Cebu Marathon Draws Record Participants

The Cebu Marathon exceeded its target participants for this year, hitting 5,081 entries for the January 14 event at the Cebu Business Park.

The Cebu Marathon, which is now on its eighth year, is the first major event in Cebu City this year and has attracted participants from 36 countries, as well as runners from Bacolod, Baguio, Manila, Davao, and Cagayan de Oro.

“Our target is 5,000 runners but we exceeded that with 5,081 runners,” said Kenneth Casquejo of the organizing Cebu Executive Runners Club (CERC) in a press conference at the Cebu Grand Hotel on Monday.

The 21K category has the most number of entries with 2,200, while the 42K has more than 1,800 entries, a huge jump from last year’s numbers.

“Last year we had only 1,100 for the 42K and about 1,500 for the 21K,” said John Pages, another CERC member.

This year also marks the return of CERC as the organizer of the event, which was handled by Manila’s RunRio for the past two years.

“We will try to make it festive again. We have a lot of surprises for the participants,” said Joel Taborada, the group’s former president.

There will be 18 water stations for the event, all manned by volunteers. Each water station is also required to have an entertainment team for the runners aside from their hydration team.

Since the South Road Properties has been off limits to running events since last year, the organizers were forced to come up with a new route for this year’s marathon, something that has turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

“I think this is the best route so far. It’s very flat although there are a lot of turns,” said Meyrick Jacalan, another CERC stalwart.

To ensure the safety of the participants, Casquejo said the organizers would have eight-man teams manning each intersection — two from a communications group, two from the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO), two from the Cebu City Transportation Office (CCTO), and two medical personnel.

“I made it at least two so that if one has to go somewhere, there is someone who can take over,” said Casquejo.

Some 177 personnel from CCPO and village watchmen (tanods) from 18 barangays will also help secure the route. There will also be personnel from five medical teams led by the Emergency Rescue Unit Foundation, which will deploy at least 15 ambulances along the route.

“We require that each ambulance be at least two minutes away from any emergency,” said Casquejo.

For this year, the organizers will award a total of Php419,000 in cash prizes for the winners.

“We will give cash prizes to the top three in the 42K foreign category, top 10 finishers in the 42K local and 21K divisions, and the top five finishers in the 10K and 5K,” said Casquejo.

Meanwhile, the organizers also moved the venue of the Race Expo from Ayala Center Cebu to Vibo Place starting Wednesday.

“We are not sure when Ayala Cebu could reopen again, so we moved it to Vibo Place. Participants can claim their race kits from noon until 8 p.m. from Wednesday to Saturday,” said CERC’s Pages.

Ayala Center Cebu is still closed after a 39-hour fire hit Metro mall in the commercial center late Friday night. (MP/PNA)