Three categories: 5K, 21K and 42K

Date: January 10, 2010

Assembly times:

42K: 3:30 a.m.

21K: 4:30 a.m.

5K: 5:00 a.m.

Starting times:

42K: 4:00 a.m.

21K: 5:10 a.m.

5K: 5:30 a.m.

Start and Finish: Asiatown I.T. Park, Cebu City, Philippines
(The Cebu City Marathon is part of the calendar of activities of the Sinulog Festival 2010, the biggest festival in the Philippines)

Organizers:

Cebu Executive Runners Club (CERC), one of the longest-running running clubs in Cebu, founded in 1997

Cebu City Government

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42K Finisher’s Medal

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RECENT ARTICLES….

Cebu City 42K to use P.5M chip technology
November 25, 2009
By Mike Limpag

RUNNERS in the Cebu City Marathon will have their own unique souvenir after the Jan. 10, 2010 event—their own ChampionChips. Cebu City’s grand marathon next year will be the first race in the Visayas and in Mindanao to go high-tech and use the ChampionChips. “We all decided to take the risk and get the ChampionChips,” said Cebu Executive Runners Club’s (CERC) Meyrick Jacalan during yesterday’s press conference at the Casino Español. “We also want to make a good impression.”

The organizers of the marathon will be shelling out more than half a million pesos for the chips, with almost P200,000 alone for the system. According to the organizers, the Cebu City marathon will be just the third race in the Philippines, and the first outside of Manila, to use the chips. According to their brochure, the chips “consist of a miniature transponder in a specially designed housing, marked with a unique identification number.”

“We can easily post the results in the website after the race and the runners can monitor their split times also,” said CERC’s John Pages. It also frees the organizersfrom the hassle of individually monitoring each runner’s time and making sure the runners pass through the control points.

Organizers have also slightly raised their registration fee to cover for the chips.
The 21K runners will now pay P450 from P350, while the 42K runners will shell out P650 from P450. The registration fee in the 5K division—which will not use the chips—is unchanged. The registration will formally open on Nov. 27. “The runners will get their chips together with their race packets,” said Jacalan.

The organizers will also hold an expo for the event from Jan. 6 to 8 at the Ayala Active Zone. They are also working out to have registered runners get discounts at the different stalls in the Active Zone.

Mayor Tom okays city marathon

By Caecent No-ot Magsumbol of The Freeman / August 28, 2009

The organizers of the Cebu City Marathon set on January 10 next year got a big boost from the city government with no less than Mayor Tomas Osmeña pressing the green light for the staging of the event.

City councilor Sylvan “Jack” Jakosalem surprised the organizing Cebu Executive Runners Club (CERC) during a press conference yesterday at Mooon Café in Guadalupe by showing off the approved letter of request of support from Osmeña.

Along with that, Jakosalem bared that the city government will allocate P295, 500 for the prizes of the top performers. The men and women’s open champion will receive P50,000 each, while the second to 10th placers in the 42-kilometer action will also receive cash prizes.

The top male and female finishers in the 21km and 5km run, on the other hand, will get P15,000.

Commemorative medals and t-shirts courtesy of the Aldeguer Group of Companies will also be given away to all the finishers of the full marathon.

“This is the first time that a full marathon will start and end here in Cebu City so it’s just right that we give full support to this,” said Jakosalem, who vowed to insert the event into the Sinulog calendar of activities.

“It’s long, it’s hard, it’s a killer (distance). So, we are doing this presscon to tell everyone that it’s a go and for the runners to prepare ahead,” said CERC president Jesse Taborada.

The marathon is open to runners aged 18 years old and above, while no age limit is being set for the 21km and 5km races.

Since it is the first time in over a decade that such kind of footrace will take place, the organizers have set a cut-off time of seven hours.

The route for the 42km battle will start at the IT Park in Lahug, going to Salinas Drive then Gorordo Avenue and turn right to Escario then upon hitting Capitol, turn left to Osmeña Boulevard all the way to Sto.Niño Shrine then turn right passing through the Magellan’s cross heading to the SRP.

