On Sunday, Bontol, with the rest of the Cebu-based Team Reborn, will join the CamSur Ironman 70.3hoping to finish strong in a three-discipline event that ends with running, which he describes as his “comfort zone.”

Coming from hearing mass in Sto. Rosario Parish while wearing the hot pink Ungo shirt, the running shirt of a group of Cebu-based night runners, a Phiten necklace and a Power Balance bracelet, Bontol said in an interview that he’s ready to do anything he thinks can help his first Ironman event.

Preparing for the event has consumed Bontol’s life these past months. He has decided to postpone an important exam for his specialization next year because he thinks he isn’t prepared for it.

“I don’t want to go into something unprepared,” he said. A confessed obsessive-compulsive, Bontol says he could hardly sleep the night before important races, getting out of bed repeatedly to make sure everything he needs the next day—shoes, shirt, race bibs, timing chip, energy gels, cap, eyewear—are ready and in order.

On Sunday, Bontol hopes to swim 1.93 kms., bike 90 kms., and run 21 kms. in less than six hours and with enough energy left to take a phone call. He said Sunday will be the “graduation” of months of triathlon training under an elite athlete, Noy Jopson, last year’s Philippine 70.3 Ironman champion.

Bontol has been training, along with fellow Team Reborn members Jung Cases, Joseph Miller, Annie Neric, Tenggoy Colmenares, seriously under Jopson for the past few months. The intensity of the training is such that the once muscular Bontol lost 20 pounds without diet, “eating whatever I want.”

Heading to CamSur, Bontol is on a roll, winning last Sunday’s 5th University Run doctors’ category with a new 10K personal best of 42:38.

That win, said Bontol, proves cross-training works. He said he used to think that to run fast, all you needed to do was lace your shoes and hit the tracks or the road.

But Bontol said his triathlon training made him an even faster runner. He was third in the Speedo National Age Group Triathlon in the 30-34 age group. He said he did not expect to win and was already in his car when the results were announced.

Bontol has gone far and fast, from being an overweight 1st year high school student with a waistline of 34 inches. A close friend, who was also overweight, started going to the gym and shed off pounds. That inspired him to also hit the gym.

Since then, Bontol has been on and off the gym. At any given year, he has at least three months of gym membership.

It was heart surgeon Dr. Alex Junia who encouraged Bontol to run, enlisting him in the 10K category of the Run for your Heart in February 2008.

Bontol finished the race in 72 minutes even without training. The only running he did before it was five- to ten-minute sessions on the treadmill as warm-up to his gym workouts. He said Junia, who was the race organizer, stayed at the back of the pack to look after the runners and paced Bontol, challenging him that if he could do it, how much more the young resident physician, a muscular and buff gym rat.

After that race, he did regular 10Ks before joining the Milo half-marathon six months later. Bontol has finished two full marathons, both in four hours and 55 minutes—the Milo Marathon and the Quezon City International Marathon.

After CamSur, Bontol wants to focus on his medical practice and return to running. On Sunday, however, he only has one thing in mind, “to finish strong.”

They filed in, toting backpacks that are quickly disemboweled of running gear as they sat on the grass and put on running shoes in front of an eager crowd.

People gawked as they fitted for the marathon and did short runs to warm up. Look at those legs, several people said, talking animatedly about their runner’s physique: thin frame with long, lean legs.

FRONTRUNNERS. Kenyans led the Smart Subic International Marathon (SIM) from the start to take the first eight spots. Vincent Chepsiror (third from left) won the marathon with a time of 2:27:54. Click on photo to view larger image.

People were still talking about the Kenyans even after they were bused out of Remy Field to the Smart Subic International Marathon (SIM) 2009 starting line 42 kilometers away in Floridablanca, Pampanga toll gate of the Subic Clark Tarlac Expressway (SCTex). The starting gun was fired at 4:30 p.m.

A little over two hours later, large, loud speakers conveyed the news: the Kenyans are coming.

