Alvarez rules Hardcoe 100-mile Ultramarathon

BAYANI Alvarez emerged on top in the two-day Hardcoe 100-mile Ultramarathon, which ended yesterday in Bogo City.

Alvarez, who almost didn’t continue after suffering from cramps at some point in his run, breasted the finish line in 20 hours, 17 minutes and 51 seconds.

The route brought runners traversing from Bogo City to Maya, to Daan Bantayan and back to Bogo City then to Tabogon, Borbon and Sogod and returning to the finish line in Bogo City for a total of  a hundred miles.

“This is truly a hardcore run because 23 runners only took the challenge and 16 of them finished so we are very proud of them,” said race director Raffy Uytiepo.

Alvarez almost lost to Japanese Kenji Yoshiaka, who was just seven minutes behind (20:24.25) for second place. Zen Lagapa settled for third with a time of 23 hours, 35 minutes and 47 seconds.

There were three female participants who were not able to beat the 20-hour cut-off time and were advised to stop racing and were instead brought to the finish line.

The race started Friday dawn and finished Sunday morning.

Meanwhile, another hardcore ultramarathon was held simultaneously in Bogo City still being handled by Uytiepo and Front Runner Magazine’s editor-in-cheif Jonel Mendoza.

Jefrrey Diaz emerged the fastest ultra runner with a time of 10 hours, 22 minutes and 12 seconds followed by Jonathan Ancajas at second with a time of 10 hours, 31 minutes and 41 seconds.

Zan Cagulangan rounded off the top three runners with a time of 11 hours, seven minutes and 29 seconds.

No female runners joined this race.  /CORRESPONDENT DALE G. ROSAL