Tag Archives: Joy Polloso

Above all else, integrity

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SOMEONE cheated during the 1st Cebu Ultramarathon last Nov. 27. He rode a habal-habal (motorcycle for hire) twice and an SUV once for long stretches of the route.

He finished within the cutoff time and upon reaching Capitol, made a show of being tired. Like he actually ran 50 kilometers.

I first learned of it when I overheard the runner’s teammates talk among themselves about how the person rode a habal-habal.

I have since confirmed it with a source I trust, who also got confirmation from several people. I have also gotten reports from other people who saw a runner ride a vehicle in the route.

FINISH LINE AT THE CAPITOL. Frontrunner staff members prepare the finish line of the 1st Cebu Ultramarathon at the Capitol in Cebu City. (PHOTO BY JAMES GO)

I cannot understand a person who would cheat in a road race, much more an ultra-marathon. It’s not as if we get a prize for finishing it. All we got at the finish line in Capitol was a commemorative plate, T-shirt and a food pack. The run—the entire 50 kilometers—itself was the reward.

Insulting running community

What the cheat did insulted the running community. He actually finished earlier than Brian Padilla, an Ungo Runner who was on the verge of giving up but decided to continue because he left his emergency money with one of the support vehicles.

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Do you want to start running?

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FOR most people, the hardest part in running is starting. In my case, it took me over a year of constant soliloquies—”I have to get fit, I have to exercise, I have to start running”— before I actually laced up and entered the Cebu City Sports Center.

The idea of running can be daunting. Five kilometers might as well be 50K for someone whose idea of rigorous walking is to visit all the shops in Ayala Center Cebu. Three kilometers might as well be a jaunt to Timbuktu for someone who’s never walked farther than the office canteen.

BUSINESS LEADERS BY DAY, UNGO RUNNERS BY NIGHT. (From left) Joy Polloso, John Pages and Sheila Colmenares during their pictorial for a series of posters showing how running is a sport for everyone. The posters are part of the Ungo Runners Think Pink campaign to get more people in Cebu running. CLICK ON PHOTO TO ENLARGE IMAGE. (PHOTOGRAPHED BY ALEX BADAYOS)

I thought I was running to the moon when I decided to run 10K in last year’s Milo Marathon Cebu eliminations even if I still couldn’t complete running an entire circuit at the CCSC tracks without crumpling out of breath. When I made up my mind, it was still more than two months away.

“The body does not want you to do this,” 1980 Boston Marathon women’s champion Jacqueline Gareau cautions, “As you run, it tells you to stop but the mind must be strong. You always go too far for your body. You must handle the pain with strategy…It is not age; it is not diet. It is the will to succeed.”

Gareau’s statement resonates even more with people like me as she started running to rid herself of a cigarette addiction.

It’s hard to start running. It’s hard to get out of bed earlier than usual to hit the road until you are out of breath.

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It takes a community to run a difficult 21K

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IN last Sunday’s Milo 21K race in Cebu, Nora Rosete Tecling headed to the South Road Properties (SRP) to give up.

She was almost unable to bear the heat and was ready to quit at the turning point near the Cebu Institute of Technology University but Dan Morales, a member of the Ungo Runners, a group that runs every Friday night from Sun.Star Cebu to the IT Park, told her to continue at least until the SRP where he would wait for her.

NORA ROSETE TECLING gets escorted by Ungo Runners on the final stretch of her grueling 21K run. Race officials had told Nora to quit the race because they thought she couldn’t finish it. They thought wrong. CLICK ON PHOTO TO ENLARGE. (PHOTO BY AXL ACLIBAR)

Morales manned the mobile water station of the Ungo Runners at the CIT in Sunday’s 21K race of the Milo Marathon Cebu leg. He hadn’t slept since Saturday and spent the early morning hours of Sunday going through the Milo 21K route to count the number of water stations and find where he could set up his own station to serve ice-cold water and Gatorade to Ungo Runners.

With several Ungo Runners joining their first official 21K last Sunday, the group decided to field mobile water stations to make sure members were well-hydrated on race day. Bikik Besavilla started the initiative by managing to get contributions from Summit. It was already too late to arrange for supplies from our regular Ungo run supporter James Abilla for St. James water.

Milo had set the tone for generosity earlier that week. The company gave away 400 shoes to students of Tejero Elementary School and the good deed was matched by the local running community.

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City Hall to close half of roads for Cebu City Marathon

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For the first time in Cebu City, the City Government will be closing half of the road for a run. Cebu City Councilor Sylvan “Jack” Jakosalem announced in a press briefing yesterday that half of the road of the Cebu City Marathon route will be closed from the firing of the gun at 4 a.m. until 9:30 a.m. The entire stretch of the South Road Properties (SRP), however, will be closed starting at midnight. (For an interactive map of the marathon route, please check our previous article)

Jakosalem and officials of Cebu Executive Runners Club (CERC), which is organizing the Cebu City Marathon 2010, said they decided to close the road to ensure the safety of runners.

Cebu City Marathon press conferenceRUNNERS’ SAFETY. Organizers Meyrick Jacalan and John Pages of the Cebu Executive Runners Club and Cebu City Councilor Sylvan “Jack” Jakosalem discuss the closure of the entire SRP route and half of the Cebu City roads that are part of the marathon route on Jan. 10, 2010. Organizers said they pushed for the closure of part of the road to ensure safety of runners. (Photo by Max Limpag)

John Pages of CERC said that although there are runs every Sunday in Cebu, roads aren’t closed and runners have to contend with at times impatient drivers angered by the traffic jam. (On a side note, I actually punched the side of a jeepney that cut me off in Mandaue City during the Rock and Run, not to be recommended, believe me.)

In other developments announced in yesterday’s press conference at the City Sports Club:

  • Ayala Center Cebu has confirmed that a pre-race pasta party will be held on Jan. 8 at The Terraces. Ayala Center Cebu division head Joy Polloso said there will be free food for the first 500 runners.Polloso also said they are working with Ayala Center Cebu merchants, especially those in Active Zone, to offer registered runners discounts during the marathon expo, which will be held the week before the marathon.

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