On Friday morning, while most of us woke up to the promise of a great weekend, 17 men and 3 women toed the starting line in Santander town in Cebu’s southernmost tip. They too were faced with something epic – the longest single stage ultramarathon in the Philippines called SN250.
That’s 250 kilometers of non-stop running from Santander to way up north of Cebu in Bogo City. 18 towns and 2 cities on Cebu’s sunset side, the runners had all of 48 hours to complete the task of covering 250 kilometers of road. That means by the time the race was over, the runners who made it to the finishline had seen three sunrises and two sun sets and no shower, nor toothbrushes in between! All par for the course of a hardened ultramarathoner.
At the the 28th-hour checkpoint in Toledo City (141 KM from starting line) the 20 runners were whittled down to 16, but in the end only 7 runners made it to the 48-hour cut off. Cebu’s Joel Cuyos, emerged as the toughest of them all arriving at the finishline in Bogo City in 42 hours and 39 minutes. Cebu Ultrarunners Club President Tony Galon further cemented his ultrarunning street cred by finishing the race with more than an hour to spare along with fellow CUC team member Rodney Cabahug.
The list of ultrarunners who made it to the 48-hour cut-off as published in the Frontrunner Magazine website are as follows:
SN250 List of Finishers
Start: 5:00 a.m. Santander Municipal Hall, June 14, 2013
Finish Line: Celestino Martinez, Sr Sports Complex, Bogo City
Cutoff: 48:00:00 hours, 5:00 AM, June 16, 2013
1. JOEL CUYOS, 42:39:00 hours, Time of Arrival: 11:39 PM, June 15, 2013
2. ZENCHEN LAGAPA, 43:19:25, Time of Arrival:12:19 AM, June 16, 2013
3. WILNAR IGLESIA, 43:19:26, Time of Arrival:12:19 AM, June 16, 2013
4. RODNEY CABAHUG, 46:40:20, Time of Arrival: 3:40 AM, June 16, 2013
5. TONY GALON, 46:58:06, Time of Arrival:3:58 AM, June 16, 2013
6. RANDY RUBIO, 47:02:31, Time of Arrival: 4:02 AM, June 16, 2013
7. YOB RED, 47:37:10, 11:36, Time of Arrival: 4:37 AM, June 16, 2013
On the distaff side, Cebu’s Rhoda Oporto would have been the female champion but was 12 minutes over the 48-hour cut-off. A truly heartbreaking finish after having run for two days and missing the cut-off by a mere 12 minutes.
While only the seven runners who made it to the cut-off are considered official finishers awarded the SN250 race buckle, there were five other runners, including Oporto, who never quit nor raised the white flag even though the race was officially over. For these runners, the end of the 48-hour cut-off was just the beginning of an epic battle of man or woman vs. himself/herself. The finish time of runners who made beyond the cut-off were still acknowledged in the Frontrunner Magazine website:
* RHODA OPORTO, 48:12:01, Time of Arrival: 5:12 AM, June 16, 2013
* BENEDICT MENESES, 48:32:32, Time of Arrival: 5:32 AM, June 16, 2013*
* LOPE NOAY, 52:49:00, Time of Arrival: 9:49 AM, June 16, 2013*
* LYRA VALLES, 52:50:50, Time of Arrival: 9:50 AM, June 16, 2013*
* JOEL OUANO, 60:27:00 hours, Time of Arrival: 5:27 PM, June 16, 2013*
This brings me back to the question, is it possible to run 250K? Yes, you can! But why run 250 kilometers? Because you can!
SN250 was organized by Frontrunner Magazine and its publisher, Jonel Mendoza. Mendoza and Frontrunner Magazine were the first to introduce ultramarathons in Cebu in 2010 with the 1st Cebu Ultramarathon 50K from Mt. Manungal in Balamban to the Cebu Provincial Capitol.
Time splits and official race results of the SN 250 may be viewed at https://frontrunnermagph.wordpress.com/2013/06/17/official-results-2013-south-to-north-250-sn250/.