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.

The Go for Green fun run will have 3K, 5K and 10K races. The registration fee for the run is P180, which is inclusive of the race singlet. The registration centers for the race are in Southwind Travel in JY Square, Grand Hope Travel in SM City, Adventure Travel in Ayala Center Cebu and the Philippine Sports Commission 7 office at the Cebu City Sports Center.

Below is an interactive map of the fun run’s route. You can zoom into the map and pan it around. The red line is the 3K route, the green line is the 5K route, while the blue line is for the 10K route. The interactive map below is based on the map distributed by the organizers. If there are changes in the route or the placement of water stations, we won’t have a way of knowing.

Of all the races in Cebu this year, Go for Green offers runners the most number of raffle prizes.

For the Nov. 29 fun run, CTTA and CATO will be raffling certificates for an overnight stay for two in member hotels and resorts including Sumilon Bluewater, Maribago Bluewater, Cebu Whitesands, Costabella Beach Hotel Cebu, Microtel Inn & Suites Mactan, Waterfront Cebu City Hotel, Waterfront Hotel Mactan, Marco Polo Plaza Hotel, City Park Hotel, Parklane Hotel, Badian Island Resort and Spa, Tambuli Beach Resort, Hilton Cebu, and Alegre Beach Resort.

Another raffle prize is fish feeding and snorkeling at Talima Marine Sanctuary via Island Banca Cruises.

The grand raffle prizes for the event are round-trip tickets to Bangkok via Philippine Airlines, Hong Kong via Cathay Pacific, and Seoul via Cebu Pacific.

The prizes for winners of the run include:

3K Open Division
P1,500 and medals (1st men, women)
P1,000 and medals (2nd men, women)
P500 and medals (3rd men, women)
P200 (4th to 10th men, women)

5K Open Division
P3,000 and medals (1st men, women)
P2,000 and medals (2nd men, women)
P1,000 and medals (3rd men, women)
P300 (4th to 10th men, women)

10K Open Division
P7,000 and medals (1st men, women)
P5,000 and medals (2nd men, women)
P3,000 and medals (3rd men, women)
P1,000 (4th men, women)
P700 (5th men, women)
P500 (6th to 10th men, women)

5K Media Division
P700 + P300 worth of gift cheques (GCs) + gift packs + medals (1st men, women)
P200 + P300 GCs + gift packs + medals (2nd men, women)
P300 GCs + gift packs + medals (3rd men, women)
P200 GCs (4th to 10th men, women)

5K CTTA/CATO Division
P700 + P300 worth of gift cheques (GCs) + gift packs + medals (1st men, women)
P200 + P300 GCs + gift packs + medals (2nd men, women)
P300 GCs + gift packs + medals (3rd men, women)
P200 GCs (4th to 10th men, women)