In my first Holy Week as a runner, I decided to run to nearby Cordova town and visit churches located there and other parts of Mactan Island.

ON THE CORDOVA BRIDGE. With Marlen at dusk on the bridge marking the boundary of Cordova town.

I wanted a runner’s equivalent of a visita iglesia—that Roman Catholic practice of visiting several churches on Maundy Thursday. The better route would have been toward Cebu City, where there are more churches (the visita iglesia apparently comes from an ancient practice of visiting 7 pilgrim churches), but I wanted to visit Cordova again after several years. I had fond memories of tasty batchoy being served by a roadside stall in front of the town hall.

I ran with Marlen, who had been sidelined by injury for weeks. She was slightly worried about running 21 kilometers, which was our target, so soon after running 7 kilometers in the Wednesday night run with the ungo runners and 18 kilometers last Monday when we ran home together.

We started the run at 5 p.m. at the Pajac entrance of Camella Homes.

While there are a lot of good running routes in Lapu-Lapu City, Maximo Patalinjug Ave., especially in the Barangay Basak side, is not one of them. In Basak, drivers of tricycles and passenger multicabs seem to look at runners as targets.

When we passed in front of the Gaisano Capital mall, traffic was so bad—to think it was a Maundy Thursday—the entire width of the road was filled with cars and tricycles, but mostly tricycles.

But after that, we had the road to ourselves.

Mactan Island is a scenic running location but only if you run near the coastline. We, on the other hand, were running in the interior portion.

Our run toward Cordova was uneventful. We reached the town at dusk and upon reaching the municipal hall I found, to my dismay, that the batchoy stand was no longer there. We didn’t stay long in the town because night had set in.

View Visita Iglesia Run with Marlen in a larger map
A VIRTUAL map of our run including photographs that we took in the different stops. You can pan the map around or zoom in and out of locations. Check it out as I will be including more of these types of maps here in CebuRunning. To zoom into the map, just double click on the part you want to zoom into.

When we ran back to Lapu-Lapu City, we encountered several stretches of the Cordova main road where there were no streetlights. It was so dark there you could hardly see the ground you were stepping on. The occasional vehicle passing by provided us much needed illumination.

Our last church stop was the Mactan parish church. After having our photographs taken there, we proceeded to our final water stop, the Liberty Shrine, which is also located in Barangay Mactan.

Marlen stopped at the 21K point at the intersection of the Basak-Cagudoy-Bankal-Buaya and Mactan Airport Road, she decided to just cover the remaining kilometer to the gate of the Camella Homes in a brisk walk.

Marlen and I completed our first Holy Week run at close to 9 p.m.

Maybe next year, we could cover the more scenic locations in southern Cebu and its historical Spanish-era churches.

The race is organized by the Lapu-Lapu City Government and the Lapu Lapu City Tourism Cultural and Historical Commission.

This year’s edition of the race is being organized by elite triathlete Noy Jopson and veteran runner and race director Raffy Uytiepo.

GREAT LAPU-LAPU RUN. The Great Lapu-Lapu Run will be using RFID chips to time runners of its 21K and 10K races. The website printed above, however, is still not live.

Jopson told CebuRunning that the race will start and finish at the Mactan Shrine in Barangay Punta Engaño. He said they will be using RFID chips that will be deployed by Finishline of renowned runner and coach Rio dela Cruz. Finishline also deployed the timing chips during the Cebu City Marathon last Jan. 10.

The Cebu City Marathon was the first time that timing chips or RFID (radio frequency identification) chips were used to time runners in Visayas and Mindanao. The chips, which are attached to runners’ shoes, activate once these pass special mats placed on the race course. They provide not only the finishing time of the runners but also their split times.

The chips provide organizers quick and accurate finishing times of runners.

Uytiepo said that Hembler Mendoza, Waterfront Airport Hotel and Casino general manager, is considering collecting P450 as registration fee. Uytiepo said, however, that it is still being finalized.

Jopson said they are still finalizing the race routes but there is a “big chance” it will include the iconic Mactan-Mandaue Bridge. (Make sure to keep checking this site because we will be putting up an interactive virtual map of the route once it is finalized.)

Jopson and Uytiepo also confirmed that the top male and female runners in the Great Lapu-Lapu Run will be sent to the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon.