Milo Marathon in Cebu? Plan it thoroughly

IAGREE with the organizers of the Milo Marathon national finals, it's about time to bring the event to Cebu City, considering the success of the local eliminations over the years. The Cebu leg usually attracts more than 20,000 runners and has become the standard for which the other legs are compared.

In fact, and I think the national organizers themselves will readily admit to this, they do nothing when they visit Cebu. Dawat ra sila'g limpyo because of how the local organizers prepare and plan for their event.

Ricky Ballesteros and the men and women who lose sleep over the holding of the local leg have been at it even before the everyday runner has heard of Rio dela Cruz, now the organizer of the national finals and the other local legs.

This year, Milo will hold the national finals in Iloilo, the first time it will bring it outside of Manila and they are also planning to hold in Cebu.

That's good but please, pick another date. Move it earlier perhaps?

The Milo national finals is usually held in the first Sunday of December and if organizers decide to pick Cebu, then that could pose a problem to another Cebu running signature event, the Cebu City marathon, which is held in the second Sunday of January.

Two marathons in two months in Cebu City?

Is that feasible? Do we have enough runners for that? Or would holding two in a month even bode well for the local running community.

Since Rio is also involved in the CM and the local running community is a close-knit once, I'm sure they are going to work on a compromise should Milo bring its national finals to Cebu.

CHANGE OF SCENERY. During my one and I'm done 21K in the Cebu City Marathon back in 2012, I remember thanking all the saints I know when I reached the halfway point at the South Road Properties.

Now, participants of the 2017 event won't have the same experience because the CCM will skip the SRP and will instead pass through Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu City. Officially, the explaination is that they want to sort of revive the tri-Cities run.

But unofficially, we all know the reason. It stinks.

I mean, the SRP stinks because of you-know-what and you-know-who and the organizers don't want the runners, who by the mid-way point, are heaving breathes by the lung-full, to get a nice and pleasant whiff of the olfactory represenation of Cebu City politics, right?

So, bye Stinking Road Properties and hello Marcelo Fernan bridge.

This is good move by the organizers and a subtle dig at the Cebu City Hall to perhaps get their acts together and help the city get rid of the “olfactory representation of Cebu City policics.”