Category: Marathon

Seven days ago at the Kawasan Falls Marathon, nobody felt more pressured than Dr. Potenciano Larrazabal III. As organizer, 800 runners traveled three hours and 116 kms. to join his race. Worse, an intensifying typhoon threatened. To top all that, Dr. Yong was not a mere spectator — he was joining the grueling 42K.

But, like numerous hills that he’s climbed before, the Kawasan Falls Marathon turned out to be near-perfect. Jesse Taborada, a veteran of 9 marathons, calls it “the best I’ve joined in this country.” The weather? Cloudy but no rain. “It was the first Philippine marathon I joined,” said Yong, “that had no sunshine the entire time.”

Yong? He finished in 3 hours, 49 minutes. That’s Lamborghini-fast. Of the 271 runners that completed the 42K, he ranked 14th.

Why Kawasan? “After running marathons abroad, I decided Cebu needs its own Big Sur or Niagara Falls Marathon,” said Yong.

“After running there (Badian, Alegria and Malabuyoc) a couple of times last year, we (Dr. Pete Mancao and I) decided this is it. And what a finale and treat it would be for the runners to end the marathon running by the river leading up to Kawasan Falls. The course had mountains on the left and the sea on the right.

“We were fortunate that the 3 town mayors ( Mayor Robburt Librando, Mayor Melit Guisadio, Mayor Daisy Creus) were very receptive and cooperative. The townsfolk all lined up the route to cheer on the runners. We were also very lucky to get the very generous and supportive ThreeSixty Pharmacy to be our presenter. All hotels in the 3 towns were fully booked that weekend including the neighboring town of MoalBoal. It showed the trust the runners had with Run for Sight Foundation considering the place was 3 hours and 116 kilometers away from Cebu City.

“Even 50% of the runners have never been there and 30% have never heard of Kawasan Falls. This placed a lot pressure on the team (including Joel Baring) but I was glad we pulled through. With God’s Blessing, we had great weather for running as it was the first marathon I joined in the Philippines that had no sunshine the entire time I was running.

“Next year, we plan to have it on June 10 2012. This marathon is aimed to complement the CCM (Cebu City Marathon) which is six months apart and is set on the countryside. It will be also only for long distance runners ( 21k and 42k only). June 11 is a holiday, so runners may bring their families to have tour excursions and Island hopping afterwards (think Sports Tourism). This will be affordable to many but very limited to few ( 500 slots -21k 500 slots -42k) so as to preserve mother nature and the beauty of Kawasan.”

Here’s an amazing fact: Yong has completed his 21st marathon race. From latest to first: Kawasan (3:49). Sundown, Singapore (4:20); Los Angeles (3:57); Tokyo (3:51). In 2010.. Singapore (4:11); Niagara Falls (4:01); Camsur (3:47); Moray, Scotland (4:01); Milo (4:02). San Diego Rock & Roll (3:55); Seoul (3:46); Condura (4:16); Cebu (3:58). In 2009.. Macau (3:49); Robin Hood, UK (4:16); Big Sur, U.S. (4:26). In 2008.. Chicago (4:47); Hong Kong (4:19); In 2007.. New York (4:31); Milo (4:26); Pasig (4:55).

“I run more relaxed now and am more confident because of proper mileage and training,” he said. “Fear of cramps has gone. I calculate when to go slow or fast. Discovering the trick of using mind over body.

“If I run abroad, I try to enjoy the sights and sounds,” he said. “It is easily one good way of exploring the place you visit. I also try to get ideas so I can apply it here and share it with our fellow runners. I got a lot of good ideas from the Niagara Falls and Big Sur Marathon which we really enjoyed and applied them to the Kawasan Falls Marathon.”

His tips for us? “Get the right training with a proper mix of long runs, tempo and speed-work; most importantly, mental strength. Don’t pressure yourself too much. Conquering your marathon goal is 50% body and 50% mind. If you feel midway that you are not up to it (goal time), there is always a next marathon and just enjoy the run.”

Every 42K is unique, says Yong. “What excites me the most about marathons is that you never know what to expect and how your body reacts since this is 42k. And every 42k experience is different from one another. When running, so many things enter your mind; a simple ache or muscle twitch could lead to a cramp or injury which could result in my first DNF. I listen to my body: drink when thirsty, eat when hungry, rest when tired. When fear or stress steps in, I think of a happy memory.”