From SRP, the runners will go back to Magellan’s Cross then Osmeña Boulevard to Fuente Osmeña rotunda and turn right to Mango Avenue all the way to the old Sacred Heart School-Jesuit building and U-turn at the old White Gold store going back to Ayala Center at the Cebu Business Park then out to Gorordo straight to Asilo and then turn right.

From there, the participants will go straight to Talamban passing through three fly-overs and make a U-turn at the University of San Carlos-Technological Center then back.

Upon hitting the TESDA intersection, turn left to Juan Luna up to St. Joseph Parish Church in Mabolo for the final U-turn and straight all the way to the IT Park finish.

By baring the route early, the hometown bets will enjoy a bit of advantage over the visiting runners, who had been dominating the local races for quite sometime now.

For more details, interested parties may log on to www.cebumarathon.com.

4-month preparation

By Edri K. Aznar of Sun.Star Cebu

ORGANIZERS of Cebu City’s first full marathon in years launched the event with still more thanfour months to spare before the race hits the street next year.

The early launching is geared to help the runners prepare for the race.

“It’s not an ordinary race, it’s long and it’s a killer. That distinguishes it from other events and nobody organizes this type of tournament in Cebu except this group,” said Cebu Executive Runners Club (CERC) president JesseTaborada.

“We are informing the public ahead so that they can also train ahead.”

Taborada, along with the other members of CERC, held the launching of the race yesterday at Mooon Café.

Race organizer and Sun.Star columnist John Pages encouraged the runners to aim for a higher goal and try the more difficult categories rather than their usual distances.

“It’s the ideal time for the 5K and 10K runners to target the 21K marathon and the 21K runners to target the full marathon,” said Pages.

Though there are regular runs in Cebu, most of them are only for the shorter 10K or 5K categories.

CERC’s Meyrick Jacalan said they will be organizing clinics in preparation for the race to teach the 42K debutants how to train.

Aside from the 42K full marathon, there will also be shorter races—the 21K and 5K categories.

The Cebu City Government, through Councilor Sylvan “Jack” Jackosalem, has expressed their support for the Cebu City Marathon by shouldering the prizes of the event and including it as an official activity for the next year’s Sinulog celebration.

“I just spoke with Mike (Rama, chairman of the Sinulog Foundation), and he has accepted it to be part of the official Sinulog calendar of events,” said Jakosalem.

The Cebu City Government has allocated P295,500 for the marathon.

The registration of the race will start in September.

Interested participants may contact the organizers in the Cebu City Marathon’s official website at www.cebumarathon.com.
Full marathon scheduled in Cebu
By Marian C. Baring of Sun.Star Cebu

The running boom in Cebu will intensify in 2010 with the first staging of a planned annual Cebu Marathon.

Meyrick Jacalan of the Cebu Executive Runners Club (CERC) said there is no better time to stage a full marathon in Cebu than now when the running boom in the country is at its peak.

CERC, the longest-running active runners’ club in Cebu, will be staging the Cebu Marathon on Jan. 10, 2010.

The Cebu marathon will be part of the Sinulog calendar of activities.

“Cebu is ready for a full marathon. For the past years, all we had were the 21Ks—small races where participation increases by the minute. The running public is already asking for bigger races and it is the right time to take it a notch higher,” said Jacalan.

Organizer John Pages said they are hoping that in the future, the Cebu Marathon will have a place in the international running calendar and would be as massive as the ones in the major cities of the world like New York and Singapore.

“The major cities of the world have full marathons and we are hoping that in the long run, this will stand out from the others in the country, emerge as the Philippines’ marathon and be recognized by the international running community,” said Pages.

Jacalan added since Cebu is very strategic geographically, they could also use the tourism angle to attract more runners to take part in the race.

Since the race is scheduled a week before the Sinulog festivities, Jacalan said the racers could rest after and enjoy the Sinulog celebrations as well as the other tourist spots Cebu has to offer. (From a Sun.Star Cebu article by Marian C. Baring)