30th milo marathon cebu-leg Cebu eyes record-field anew

Registration is now open as the organizing committee targets anew a record-field of runners to join in the 30th Milo Marathon Cebu elimination on August 27 here in Cebu City.

Ricky Ballesteros of the Cebu City Sports Commission, the local counterpart of national organizing group Nestle Philippines, Inc., said registration will come on a first-come-first-served basis.

"We only received 15,000 registration forms and we agreed to set August 12 as the deadline for the submission of registration forms," Ballesteros said.

But Ballesteros said Nestle Philippines, the makers of energy drink Milo, promised to send more entry forms here in Cebu if there are excess forms from other elimination centers.

"There is really a need to add more forms because we are expecting a huge turn-out of participation here in Cebu," Ballesteros said.

Under the leadership of Ballesteros, the Cebu leg was able to set a national record of attracting the biggest turnout of participation in the Milo elimination for two consecutive years.

It started in 2004 when Cebu saw more than 18,000 runners, joining the race and last year, the record was broken as more than 20,000 footracers answered the starting gun at the starting line in front of the Cebu Normal University.

The center of the registration area will be at the Cebu City Sports Center but students who wanted to join the race can get in touch with their respective PE teachers, where the forms will be made available.

The elimination race will feature three categories with the premier 21-kilometer run as the center of attraction since the top three winners of the race will represent Cebu to the National Marathon Finals in Manila.

The national finals will be a full 42-kilometer race.

The other race categories are the 5K Fun Run and the 3K Kiddies Run.

The registration fee for the 21K race is P100 while the 5K will tab P40 and the 3K with P30.

Registrants will have to present also one 300-gram empty pack of Milo.

The registration fee will already include a t-shirt and race number.

Cash prizes will be awarded to the top finishers.