Marathon fever

The Cebuano runner's thirst for a marathon will finally be quenched when the Cebu Executive Runners Club organizes the Cebu Sinulog Marathon on January 14, 2007. It has been quite awhile after that chaotic marathon organized by a trying-hard Australian cop Geoffrey Little. The Executives moved closer to that direction when they invited Philippine Marathon for the Pasig River organizer Gay Maddela over the weekend. Gay who is with the Clean and Green Foundation, lectured the key officials who will be part of the management group including prexy Roel Militar, Dodong Sulatre, Joel Juarez, Jessie Taborada, Ken Lopez, Rodrigo Ababat, and Ken Lopez. Gay stressed the importance of starting preparations early, the main formula why prestigious marathons such as Boston, New York and London are very successful. Did you know that the minute you arrive at the finish line in New York, you are given an entry form for next year's race. That's one year of preparations and better don't be late to register,they stop receiving entries 5 months before the marathon.

Unity Run

Runners from the different clubs got together for the first unity run this year. Actually it was organized to accommodate Gay who wanted a glimpse of the proposed route. Since Gay is not a marathoner we decided to cover only 10 kilometers starting from the Cebu City Sports Center. The list included the organizing Cebu Executive Runners Club, A2Z, Mandaue, Cebu Road Runners and Danao City Runners. After the run it was agreed to hold a unity activity every month. Gay also invited the different clubs to be members of the Runners Confederation of the Philippines, a Manila-based organization of over 38 running clubs in the country. In fact Gay invited us to the Run-CPI convention on Aug. 26 in Manila but Roel said we are running in the Milo Marathon Cebu elimination leg on Aug. 27.

Rudy In Cebu Milo Race

Speaking of the Milo Marathon, Cebu is again expected to maintain its record as having the biggest participation. Last year, Cebu lord it over with close to 20,000 participants. But what is anticipated is the arrival of one- legged triathlete Rudy Fernandez who will be running in the 5K event. This will be the first time Cebuanos will see Rudy run in the streets although he already thrilled the Cebu community when he joined the Timex International Triathlon in Mactan in 1997. Rudy will actually shoot two birds with one stone when he visits Dr. Stan Dela Cruz to have his artificial titanium leg adjusted and probably some minor repair.

All Access Band

Like running, music eases stress. So I always look forward to my next jamming session, that's why I always take that short boat ride whenever I return to Cebu from Iloilo. After a stormy weekend in Boracay. I'm back on the MV Malaysia, Trans Asia's only remaining vessel with a live band. The trouble with jamming with a young band is that they cannot relate to the Sixties music. But the crowd was asking for the Beatles, Chuck Berry and Carl Perkins, so the All Access Band had no choice but to oblige. We had a few tunes that went haywire but nevertheless entertained the people in the resto. It's really hard to perform well when it's the first time you get together. Anyway the band is composed of band leader and drummer Jojo Obenza, George Garcia (keyboard), Rico Beltran (keyboard), Chris Albacia( lead guitar), Juvic Salcedo (bass guitar) and vocalists Elvie Loreno and Jennie Paila. The trip is likewise made relaxing with the tender loving care of the vessel's pretty stewardesses, Liezel Lintorio, Joanne Arabiana and the exotic Nacel Mandal. I promised to send some sixties CD's to the band so that the next time I jam with them, we would jell better.