kapamilya host Vilma Andales.

Star Patroller and resident fashionista Kara Noveda planned on having the ABS girls run in identical outfits of running skirt and colored tights but she was called away for a story assignment in Biliran at the last minute.

ABS-CBN runners

And so at 5:30 in the morning of Saturday September 26, we all showed up at the starting line in front of the Cebu City Sports Club at the Cebu Business Park. There was a happy mix of 120 reporters, editors, columnists, photo journalists and local radio and TV personalities.

Bombo Radyo

The Freeman

There were two categories 5K and the 3K. Race director and The Freeman columnist Raffy Uytiepo fired the starting gun and off the runners went zooming at an average pace of 4:30 mins. per kilometer. The Marathon Foodie stayed at the end of the pack running only at a slow 6:00 mins./km pace and waited for the runners in front of me to slow down.

Marathon Foodie with John Pages of Cebu Sports Blog and SSD. John is also the president of the Sportswriters Association of Cebu.

The first half of the race route was a steady incline, and sure enough, by the time the lead pack reached the 1.5KM mark, the runners who sprinted at the the first 500 meters fell behind one by one. There were only two girls ahead of me – Marlen Limpag of Sunstar, who has taken up running just this year and was fast improving. I couldn’t recognize the other one from the back. As they became visibly tired, I increased my speed to 5:00 mins./km and zoomed past them. There was no turning back from there.

Sun Star Daily

As expected, Sun Star snagged all but one of the first place honors of the male and female categories of the 3K and 5K. John Pages of Cebu Sports Blog and SSD and a two-time full marathon runner breasted the tape at 21:51 minutes to win the male 5K category while Marathon Foodie took home the gold for ABS-CBN in the 5K female category with a time of 27 mins. 12 sec., which also happens to be my best time for 5K. This is my third first place finish this year after the STC alumnae run and the IBP run.

The other winners are as follows:

5K Male
John Pages (SSD)
Edri Aznar (SSD)
Jorlito Montecillo (Wild FM)

5K Female
Haide Acuna (ABS-CBN)
Marlen Limpag (SSD)
Charmy Sabigan (Bombo Radyo)

3K Male
Jun Migallen (SSD/ Superbalita)
Ike Durano (DYRF)
Ariel Gomez (CDN)

3K Female
Irenelou Llego (SSD)
Maridel Crecencio (DYRF)
Jovy Taghoy-Gerodias (SSD)

I know the real point of the media fun run was to foster camaraderie among colleagues in the media and at the same time encourage us jump-start our quest for healthy lifestyle through running. But, fun runs and road races that have exclusive competitive categories (such as the media run and the IBP run) are a great way of encouraging recreational runners train and get better at running and racing.

For someone who would otherwise be shut out from the winners circle in an open competition, there’s nothing like a podium finish to motivate a newbie to get better, fitter and faster. Who knows, maybe even fast enough to compete with the local top racers in the open category.

I really want my friends to win too. So next year, the Marathon Foodie will still join fun runs but will no longer race in the exclusive categories. I will instead pace Ate Vi in next year’s media run and maybe Negley at the IBP run and help my friends chase their own podium finish. Para daghan na mi winners!

After the race, the Marathon Foodie went home and cooked her own victory breakfast -- rice, cheese-filled longanisa, cheese omelette, wheatgrass juice and brewed coffee, turned on the TV and watched Ondoy wreak havoc in the big bad city. Suddenly, winning that morning’s race wasn’t so important anymore.

Photo Credit: The first photograph is courtesy of Max Limpag. The rest of the photographs are by Marathon Foodie.