Aivan Villalion of Sipalay City, Negros Occidental finished the 65-kilometer Labor Day Coast-to-Coast Ultramarathon race in first place yesterday.
The 21-year-old long- distance runner finished the course from Toledo City to the Cebu Provincial Capitol in six hours, 22 minutes and 52 seconds to top the male division.
Thirty-year-old Charlie Berberio placed second while Renz Gabuya wound up third place. Gabuya also placed third in the inaugural race last November from Mount Manunggal in Balamban town to the Cebu Provincial Capitol.
“Dili sayon akong gi-agian didto sa bukid. Wala jud ko preparation pero daan na nako sila giingnan nga makuha ni nako in 5 to 6 hours,” said Villalion.
Meanwhile, Australian banker Natasha Davis topped the distaff side with a time of 7:28:19.
“This was the best run I have joined so far,” said Davis, who has lived in the Philippines for 10 years now.
Davis said she was amazed with the scenic view in Balamban and the Cebuano hospitality.
“Actually I don’t have a support crew so I was very thankful with the locals because they were the ones giving me water,” Davis added.
Second to Davis was veteran runner 53-year-old Melinda Ponce, who finished with a time of 8:36:46. Cynthia Arnaez clocked 9:15:43 to round off the top three female runners.
The entire race went smoothly as planned with runners only complaining of the intense heat of the sun.
A total of 226 runners joined the race with 140 finishing as of press time. The cut-off time was 12 hours.
“Wala tayong dapat ikatakot na may mandaraya na naman na lulusot,” said Jonel Mendoza, the organizer of the event and editor in chief of Front Runner Magazine. “We are more systematic right now in terms of compliance rate of the runners.”
The previous staging of this race was marred with controversy after rumors spread of some runners cheating their way to the finish line. This year’s race had no reports of such incident. Participants either finished or quit the race.
The oldest finisher was Dr. Abe Manlawe at 65 years old. He will be turning 66 on May 22.
Mendoza is now preparing for the 102k run set this November from Bogo City to the Cebu Provincial Capitol.