23,000 runners to vie in Milo Marathon Cebu

With organizers leaving no stone unturned to ensure the success of one of the country’s most prestigious foot races, today’s Cebu leg of the 37th National Milo Marathon is expected to be nothing but grand.

The cash-rich race will start in front of the Cebu Normal University while the finish line will be inside the Cebu City Sports Center.

The Cebu leg has been a consistent blockbuster and this year’s race will be no different as a record-field of at least 23,000 runners are expected to answer the starting gun. The number of participants could even reach as high as 25,000 after the final tabulation.

In the initial count, 1,264 have signified to join the 21-kilometer race, 549 in the 10k, 17,810 in the 5k and 558 in the 3k.

For the first time, the race will have the inter-company category, where the winner will be determined by the number of runners in each group and the fastest group to reach the finish line.

Spicing up the event is the cheerdance competition which will be competed in by elementary and secondary students from various schools in Cebu City.

Leg organizer Ricky Ballesteros, national race director Rio dela Cruz, Milo Sports Executive Andrew Neri and Milo Consultant Pat Goc-ong took the cudgels in making sure that everything will go smoothly.

“Aside from ensuring the success of the race, my goal is to produce an athlete who will finally win it for Cebu in the national finals,” said Ballesteros in a media briefing last Friday.

The champions in the men’s and women’s divisions will be sent to Manila for the 42K national finals slated Dec. 8.

“What I am after is the success of the race,” said Neri. “Every year, we list down the things that need improvement. We want to come up with a better race every year because we want to make sure that everyone will have fun.”

Dela Cruz for his part said he is hoping that the youth will get to appreciate the importance of sports through this race.

“Of course we want the participants to have an enjoyable race but my ultimate goal is to encourage and inspire the youth to be more involved in sports,” Dela Cruz said.

The safety of the runners was Goc-ong’s top concern.

“We want everything to run smoothly. We want to deliver a very good race and the safety of the runners is our utmost concern,” Goc-ong said.

The Milo executives also led in giving away  running shoes to students of the Marigondon National High School, Don Sergio Osmeña Memorial National High School, San Nicolas Elementary School, Simeon Ayuda Elementary School and Pusok Elementary School under the Milo Marathon’s “Help Give Shoes” advocacy.

Milo has already donated at least 24,000 pairs of shoes since 2010.