On the run in the beautiful island
Posts tagged Elmer Bartolo
A runner’s heart
Jan 14th
In front of the traffic sign that announced a 20 kilometers per hour (kph) speed limit inside the Asiatown IT Park, Aileen Tolentino gave her all.
She covered the last 300 meters to the finish line within the automotive speed limit but at a combustive endgame 18 kph before collapsing at the finish line in a guttural scream.
“Aaahhh!!!” her victory cry a shriek of pain. Tolentino snatched the Cebu City Marathon Women’s 42K crown from Mary Grace delos Santos in the final minute and paid for it with a body racked by cramps.
SHE GAVE HER ALL. Aileen Tolentino collapses after winning the Cebu City Marathon 42K Women’s event. CLICK ON PHOTO TO ENLARGE. (PHOTO BY IGI MAXIMO OF PabolFC.com) The celebration would come later.
Three hours, 15 minutes and 30 seconds from starting her run, Tolentino lay screaming in agony, her head saved from slamming into the pavement by race organizer Meyrick Jacalan. Thirteen seconds later, delos Santos crossed the finish line, buried her face in her hands, and leaned slightly on pacer Elmer Bartolo.
Until that 20 kph traffic sign, you’d have thought the race was delos Santos’s to take.
Delos Santos, the top female runner in Cebu, built an early lead at the South Road Properties, running at least a minute ahead of her long-standing rival. Someone who saw the two runners there said he thought Tolentino was done for, lagging behind a still fresh-looking delos Santos.
But near the Bureau of Internal Revenue office in Banilad, Tolentino already caught up with delos Santos. With their teammates and pacers, the two ran in a pack.
Chaotic timekeeping, awarding mar Go for Green Tourism Eco-Fun Run
Nov 30th
An otherwise good Sunday fun run attended by about 1,500 runners was marred by chaotic time-keeping and awarding of winners yesterday. The Go for Green Eco-Tourism Fun Run awarding dragged on until close to 9 a.m. because members of the racing technical committee took so long to finalize rankings.
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.
