VETERAN runner and race organizer Raffy Uytiepo took back his threat to ban runners who called for a boycott over their complaints on the Aboitiz Race To Reduce Challenge 2011.
“We have decided to forget everything. For those who threatened to boycott (the Aboitiz Run), it is their right to join or not. I am closing the issue already,” Uytiepo told Sun.Star Cebu.
Two organizers also clarified that they are not implementing a ban on runners.
VETERAN runner and race organizer Raffy Uytiepo fired a broadside at critics of the recent Aboitiz Race to Reduce Challenge with a warning to those who called for a boycott that he will ban them from his races.
“Although it’s a person’s right to join or not, I really don’t care. In fact we have noted the names and will see to it that we will reject their entry forms next time around,” Uytiepo wrote in his column in The Freeman.
“We will remember the names of these guys who called for boycott. You might not even get to run in the other big races we will officiate.” He then listed the races he is organizing, including upcoming ultra-marathons The Warrior 50K Ultramarathon on Sept. 10 and the first ever 100-kilometer run in Cebu on Nov. 18.
This year’s edition of the Race to Reduce Challenge Visayas Leg will offer the biggest prize so far in a race in Cebu — P70,000 to the male and female first-place finishers in the full marathon, organizers announced in a press conference today.
Aboitiz Equity Ventures, Inc. (AEV) chief reputation officer Sebastian Lacson said this year’s run will be bigger because the event is co-organized by the Cebu Provincial Government as a highlight of the month-long celebration of Cebu Province’s 442nd founding anniversary.
RACE SINGLET. Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia with the race singlet for the Capitol-Aboitiz Race to Reduce Challenge on August 14. With the governor in yesterday’s launching are Liloan Mayor Duke Frasco (left) and Aboitiz Equity Ventures, Inc. (AEV) chief reputation officer Sebastian Lacson. Click to enlarge. (PHOTO BY MARLEN LIMPAG)
In their staging of the event last year, Aboitiz was able to gather more than 2,000 runners. In this year’s staging of the run, Lacson said they are targeting 5,000 runners to join.
The run will be held on August 14 at the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC) at the North Reclamation Area in Mandaue City. It will have 3K, 5K, 10K, 21K and 42K categories.
For the first time in a race, organizers will be offering several registration options that include the choice of not having a singlet, which Lacson said they are encouraging. “Most runners prefer to wear their own running shirts because they are already comfortable with it,” he said in the press conference.
The ultra cheat I wrote about last week called up race organizer Raffy Uytiepo last Friday and admitted riding a vehicle on part of the route of the 1st Cebu Ultramarathon 50K last Nov. 27. He apologized to Raffy and Jonel and returned his finisher’s plate.
Uytiepo was in the Sun.Star office when the person called up to say that he was in Casa Ilongga, which is owned by the race organizer, to return his plate.
Is everything okay, then?
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.
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.