With injuries, Dr. Larrazabal has hardly been injured since running six years ago. He even completed 10 marathons in 12 months (Dec. ‘09 to Dec. ‘10). Why no pain and injury?

“I run less than recommended. When others run 100K/week, I peak only at 60K/week. Not because I want to, but because of my busy schedule. I do daily eye surgeries from 8 to 10am. Then clinic consultations till 5. After, I do eye laser procedures till 6pm. I get to run on weekdays when my kids are asleep at 9pm or earlier when there is bad weather or a typhoon and patients don’t make it to the clinic. I do my long runs on Sundays but I avoid road runs, opting to run in track, sand, water, grass and the treadmill.. all gentle to the knees. I confess to watching the full Schindler’s List movie while on the treadmill. I also make sure I rest at least one week after every 42K. This way, I have a longer, more enjoyable and pain-free running life.”

On his 42K list this 2011: Berlin in Sept., Korea in Oct. and Taiwan in Dec. And while he previously targeted to finish 33 marathons, that number has been tripled.

“Because I have learned to love running even more and discovered that there are so many marathons to conquer all over the world,” said Dr. Yong Larrazabal, “I have decided to increase my target to 100 marathons.”

How excited are you? I asked Millette Chiongbian, who’ll be joining the most prestigious 42K race in the world — the Boston Marathon — just eight days from now, on April 18.

“Hi John! Really excited!!!,” she said. “I think no other marathon does this.”

That’s true. There’s the Celtics, the Red Sox, the New England Patriots — all famous Boston teams. Add the planet’s most revered race: the 115th Boston Marathon. Yes, it’s 115 years old. It was in 1897 when this event was born. After the 1896 Olympic Games, it was founded and remains “the world’s oldest annual marathon.”

What’s difficult with Boston is the qualifying time. Everybody wants to join it. Few are accepted. That’s because you need to be very fast to qualify. For Millette, her qualifying time was 3 hours, 45 minutes. That’s speedy. Yet, she qualified. In March 2010, she joined the Los Angeles Marathon and clocked 3:43:06. Her time was just 114 seconds off the cutoff time; she qualified.

Her excitement? “It started building up when I got the Confirmation Of Acceptance in the mail sometime Nov ’10. Then by March ’11 I was assigned my race number thru email: 17009. This number signifies my rank from the fastest runner out of 27000+ runners. Runners are numbered according to their qualifying times. And just today (last Wednesday), I got the Number Pick-up Card, a Welcome Book and it’s sked of events. Owning a number for the 115th marathon edition means a whole lot. It can be meaningfully taken from my history or from Boston Marathon’s list of entrants in this edition. It’s actually a whole journey that started with a promise.”

Based on our research, no other Filipino — male or female — is joining next Monday’s Boston Marathon. Only Mrs. Chiongbian. “The feeling I am beset with is beyond compare. This is a celebration and a chance for me to run my victory lap for Cebu, as I’ve said in my speech during the Cebu Marathon pre-race party. And technically speaking, Boston’s procedures from registration to verification to confirmation and in welcoming the athlete sets itself from the other races I’ve joined.”
They say with Boston, the hardest part is qualifying. Once you’re in, it doesn’t matter if you finish in 3:30 or 6:30 — just by qualifying, you’ve claimed victory. “My plan is to humbly finish,” said Millette. “I have so much respect for the legendary course. I have no targets because of its unpredictability. I have no solid nor conclusive basis as to how I am going to perform on Marathon Monday. I will simply enjoy the course route.”

Millette will leave for the U.S. on Wednesday to acclimatize herself. With her will be her three children, Justin, Yuan and Savvi. Also joining the group are Dominique and Angelique Climaco, plus Clifford, Gera, Alfonso and Marco Alegrado. Good luck to the first-ever Cebuana to run Boston!

Of all the family names that inhabit our planet, the one that Sen. Panfilo Lacson detests the most is “Mancao.” It was police officer Cezar Mancao II who testified against him which led to his disappearance since Jan. 5, 2010.

Last Saturday, Sen. Lacson came home. He flew from Hong Kong to Cebu. In a “Believe It Or Not!” episode, guess which family name sat beside him in the Business Class section of Cathay Pacific? MANCAO.

Dr. Peter Mancao, a cousin of Cezar, recounts this amazing tale… “This trip, from the start was action packed! On the flight to L.A., one of the passengers had a seizure while he was on the way to the lavatory and he got a huge wound on the bridge of his wound that happened very close to where I was seated. So I got up and did some first aid. Good thing we were just two hours away from L.A.

