Tag Archives: Dr. Raymund “Reel” Bontol

Doc Reel takes on CamSur

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“Lord, padagana lang gyud ko (just let me run),” is Dr. Raymund Reel Bontol‘s prayer while on the bike during triathlons.

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.”

DOC REEL during the Fair Trade run. The Cebu-based doctor is scheduled to compete in the CamSur Ironman 70.3 on Sunday.

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.

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Make time for running

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THE biggest obstacle to running among workers holding regular hours is the seeming lack of time for the sport.

“I want to run to stay fit but I’m too busy with work. I barely even have time for my family,” an acquaintance told me a couple of months ago when our conversation inevitably turned to the fastest growing sport in the country.

GO OUT THE DOOR AND RUN! “Consistency requires discipline,” Bob Glover and Shelly–Lynn Florence Glover say in The Competitive Runner’s Handbook, “Force yourself out the door.” (FROM THE FLICKR ACCOUNT OF INDUSTRY IS VIRTUE)

Bob Glover and Shelly–Lynn Florence Glover have an emphatic advice in The Competitive Runner’s Handbook, “Consistency requires discipline. Force yourself out the door.”

Dr. Raymund “Reel Runner” Bontol is more blunt, “MAKE TIME!”

Cebu Maternity Hospital obstetrics resident Dr. Cecillie Milan goes on a 24-hour duty every three days.

Yet she makes it a point to run at least an hour three times a week.

She ran 21 kilometers in The Great Lapu-Lapu Run and in the Mandaue City race earlier this month before reporting for 24-hour hospital duty.

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Celebrating the great Lapu-Lapu with a run

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LEGENDS say that when Mactan chieftain Lapu-Lapu courted Olango Island princess Bulakna, he used to swim back and forth between the mainland and the island.

Ahmed Cuizon, who anchors the Sugboanon Na Ni radio program over dyAB, said the swimming by Lapu-Lapu was continued by Oponganons (Lapu-Lapu City used to be known as the town of Opon) until the 70s, when swimming contests were held across the Mactan channel every fiesta.

BLACK SATURDAY WITH THE BLACK PANTHERS. Testing The Great Lapu-Lapu Run route with Noy Jopson, Dr. Raymund “Doc Reel” Bontol and triathlete Amale Jopson with her Black Panthers Aegis PeopleSupport running team. (PHOTOGRAPH BY MARLEN LIMPAG)

“As to running, I only presume that he was well into it, too, considering that there was no means of land transportation in those days and since Lapu-Lapu was the supreme ruler of the entire Mactan Island, he would surely have run around his kingdom at times,” Cuizon said.

On Sunday, Mactan Island, the erstwhile kingdom of the first Pinoy to have resisted Spanish colonization, will hold The Great Lapu-Lapu Run.

“And that’s one more nice thing about the activity. You get to run around in a place where Lapu-Lapu moved about during his days. In a sense, we are celebrating his life and times,” Cuizon said.

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Ungo

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ON FRIDAY nights, Sun.Star Cebu executive editor Michelle So works in running shorts. At 9 p.m. managing editor for news Isolde Amante and news editor Charmaine Rodriguez go through the last few news stories and prepare to close the remaining news pages before changing to their jogging pants or running shorts.

At that time, reporters Justin Vestil, Linette Ramos and Rene Martel have finished writing their stories and are now in running attire. Graphic artist Kent Ynot and Ariel Catubig of the Sun.Star Network Exchange are also ready to go.

WE OWN THE NIGHT. Ungo runners in front of the Sun.Star Cebu office before running to the It Park in Lahug, Cebu City. CLICK TO VIEW LARGER IMAGE.

Outside the newsroom, men in tights sit on the steps of the stairs talking to one another. Dr. Raymund “Reel Runner” Bontol accompanies a large group of runners, among them Jefferey Chua and Ralph Noval, from the Cebu Velez General Hospital, and gives tips on running. Aeda Mae Siao, meanwhile, accompanies a friend who is on her first night run.

Higher up the stairs, Eric Agaton of Nike Banilad Town Center leads a group of three men all wearing Nike running shoes.

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More than just a market, running is an advocacy: RUNNR founder

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ROBERTO “Toby” Claudio, Jr. hated running because of his bad back and anterior cruciate ligament injury.

But he later found out that with the proper form and correct pair of shoes, he could run despite his bad back and knee injury. Now, the eponymous eldest son of Toby’s Sports founder Roberto Claudio, Sr. regularly runs and has even finished the half-marathon. He’s still planning to run his first full marathon and is considering doing it during the Cebu City Marathon on Jan. 10, 2010.

Toby Claudio with Newton Running Shoes ONLY IN A NEWTON. Toby Claudio explains to Cebu bloggers and reporters what sets a pair of Newton Running Shoes apart from those of other brands. Claudio, who runs only in Newtons, is the founder of the running specialty store RUNNR, which will open in Cebu in the first week of December. CLICK ON PHOTO TO ENLARGE. (PHOTO BY MARLEN LIMPAG)

“Running is not as easy as it looks. It’s hard on the body,” Claudio said in a briefing last Saturday for Cebu journalists and bloggers on the opening in the city of his running specialty store RUNNR.

From “zero running,” Claudio said he was able to regularly run relatively injury-free after learning the proper running form, particularly ChiRunning, and wearing correct shoes.

“Many still use improper footwear for running. That and the lack of proper technique can cause pains. Then they stop,” Claudio said. “The solution is to get the right shoes. Choosing the wrong shoes can cause a lot of problems.”

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