On the run in the beautiful island
Posts tagged JoeFranz Canizares
The disaster that was the 3rd Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes Run
May 5th
Marathoner Abby Ponce felt faint near the Super Metro in Mandaue City—about 15 kilometers into the 21K race—in last Sunday’s 3rd Mayor Jonas Cortes Run, also known as Mandaue’s Mini Death March.
On the hottest day of the year, Ponce felt cold.
Ponce was already feeling weak on her way to the Cansaga Bay Bridge. On the bridge, she was puking and retching. She ran-walked until Super Metro on United Nations Ave., where she had to stop because she felt faint. She asked for help from several police personnel stationed along the route to get a ride to the finish line at the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC).
MANDAUE CITY RUN. Lack of water, absence of marshals and a shorter-than-announced route made the Mayor Jonas Cortes Run last Sunday the worst fun run of the year. (PHOTO BY RAMIE IGANA)They just looked at her.
Ponce trudged on until the Total gasoline station where a police officer let her ride one of the motorcycles and brought her near an ambulance at the CICC. She asked people at the finish line, who were having breakfast, to let her sniff some ammonia to revive her.
They just took turns watching over Ponce while one started fanning her with a folded bond paper. Talk about origami as emergency medical procedure.
“That was an experience I don’t want to repeat, I tell you, Max,” Ponce told me yesterday.
It is a sentiment shared by almost all the runners I talked to.
Wednesday is the new Friday, but only for the Holy Week
Mar 29th
It’s the 7th week of night runs for the ungo runners—a motley group that meets every Friday night to run from the Sun.Star Cebu office to the IT Park.
As I said in my column last week on the ungo runners, we call ourselves ungo after that Bisaya word and its double meaning—the noun for that creature of superstition that comes out in the dark and the adjective to mean addict. We are running addicts who run at night.
WE OWN THE NIGHT. Ungo runners prepare to run to the IT Park from the Sun.Star Cebu office.Since this week is Holy Week and Holy Thursday and Good Friday are two of the five days in the year when there is no work in the Sun.Star Cebu newsroom, we decided to hold the run on a Wednesday. It will also allow ungo runners to go to their Holy Week break refreshed (we get sick if we don’t run)—not that devotion will stop us from running on Good Friday.
Kenyan runners dominate Smart Subic International Marathon
Oct 25th
NEWS quickly spread by word of mouth early Saturday afternoon throughout Remy Field in Subic Bay: the Kenyans are coming.
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.
