Category: Marathon

Three weeks ago, after I had finished my 12th and final laser-and-ultrasound therapy to cure the Iliotibial Band Syndrome (ITB) injury I sustained while running, my fear was that the pain would recur when I ran the 2008 Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon. And so, when I asked a good friend and top Cebu physician what medicine he recommended to help prevent such injury from revisiting during race-day, his answer caught me dumbfounded: Viagra.

Two Sundays ago in San Francisco, U.S.A., a freakish event happened. No, prisoners did not escape from Alcatraz (it’s been closed since 1963) and, no, the red-colored Golden Gate Bridge wasn’t painted gold—it was another type of oddity.

In the Nike Women’s Marathon, a total of 20,000 runners joined. Nothing wrong with that—in fact, that’s a grand celebration on the fight against breast cancer this “Pink October.”

Now, here’s the abnormality: One runner finished first while another clocked the fastest time. Yes, no misprint there: Nora Colligan crossed the finish line ahead of everybody else while another runner, Arien O’Connell, recorded the race’s fastest time. How possible? Each runner is given a ‘chip’ that’s attached to the shoe and one’s time begins (and ends) as she crosses the starting (and finish) lines. With that chip, O’Connell ran the quickest time.

“There were over 20,000 competitors in Sunday’s Nike Women’s Marathon in San Francisco,” wrote C.W. Nevius of the San Francisco Chronicle last Oct. 21. “And 24-year-old Arien O’Connell, a fifth-grade teacher from New York City, ran the fastest time of any of the women.

“But….. she didn’t win.”

She did not win? And she had the quickest time? How can that be?

This story is controversial, funny, thought-provoking. Here’s what happened: In the marathon, Arien O’Connell did not run with the so-called “elite” group (those considered the fastest… who are placed at the front of the starting line). And so, with over 20,000 participants, O’Connell stayed at the back of the starting pack and ran 20 minutes after the elite group left.

At the finish line three hours later, three female marathoners (not O’Connell) finished 1-2-3. So they’re the top three finishers, right?

Barack Obama of Chicago is running—yes, we know that—but not this Sunday’s marathon at his home city. Two Cebuano doctors, meanwhile, will run 42 kms. at The Windy City: Potenciano “Yong” Larrazabal III and Peter Mancao.

Chicago will be Yong’s fifth marathon (after NYC, Hong Kong, and the Pasig and Milo marathons in Manila). How many 42Ks does Yong expect to finish? “I plan to complete 33 marathons in my lifetime,” he said. “I pray to God that he gives me good health and that he protects me from injuries for me to attain this.”

Wow… 33 marathons! That’s beyond phenomenal. But if there’s one who can accomplish that feat, it’s Yong. Why? Because he’s ultra-driven; working not only long hours at the Larrazabal Eye center (at the family-owned Cebu Doctors’ University Hospital) but also finding time to train hard.

At the New York City Marathon finish at Central Park: Yong and Donna Larrazabal and Phia and Peter Mancao

One act of kindness that I will never forget happened last February 17. Together with 13 others from Cebu, I joined the Hong Kong Marathon. After the starting gun fired at 6:45 in the morning, off we jogged, traversing the asphalted roads, climbing bridges, crawling under the tunnels when, suddenly at Km. 28, both my legs cramped and, worse, I had intolerable pain at the sides of my knees. I winced in distress, walked crippled, felt like my knees had been hammered by a baseball bat.

Dr. Peter Mancao passed-by. While I asked that he proceed, he stopped, asked for liniment, rubbed it on my knees, asked for cold sponges and smothered those on my injured legs. For the next several kilometers—like a good doctor would accompany an ailing patient—Dr. Mancao did the same. And, it wasn’t until the 35th km. while under the Western Harbour Tunnel when I sat tortured by the knee pain, that I forced him to run. Reluctantly, he did.

I didn’t finish the Hong Kong Marathon—but that act of kindness I will forever remember: For here was one of Cebu’s top heart surgeons (and the man who organizes the Run For Your Heart races) who runs with a kind heart.