You have to watch this: Chicago Marathon
Month: October 2010
New Balance shirts, RFID timing in the Cebu Marathon
The date is January 9, 2011. That’s the Sunday before the Sinulog. That’s the daybreak when one of the country’s most acclaimed of races will start: the Cebu City Marathon.
While last Sinulog the event was dubbed “01-10-10,” owing the date Jan. 10, 2010, the 2011 edition will be different. Thanks to the creative minds of ASAP Advertising headed by the power couple, Jacs and Perl Jacalan, the CCM will have a new and festive theme: “Race Through The Streets And Colors Of Cebu.”
Yes! It’s the week of the Philippines’ grandest mardi gras. Millions will congregate. Dancers will shuffle their feet. Balikbayans will deluge us. Beer will ooze. Lechons, devoured. Our beloved Sto. Niño, venerated. And, yes, the Cebu Marathon will race along Colon Street, snake beside Magellan’s Cross, meander through the SRP and start and finish at our island’s hub for business, the Asiatown I.T. Park.
Isn’t it perfect? Fitting? And very much… Cebu? Racing through our streets… gazing at the colors… of Cebu.
What’s brand-new with the Cebu Marathon is this package: New Balance T-shirts. While races hand out singlets to participants, this event won’t be any different—but with a difference: the New Balance running jerseys (Made in the U.S.A.) retail for P950 and will be given for free. This means that, regardless of your category, you’re getting more than your money’s worth.
The fees? For the 5K, it’s P500. For the 21K, it’s P600. And for the penultimate and dream-come-true-distance codenamed “42.195” (family-named “Kilometers”), it’s P800.
To add to this new from New Balance, all runners—5K, 21K and 42K—will be using RFID timing chips. Yup, no misprint there: while the 5,000-meter participants never previously used timing devices—“They’re just joining the fun run!” the 21K runners will brag—this time, even 5Kers wear the chip.
With New Balance, it will be a running T-shirt, not sleeveless. But here’s the “catch:” there are only 4,500 available. Wow, that’s plenty! True. For every-Sunday races, yes, 4,500 sounds unreachable. But, this isn’t your ordinary race.
Powered by Globe—who has the topmost billing among the few big-named sponsors—the 01-10-10 marathon had over 4,000 participants. That was nine months ago—before the running boom in Cebu and Manila boomed and boomeranged.
And so here’s a suggestion: The registration formally begins tomorrow, Friday. I suggest you sprint (wearing your New Balance!) to the Active Zone of the Ayala Center Cebu and register. This way, you’ll surely be among the first 4,500 to register. Our CCM booth will open from 12 noon until 8 p.m. daily.
Ayala Center Cebu, of course, will be a major, major, major partner of this spectacle. The Race Expo, slated the week before Jan. 9, will be held at the Active Zone. (The shirts won’t be available for pickup when you register—but will be ready and brand-new-smelling during the Expo.) Plus, there will be a Pre-Race and Carbo-loading Party on Jan. 7—or two nights before race day. For those who attended last January’s party at The Terraces of Ayala Center, it was invigorating to see runners mingling pre-race tips with fellow runners just hours before the sweat and pain.
The Cebu Executive Runners Club (CERC), headed by Jess Taborada—a seven-time marathoner who recently completed the Camsur Intl. Marathon—is behind the CCM. The Cebu City government—like last year—is an essential co-organizer, closing down Osmeña Blvd., the SRP and other thoroughfares to ensure that the No.1 goal of a race is achieved. That’s called safety.
And so, the starting gun is cocked, the banners getting printed, the Sinulog drumbeat practiced—all that’s needed is for you to fasten your shoelaces and get your pumping heartbeat to say yes to this once-in-a-lifetime, I-can-finish-a-marathon moment.
Ms. Joy Polloso, Ayala Center Cebu’s Division Head…. do we register you as the very first participant for the 42K?
Like you, I can’t wait! Good luck.
Cebu City Olympics tennis
My daughter Jana joined the Cebu City Olympics elementary tennis event last weekend. She won both her matches, 8-0, and will represent the city in next month’s CVIRAA in Dumaguete. That’s good news. The sad part: the incompetence of the tournament manager, Carmelita “Mely” Bala. Imagine this: for an event that includes boys and girls in the elementary and high school divisions, she only had one tennis court as venue. Yes, just one court. And so the result was this: Players arrived before 7:30 a.m. only to wait for hours and hours before playing. It was a pitiful sight at the Cebu Technological University watching the children and parents waiting. Why not choose a bigger venue? With two or three courts? In fact, it turned out a second venue (USC) was available—but left unused. Calling on DepEd P.E. head Nenita Pardenilla and DepEd Sports Committee chief Ricky Ballesteros: please make sure to change the tournament manager next time!
Pink October
One of the busiest people on this planet this month is Me’Anne Alcordo Solomon. A breast cancer survivor, we call each other, as she does her close friends, “breast friend.” Me’Anne is dynamism in action. She is the past president of the Rotary Club of Cebu Fuente and has done hundreds of projects, through Rotary, to help the needy. But her strongest passion is embedded in this fight against cancer. She co-organized with Dr. Peter Mancao the 4th Pink Oct. Run and is personally involved with dozens of projects this month. Will write more about the Pink October…
Were UC, UV favored over SWU? We seek a reply
I saw Ryan Aznar at the Ayala Center last Sunday. The sports manager of Southwestern University (and a commissioner of the Cebu City Sports Commission), Ryan was angry. Last week, his SWU men’s basketball team stunned the nine-time champions, UV, in an upset. It was the CESAFI collegiate semi-finals. As the schedule showed, SWU’s next game was against the loser of UC vs. USC—which turned out to be USC. And so, sporting a confident 1-0 record, they prepared—mentally and tactically—against USC. They aimed to go 2-0 in the round robin semi-finals. But, no—the day before their bout, they were informed (not through a formal letter—but via a text message from, of all people, the USC coach) that the schedule was changed. Instead, they’ll be playing UC. What! Ryan cried foul. “The schedules were finalized in September,” he told me, “and they tell us the day before that there’s a schedule change? This is unfair!”
It is. Why was the schedule changed? Was it to accommodate the giants named UV and UC, so the two won’t have to meet early? At poor SWU’s expense? If true, this is unjust. And I believed the CESAFI was managed professionally, not like a “liga-liga” where rules, midway, can be altered?
Felix Tiukinhoy has some explaining to do. This issue is at the heart of sports—and why we play sports. It’s called fair play. It’s called “not playing favorites.” I hope Cebu’s David Stern, as I called Boy Tiukinhoy, writes to explain his side.
Ryder Cup
Wally Liu, the president of Primary Structures Corp., is a good friend and fellow member of the Rotary Club of Cebu West. Wally and I talked about sports—as we always do—last Friday. The topic? Tennis and golf, Roger/Rafa and another R: the Ryder Cup. A Federer fan, Wally said, “The difference between R & R and golf is this: In tennis, you’re just watching two players on TV while in golf, for example with the Ryder Cup, it’s 24 of the best from America and Europe—and they’re all playing simultaneously.”
Wally is correct. There’s Tiger, there’s Lee Westwood, there’s Padraig, Phil and Bubba Watson, there are the Molinari brothers, there’s 21-year-old Roy McIlroy draining a 12-foot birdie. “It’s all of these superstars,” said Wally, “on the same course playing at the same time.”
Ateneo scores a three-peat as FEU turns blue
Jourdan Andrew Dunque Polotan is the president of the Ateneo Alumni Association, Cebu Chapter. The color of his blood is not red or pink — it’s blue. Back in 1987, he finished his B.S. Management (Honors Program) along Katipunan Avenue on 100 percent scholarship. He considers those ADMU years as “one of the best times to be in university.” Why? Jourdan narrates: “1983 – Ninoy was assassinated. 1983 – ‘85 Protest Movement. ‘86 People Power. ‘87 Constitutional Commission. 1987: first of our back-to-back victories in the UAAP.”
Last Thursday, “Brother,” as I call Jourdan — one of my best friends from the Brotherhood of Christian Businessmen and Professionals (BCBP) — was out gallivanting in Manila. Inside the cavernous Araneta Coliseum, he cheered for Team Blue to slaughter the Green Squad. Yes, blue was Ateneo but, no, green wasn’t the usual green, La Salle. It was FEU and the game three days ago was Game 2 of the UAAP Final.
“I arrived in the Big Dome at least two hours before,” said Jourdan. “Cubao was a sea of blue. And most anyone you met in blue would smile at you, as if we were all long time friends. You just gravitated to the restos and coffee shops teeming with Blue Eagle fans — they came in all sizes, shapes and ages. Teachers, students, administration, Jesuits… A nod, a smile, it was great to be part of one big family. You were bound to bump into someone you knew.”
It was Mr. Polotan’s first UAAP Finals live game to watch. “The tickets were always very, very hard to get,” he said. “I asked a friend for a ticket or two. ‘Best efforts’ lang daw. Even before Game 1, I asked to buy tickets to Game 2. I knew Game 2 would be hard fought — the winner of Game 1 would like to finish it there, and the loser would like to extend the series. Three days… two… one day before the game, still no ticket.
“The day before the game, I flew in to Manila for a business meeting. I told my friend that nag leap of faith na lang ko. I was in Manila already. He asked for a few more hours. A few hours passed, and I got a text to call his office. Viola! I had one ticket in the Patron Section at the original price of P300.
“On the morning of game day, I had one more meeting then I rushed to Ateneo to pay and pick-up my ticket. On the way, I called one of my professors and asked him out to lunch. Of course, he said yes. Him and his wife, dear friends of mine, treated me to a Japanese lunch just across campus. Sa resto pa lang, you saw families all decked out in blue talking about the game to come. Coach Sandy (one of the assistant coaches) walked in. We said, “Hi coach.” He approached our table, shook hands and we wished him and the team luck. “Tapusin natin ito, coach,” I said. You could see in his face they were ready.
“The noise in the Big Dome was loud. The drums were so loud that you could feel your chest pounding. I sat between two total strangers, both in blue, but it was as if we knew each other a long time. We shared notes about the players and team strategy. We agreed on one thing: it seemed like our team’s strategy was to take out FEU players one by one thru foul trouble. True enough… There were ‘graduates.’”
Jourdan, a sports buff and muscular left-hander like Nadal who adores Federer, saw—from Cebu—Jack Huang and his sons. He also saw a few batch mates… “one of the more famous ones — SC spokesman/administrator Midas Marquez.” He added: “Chito Loyzaga was in the row in front of me. When we won, we were high-fiving.”
Finally, I asked why coach Norman Black, of all his victories, would call this championship–especially Game 2’s 65-62 win—Ateneo’s “sweetest victory.” Jourdan explained: “No super stars. You can say we had ONE HELL OF A TEAM. Can you imagine — not one Blue Eagle was in the Mythical 5? It means no one stood out as a superstar. Everyone was a superstar, a clutch player. You never knew who would step up and carry the team on a particular game. That is why it was so sweet. Our opponents just did not know who to pounce on.”