“With the marathon itself turned out to be stormy (that’s another story), then on the return flight to Cebu from L.A. my wait at the Tom Bradley airport in L.A. turned out to be the most agonizing wait and anxiety whether I could board the plane.

“Then the trip from HK to Cebu. I was fortunate to get a very good deal on business class tickets (courtesy of Ungo runner Sheila Colmenares). As I walked in the plane I spotted familiar faces: Eva Gullas, flying in from NY, and Benson Dakay from Shanghai. As I got nearer to my seat, a very familiar person was seated next to me. I could not believe my luck! I had to run to get hold of the Phil. Daily Inquirer and check if there was any news on Sen. Ping Lacson going home. Indeed, there was. Sen. Lacson was seated next to me. It was just the two of us in that section, so I got up and greeted him ( “Good morning, Senator. I’m Dr. Mancao from Cebu. I don’t know if you remember but we met in White Gold House when you were campaigning in Cebu.”).

“I’ve never seen a guy as humble, considering his stature and the conditions he has been through. As we talked, I asked the reason for his return via Cebu. He said he wanted to avoid the media circus. And, in my first request for a photo op, he politely declined. As there was a slight delay in the departure, we continued to talk and told him I hope you don’t mind us talking because I’m a cousin of Cesar. His quick reply was he had no problem with that. We moved on to another topic and I told him, “So it was not true that you were hiding in Cebu?” He had a huge laugh.

“A few minutes before landing, I showed him my L.A. Marathon medal and explained to him how I got hooked to running. This time, he obliged to have a photo with me and my medal. When we landed, I was the first to greet him, “Welcome back!” It was such a coincidence because when my cousin Cesar returned to Manila, he was on the same plane as my dad (Dr. Mike Mancao) who was also returning from L.A.

LOS ANGELES MARATHON. “Team Cebu was divided into Team A and Team B. Dr. Yong Larrazabal and his wife Donna were in Team A (being the faster runners) while me, my daughter Mykha (who was running her first full marathon) and Chris Locsin (J&J rep here in Cebu and also her first full marathon) were Team B. We positioned ourselves with the 5-hour pace group at the start (Dodgers Stadium).

“The weather forecast for that day was heavy rain. Right from the start the rain made its presence, as it was drizzling on and off. Barely 5 km. into the race, the rain strengthens (yet the song goes “It never rains in California”) and, at some point, wind started blowing. (I heard that the LA Marathon was bought by the owner of the LA Dodgers and he managed to turn around this event as it was not getting good reviews in the past. It has one of the best routes of all the U.S. marathons but unfortunately the weather was not cooperating.)

“Mykha decides to move ahead of us as she had a 5hour finish in mind while we had 5h30m as our goal. At the 21K mark, we were still within our goal but little did we know that the weather was getting worse. The rain and wind were getting stronger. The roads were water logged plus the temperatures were dropping fast. We were doing the Galloway run-walk technique but the weather made us do more walking than running.

“At the 32K mark, we got into a medical station that provided us with garbage bags as makeshift rain jackets. We were given Mylar blankets. This got us back running but at this point were looking at a 6-hour plus finish. Runners were dropping out at the medical stations because of hypothermia. I was looking at my first DNF (did not finish) marathon. It was at this point that we decided to get back on track with the Galloway run-walk strategy and sing our way along for the next 10k.

“The finish line was another story as the Santa Monica Beach was in a fury with the storm. We had to walk another kilometer to get to the after-race finishers meeting area with strong winds blowing us off the road. When we got to the area, it was leveled-out. The tents were blown off. We had to walk back to the family waiting area aching in pain and shivering from the cold and endured the wait for our ride to Mykha’s apartment. Team B’s time: Mykha 4h56min; me and Chris, 6:55. Team A: Yong 3:50 and Donna, 4:30.”

L.A. MARATHON. “Marathon running has become my own little amazing race. Each one has its own challenges and a story to tell. I thought the Galloway run-walk technique was the answer to my prayer but now it looks like I have to pray some more. I really hate the 30th to 35th km. mark; somehow it has become my wall. I keep telling myself to add more mileage to my training but then again I don’t want to take away the fun part in doing my amazing race.