One by one, they sprinted to finish—Vincent Chepsiror coming in first at 2:27:54; Willy Rofich, 2:28:14; Daniel Koringo, 2:29:57; Alex Melly, 2:30:23; Richard Mutisya, 2:30:30; Hilary Kimurai, 2:31:51; Vincent Kipchirchir, 2:35:58; and David Kipsang, 2:37:50.

Chepsiror, 29, was so far ahead of any local runner he would still have won had he been asked to pay toll to pass the toll gates of the flat and scenic SCTex marathon route. He won $5,000 for his feat.

Hernanie Sore was the top Filipino finisher at ninth place with a time of 2:40:20. Alquin Bolivar, a native of Cagayan de Oro City, was 10th with his time of 2:40:42.

The Kenyans, running in a tight pack, led from the start. They descend on water stations like a marauding party, deftly grabbing two cups of water, one in each hand, before drinking one and pouring the other on their heads.

Bolivar said he trailed the group in the first 15 kilometers but couldn’t keep up when they increased the pace. Sore couldn’t be interviewed, he was lying on the ground, writhing in pain and immobilized by muscle cramps 10 meters away from the finish line.

Chepsiror, speaking to reporters in a voice so soft it could barely be heard over the din in the track oval, said the darkness slowed them. A long stretch of the SCTex does not have streetlight. He said the route was hilly and narrow in some place. He also said they lacked water in the last stretch of the run.

Chepsiror said his personal record (PR) is 2:18, which was set when he won the Standard Chartered Nairobi Marathon in 2007.

Kenya’s Doreen Kitaka won the $5,000 top prize in the women’s event by clocking 3:01:12. The 26-year-old mother of two also won last Sunday’s Quezon City International Marathon.

Kitaka said she found the marathon difficult because it was hot at the start and, while it cooled when dusk set in, the darkness slowed her down. She said there were places where she couldn’t see anything.

Kenyan Cecilia Wangui placed second with a time of 3:22:53 while Filipina Aileen Tolentino won third place with a time of 3:29:01.

ON THEIR ROAD TO SETTING PERSONAL RECORDS. Cebu runners (from second from left) Joefranz Canizares(in blue singlet number 1026), couple Roy Trani (wearing black Adidas cap) and Dr. Rosan Trani, Dr. Alex Junia, Dr. John Clifford Aranas and Kenneth Casquejo in the early part of the Smart Subic International Marathon. The group from Cebu finished strong with several runners posting personal records in last Saturday’s full marathon.

Among those who ran Smart SIM 2009 was a group from the Cebu Executive Runners Club (CERC) who set out to post PRs and finish the marathon in less than five hours. Most did.

Kenneth Casquejo finished in 4:55, Roy and Dr. Rosan Trani finished in PRs of 4:52, John Clifford Aranas clocked 4:48 while Dr. Alex Junia posted a PR of 5:20. Other Cebuano runners who finished included JoeFranz Canizares, 5:41; Arnold Palma, 5:18; and Abby Ponce, 5:14.

Smart Sports head Patrick Gregorio said Filipinos can become great runners if they are identified and trained early. He said the country can do well in running if sponsors continue to fund programs and races.

Gregorio said running if one of the sports Smart actively supports. He said the company spent more than P2 million to sponsor the Smart SIM. He said the company has long been supporting running events and will continue to do so.

“We should also do this in Cebu,” said Gregorio, who spent five years as general manager of Waterfront Hotel in Lahug.

Kenneth Casquejo, Roy Trani and doctors Rosan Trani, Alex Junia, and John Clifford Aranas will be running a few hours from now. Casquejo is optimistic that the CERC runners can finish the full 42-kilometer race in less than five hours.

Casquejo said he is optimistic because the course is “relatively flat” and they will have no problems on the heat because they will be running late in the afternoon until the evening. He said majority of the surface they will be running on is aphalt.

Kenyans, led by last year’s champion Nelson Kirwa Rotich, are favored to win the race that will fire off at the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway. Among local runners, Allan Ballester and Bernardito Desamito are favored to do well.