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.