Her doctor, however, told her, “that’s not true!”

I DON'T FEEL MY YEARS. Regional Trial Court Judge Ester Veloso tells Ungo Runners that because of running, "I don't feel 51. I don’t feel my years. I feel a lot younger." CLICK TO ENLARGE (PHOTO BY SYDNEY DELOS REYES)

“You’re not supposed to accept the fact nga mutambok ka (that you’ll get fat),” she told runners gathered in Sun.Star Cebu last Friday.

The Regional Trial Court judge, who had been working out for years in the Holiday Gym and Spa, said she resisted running at first because people told her your skin would sag with running, “muyaya imong nawong, mawa imong totoy.”

She was eventually convinced to run by Annie Neric and lawyer Ramsey Quijano, a marathoner and one of the original Ungo Runners. Quijano told her that if she could run 30 minutes straight, she could join 3K events.

Neric then taught her to run at the indoor tracks of Holiday Gym but she said that after the first session, she got embarrassed by how slow she ran. She bought books about running and found a 10-week program in Runner’s World website that promised to get her running straight for 30 minutes.

Since she had been working out for years, Veloso said she completed the program in just five weeks.

She had started to love running and would wake up at 4 a.m. to run on her own. She also started joining fun runs, starting with the SRP Sundown Run. She said that the mass of people in fun runs and her slowness discouraged her at first but Neric kept pushing her. “You can do it! You can do it!” Veloso mimicked the way Neric kept cheering her on.

Upon the prodding of serial marathoner Joel Garganera, Veloso signed up for the 21K in last Jan. 9′s Cebu City Marathon.

“But how can you practice in December?” she said to widespread laughter last Friday, “I never felt ready for the half-marathon.” December, she said, is a month for partying.

On Jan. 9, Veloso said she learned a crucial lesson, “don’t give up.”

Her companions had left her when she reached UP. She asked herself, “why am I doing this?”

“I thought kalayo sa SRP (South Road Properties), dili man siguro ko kaabot. I told myself kutob ra sa kaya, kutob ra sa kaya, anyway naabot man gihapon ko sa tunnel, naabot man gihapon ko sa SRP, nakabalik lang gihapon. Kaya diay. So never give up. You can do it!” she said.

What has the judge gotten from running?

She lost 15 pounds in 10 months, she told the group.

“I don’t feel 51. I don’t feel my years. I feel a lot younger. Age should not be a hindrance to what you want to do,” she said to loud applause.

Judge Veloso’s next goal is to run 42K in the Cebu City Marathon. “At my age, people will say there are things you can’t do anymore but maybe I can run longer than someone half my age or faster.”

“I plan to run until my body tells me to stop. If my body tells me to stop running at 90 then I’ll stop running at 90,” she said.

But why does Judge Veloso keep on running?

“I have a very stressful job. I handle a family court so I hear all kinds of problems every day. Every day I listen to annulment cases, murder, rape of children. Every day. It’s very stressful. If you’re always stressed out, you get sick. But if you run, you relieve yourself of stress. So far I haven’t gotten sick, my blood pressure is okay, everything is okay. I think it’s because of the constant running.”

“Now, I realize,” Judge Veloso said, “that I run for the joy of it. You run and you feel so much exhilaration. You just feel so much joy!”

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.”

The Cebu City Government is also reported to be spending at least P1 million for free barbecue dinner for 40,000 people on May 8.

The SRP Sundown Run will have 3K, 5K and 10K races. Organizers said one lane of the SRP will be closed for the run.

After the disastrous 3rd Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes Run last Sunday, runners are looking forward to a better-organized SRP Sundown Run, which is being managed by the Run Check team of Kenneth Casquejo and Annie Neric.

Here’s the interactive virtual route map of the SRP Sundown Run. You can zoom into the map and pan it around to view other areas. The red line indicates the 3K route; the blue line, 5K; and the black line, 10K.

Starting Saturday noon, the tunnel beside Plaza Independencia will be opened for 24 hours to light vehicles. Mayor Tomas Osmeña told reporters in City Hall on Thursday that with the subway, going to the SRP will be “very easy” from Osmeña Boulevard.

To make it easy for people to attend festivities at the SRP, the City Government is fielding buses to different pick-up points all over the city to bring people to the area. The pick-up points in the north are IT Park (via Ayala), Fuente Osmeña rotunda (via Colon St.) and SM City Cebu.

In the south, the pick-up points are Pardo Church (via Mambaling), Guadalupe Church (via Tisa) and E-mall.

Buses will also be field to the Cebu City Hall.

Registration for the run ends today, May 7, at 8 p.m. You can register at the Cebu City Sports Center and the Holiday Gym & Spa in Banilad. (Update: Casquejo has announced in the CebuRunning Facebook page that registration is already closed.)

Below is the events map of SRP. Click on the photo below to view the larger image.

Men can join the run if they register with a female participant, but they won’t be eligible to win in any category. (Correction race organizer Kenneth Casquejo contacted me to say that male runners can win but only the top 3 spots of the 5K and 10K races)

Registration fee is P250 and is inclusive of a race number, route map, souvenir shirt, and a goodie bag. Runners may register at the Mabolo branch of Leona’s Bakeshop from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

The run will start at 6 a.m. in IT Park, Lahug, Cebu City.

Here’s an interactive map of the route:

View Pinay In Action Visayas Leg in a larger map

The Pinay In Action team is led by Senator Pia S. Cayetano, a runner and triathlete. The group seeks to empower Filipinas by providing them with information and tools geared towards a healthier lifestyle and a better future.

Among Pinay in Action activities are sports events, fitness clinics, and talks and seminars on women’s issues. For more information about the group, log on to www.pinayinaction.com.

For inquiries, please contact:
Annie Neric
Fitness Program Director
Holiday Gym & Spa
Gov. M. Cuenco Ave. , Banilad Road
Cebu City Philipinnes
Tel No.: (032) 2330386

Some finishers questioned the result reported by the race’s technical staff. The confusion got to a point that a man was named a top 10 finisher in one of the women’s categories.

Race director Joe Deresas blamed yesterday’s snafu on last minute adjustments and changes by registered runners on their race distances.

CLICK TO ENLARGE. Media category winners (from left) Allain Cortes of Sun.Star Cebu (3rd), Ronald Banugon of Bombo Radyo-Cebu (1st), and Max Limpag of Sun.Star Cebu and CebuRunning (2nd). (PHOTO BY SUN.STAR CEBU’S ARNI ACLAO)

The announcing of winners got so drawn-out that even if people were already leaving, winners of some categories were still not determined. The winners of the special categories for media and the Cebu Association of Tour Operators (Cato) took so long to determine because of the chaos in the technical staff’s booth. The Cato winners, in fact, were no longer named, only the numbers were read and very few winners approached the stage to claim the prizes.

The chaos in yesterday’s race was a sharp contrast to the highly efficient and professional way Barangay Lahug’s Running MAD 2 race was managed. I think Running MAD 2 is among the best races of the year. In that race, the top finishers were told of their ranking as soon as they reached the finish line. Organizers, led by Tinago Barangay Councilor Joel Garganera, Lahug Barangay Captain Mary Ann delos Santos and Raffy Uytiepo, immediately awarded prizes as soon as the top 10 runners of a certain category was finished.

As expected yesterday, Kenyan missionary Simon Losiaboi extended his dominance of Cebu City races with another win in the 10K division. Losiaboi blazed through the route that started at the Asiatown IT Park and followed Gov. M Cuenco Ave. until the intersection on ML Quezon Ave. in Cabancalan in just 29 minutes and 53 seconds.

Mendel Lopez placed second to Losiaboi with a time of 30:16. Erstwhile top male runner Elmer Bartolo settled for third with a time of 31:56. Among the top 10 male finishers was trainer Mosherwin Managil, who finished 6th in his first competitive race. In previous races, Managil usually serves as pacer for the runners that he trains, including Cebu City’s top woman runner, Mary Grace de los Santos.

De los Santos again topped the women’s 10K event, finishing the race in 36:35. Madelyn Carter was again in second place, finishing the route in 38:00. Aiza Diola placed third. Among the top 10 women finishers were Anna Neric (9th) and Florence Mata (10th).

Joel Delposo topped the men’s 5K event while Joy Tabal topped the women’s 5K.

In the men’s media division, Ronald Banugon of Bombo Radyo-Cebu finished first, I was second while my colleague Allain Cortes was third. The other winners were (4th) Raffy Osumo, The Freeman; (5th) William Rama, Sun.Star Cebu; (6th) Rico Navarro, The Freeman; (7th) Rene Martel, Sun.Star Cebu; (8th) Francis June Ygot, Sun.Star Network Exchange.

The women’s media division, on the other hand, was an unmitigated disaster.

Not only did the organizers fail to rank the finishers, they never even had records of their participation. The emcee had to call the women media runners to the stage and by then, only two had stayed behind. The emcee then asked the runners, to widespread laughter, “kinsa may na-una ug human ninyo?” (Who finished first?).

Sun.Star Network Exchange managing editor and CebuRunning contributor Marlen Limpag topped the women’s media category while Sun.Star Cebu central newsroom library assistant Hanz Llerin finished second. The other winners were no longer named nor awarded. Marlen, in fact, had to ask for her medal because the emcee did not award it to them.

The screwup was unfortunate because the run held a lot of promise. The registration fee wasn’t that expensive at just P180, inclusive of a singlet, which was actually of good quality—one of the best race singlets given to runners this year. The medals they gave the winners were also of very good quality.

The water stations also had ample supply (at least in my experience—but then again, the media category was only 5K). The run was also well-attended with about 1,500 people joining it of the 2,000 or so who registered. That was a very good number considering there was another run held at the same time.

What really distinguished yesterday’s run was the number of raffle prizes offered to runners—certificates for overnight stays in Cebu’s top resorts and hotels as well as round trip tickets to domestic and international destinations. No other fun run this year can compare to the prizes offered yesterday.

But all those things were for naught because of two fatal failings—the chaos in the naming of winners and the shorter-than-announced route distances.

CLICK TO ENLARGE. Sun.Star Cebu runners with John Pages (standing, left), Simon Losiaboi, and Joel Garganera (standing, 4th from left). (PHOTO BY SUN.STAR CEBU’S ARNI ACLAO)

The 5K and 10K races were short by at least half-a-kilometer based on Garmin GPS data. This isn’t nitpicking. Having correct distances for your race routes is very important because most runners use it to check whether they have gone faster. Most runners do not use a GPS device to check distances and just assume that the organizers got the distance right. Many, I’m sure, thought they went faster yesterday because they did not know that the route was shorter.

With the tools available to plot race routes, like Google Maps, which we wrote about earlier, there’s no excuse to get the distances wrong.

Yesterday’s fun run held promise but ended as among this year’s worse. Only the great fun, good quality singlets, and great company saved it from being a total disaster.