Lopez will leave for Singapore tomorrow, Thursday. He will compete in the 5K and 10K events in the hopes of qualifying for the Southeast Asian Games or SEA Games. Lopez said his best 5K is 15:15 and to qualify, he will have to run at least a 14:50. He said his best 10K is 33 minutes and to qualify he has to run at least 30:59.

OFF TO SINGAPORE. Mendel Lopez (3rd from right) is competing in Singapore over the weekend with the support of the Cebu Executive Runners Club. With Lopez during the press conference in Mooon Cafe are (from left) Dr. Raymund Bontol, CERC president Roy Trani, Jesse Taborada, Kenneth Casquejo and Michelle So. CLICK ON PHOTO TO ENLARGE

Lopez said during a press conference in Mooon Cafe in Ayala Center Cebu just this noon that he is confident on qualifying for the 5K but not so much in 10K.

New CERC president Roy Trani said supporting runners is part of his group’s advocacy.

“CERC is a group formed because of running and we want to support Cebu-based runners who deserve the support of the community,” Trani said.

He said the support for Mendel’s plane fare and accommodation came from the personal funds of CERC members. Trani said he hopes to make the support of deserving Cebuano runners part of the CERC mandate next year.

“Not many runners know this but part of our CERC constitution and by-laws calls for the support of running and the support of runners,” Trani said.

Trani said he hopes Lopez will do well over the weekend and inspire other local runners.

He told CebuRunning that he is thinking of holding qualifications for elite Cebu runners so that they can choose whom to support in runs outside Cebu and the country. He said he hopes CERC can support more runners next year.

Lopez said he is very thankful of the support offered by the CERC.

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.

The chaos in yesterday’s race was a sharp contrast to the highly efficient and professional way Barangay Lahug’s Running MAD 2 race was managed. I think Running MAD 2 is among the best races of the year. In that race, the top finishers were told of their ranking as soon as they reached the finish line. Organizers, led by Tinago Barangay Councilor Joel Garganera, Lahug Barangay Captain Mary Ann delos Santos and Raffy Uytiepo, immediately awarded prizes as soon as the top 10 runners of a certain category was finished.

As expected yesterday, Kenyan missionary Simon Losiaboi extended his dominance of Cebu City races with another win in the 10K division. Losiaboi blazed through the route that started at the Asiatown IT Park and followed Gov. M Cuenco Ave. until the intersection on ML Quezon Ave. in Cabancalan in just 29 minutes and 53 seconds.

Mendel Lopez placed second to Losiaboi with a time of 30:16. Erstwhile top male runner Elmer Bartolo settled for third with a time of 31:56. Among the top 10 male finishers was trainer Mosherwin Managil, who finished 6th in his first competitive race. In previous races, Managil usually serves as pacer for the runners that he trains, including Cebu City’s top woman runner, Mary Grace de los Santos.

De los Santos again topped the women’s 10K event, finishing the race in 36:35. Madelyn Carter was again in second place, finishing the route in 38:00. Aiza Diola placed third. Among the top 10 women finishers were Anna Neric (9th) and Florence Mata (10th).

Joel Delposo topped the men’s 5K event while Joy Tabal topped the women’s 5K.

In the men’s media division, Ronald Banugon of Bombo Radyo-Cebu finished first, I was second while my colleague Allain Cortes was third. The other winners were (4th) Raffy Osumo, The Freeman; (5th) William Rama, Sun.Star Cebu; (6th) Rico Navarro, The Freeman; (7th) Rene Martel, Sun.Star Cebu; (8th) Francis June Ygot, Sun.Star Network Exchange.

The women’s media division, on the other hand, was an unmitigated disaster.

Not only did the organizers fail to rank the finishers, they never even had records of their participation. The emcee had to call the women media runners to the stage and by then, only two had stayed behind. The emcee then asked the runners, to widespread laughter, “kinsa may na-una ug human ninyo?” (Who finished first?).

Sun.Star Network Exchange managing editor and CebuRunning contributor Marlen Limpag topped the women’s media category while Sun.Star Cebu central newsroom library assistant Hanz Llerin finished second. The other winners were no longer named nor awarded. Marlen, in fact, had to ask for her medal because the emcee did not award it to them.

The screwup was unfortunate because the run held a lot of promise. The registration fee wasn’t that expensive at just P180, inclusive of a singlet, which was actually of good quality—one of the best race singlets given to runners this year. The medals they gave the winners were also of very good quality.

The water stations also had ample supply (at least in my experience—but then again, the media category was only 5K). The run was also well-attended with about 1,500 people joining it of the 2,000 or so who registered. That was a very good number considering there was another run held at the same time.

What really distinguished yesterday’s run was the number of raffle prizes offered to runners—certificates for overnight stays in Cebu’s top resorts and hotels as well as round trip tickets to domestic and international destinations. No other fun run this year can compare to the prizes offered yesterday.

But all those things were for naught because of two fatal failings—the chaos in the naming of winners and the shorter-than-announced route distances.

CLICK TO ENLARGE. Sun.Star Cebu runners with John Pages (standing, left), Simon Losiaboi, and Joel Garganera (standing, 4th from left). (PHOTO BY SUN.STAR CEBU’S ARNI ACLAO)

The 5K and 10K races were short by at least half-a-kilometer based on Garmin GPS data. This isn’t nitpicking. Having correct distances for your race routes is very important because most runners use it to check whether they have gone faster. Most runners do not use a GPS device to check distances and just assume that the organizers got the distance right. Many, I’m sure, thought they went faster yesterday because they did not know that the route was shorter.

With the tools available to plot race routes, like Google Maps, which we wrote about earlier, there’s no excuse to get the distances wrong.

Yesterday’s fun run held promise but ended as among this year’s worse. Only the great fun, good quality singlets, and great company saved it from being a total disaster.