NO. 8. “I never expected to be doing marathon no. 8 at the time I ran new york. It was just supposed to be crossing out one item in my bucket list. I always swear each time I finish a marathon that that would be the last one. That is, until a few days later when i talk to Yong and James Abilla of St. James Water that planning for the next one always manages to get on the table.

LATE ARRIVAL. “I had my plane ticket booked late december 2010 and at that time was having problems with return flight. When i checked w/ the CX counter i was told that if i wanted a guaranteed booking i had to wait a week as all flights were fully booked so i had to take that chance last thursday and wow it turned out to be a punctuation mark for this trip.”

Dr. Albert Santos, Jane-Jane Ong, Nica Ong and Andrew Ong

Santos family: Dr. Albert, Dr. Maureen and Samantha

Albert, Jane, Nica and Andrew

Of the hundreds of 42K footraces in the world—including the oldest annual (Boston, starting 1897), the highest (Everest Marathon, at 17,000 feet), the loudest (Country Music Marathon with 50 artists performing along 28 portions of the route), and the coldest (the North Pole Marathon, temperature: -25 C)—none compare to the biggest and most famous: New York City.

Last Nov. 7, a total of 44,704 runners finished the NYC Marathon. One of those was Dr. Albert Santos. Cebu’s top pulmonary wizard, Dr. Santos not only helps Cebuanos fix their lung-related illnesses, he himself relishes this sport that’s lung-busting.

Back in February 2008, Dr. Santos ran his first marathon race, flying to Hong Kong with 13 others from Cebu. Steady-paced with a relaxed motion throughout the 42.195 kms., he made the cutoff time by finishing in five hours, 26 minutes.

Running is an addiction. And—as perplexing and contradictory as it sounds—marathon-running is the most painful experience that you’d want to keep on repeating. It is hours of (temporal) pain transformed into years of (unforgettable) memories.

After Hong Kong, the Dr. Santos strode onwards, completing three more 42Ks. In Singapore, we were together with the Cebu Executive Runners Club (CERC) in December of 2008. Albert finished in 6:08. Next, Milo in Manila (5:55). Then, the impressive Amsterdam Marathon showing (5:03).

Finally, the “Wimbledon of Marathons” … New York, New York. Coming from Vancouver, Canada for a pulmonary conference and landing in the Big Apple two days before the marathon start, he had a scary beginning.

“I almost didn’t make it to Staten Island,” said Dr. Santos, of the starting point. “Nov. 7 was the first day to shift back to standard time from DST. I adjusted my watch one hour earlier but apparently the clock automatically adjusts itself. So when I arrived at the subway, it was empty! I got scared. The subway time was 8:10 and the ferry will leave at 8:15 a.m.

“But, God won’t be outdone. All of a sudden, after I asked a lady if she’s joining the race and she said ‘No,’ another lady from the back said, ‘I am’ (she’s a New Yorker). Whew! I reached the island together with a busload of others… the very last batch.”

Despite wearing a Garmin GPS watch, Dr. Santos opted not to monitor his pace during the run. “That was my mistake in Singapore,” he said. This time, he simply checked his watch to guide him when to take the energy gels.

“The crowd was the biggest plus factor of all,” he said, of New York’s two million spectators. “They were there after the bridge of the race, the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. It was a never-ending cheering squad.”

When I asked for memorable moments, Albert said: “I don’t know what came to me but I decided to wear the pace time at the back of my shirt. Jane-Jane (Ong) gave it to me from the expo. My wife Mau advised the time “4:50.” So I wore the shirt.

“I totally forgot about it until runners were asking me whether I was the official pacer because I was running faster than my paced time. Even the pacer 4:20 was just ahead of me after the 2nd and 3rd wave of runners merged at Mile 8. Anyway, I decided to slow down, afraid that I might end up with the devastating cramps (like in Singapore). God is good! No cramps all throughout.”

Dr. Santos finished in a Personal Record (PR) time of 4:47:07. The others from Cebu? All speedy… Dan Climaco, 3:38; Andrew Ong, 3:59:08; Jane-Jane Ong, 4:12:31; Fr. Joy Danao, 4:29:15; and Nica Ong, 4:30:32.

How was this fifth 42K different? “The weather was colder, crowd was fantastic, race support very efficient,” he said. “I was better motivated because I wanted to give it my best for my wife Maureen and daughter Sam who were waiting at the finish line. Also, because running NYC is a chance of a lifetime.

“God is good! He put in order my schedule, profession, and family life so that I was able to prepare well for New York… ‘Where The World Meets To Run!’”