THEY CAME. They saw. They conquered.
All by themselves to represent the Queen City of the South, two Cebuano runners landed in the nation’s capital with no regard and owned its streets in runaway fashion to reign supreme as the new king and queen of the 2024 National Milo Marathon Manila leg at the Mall of Asia Arena Concert Grounds.
Both blue-collar workers in Cebu, teammates Florendo Lapiz and Lizane Abella of Spectrum Runners were no tourists at the acropolis in the wee hours of a torrid Sunday by the bay as they worked their tails off and took care of business through to the finish line of the 42-kilometer full marathon — all alone with no shadow of their peers behind.
Mr. Lapiz, a 33-year-old welder in a shipyard just north of Carcar City, clocked in two hours, 42 minutes and 33 seconds to beat his closest foe by more than seven minutes as the 35-year-old Ms. Abella from Minglanilla, an electronics production operator, timed 3:21:05, five minutes faster than her bridesmaid.
He bested Salvador Polilio (2:49:54) and Welfred Esporma (2:58:51), who completed the men’s podium, while Maricar Camacho (3:26:19) and Jewel de Luna (3:27:05) finished second and third, respectively, behind Ms. Abella, in the women’s full marathon.
Mr. Lapiz, also a fisherman on his day off, had fourth-place and second-place finishes in the previous Milo races before breaking through for a fitting fruit of his hard labor that started during the pandemic.
It’s the same sweet wait for Ms. Abella, a wife of a fellow runner in Lapu-Lapu City who proved that the third time’s the charm in Milo after finishing with a bronze medal twice. And she could have not achieved it any sweeter than with a comeback win down the road after trailing behind pacer Camacho in the first 32 kilometers.
NOTES: National team campaigners and multi-title Milo marathoner Richard Salano (1:08:38) and Christine Hallasgo (1:24:27) ruled the 21-km half marathon. James Darryl Orduna (32:23) and Anisha Caluya (48:03) won the 10K, Noli Torre (16:18) and Sheila Moreno (22:08) reigned in 5K, Robi Rosadia (12:15) and Megan Palad (14:14) led in 3K as Ron Valenzuela (3:36) and Christine Galicia (4:19) bannered the 1K races. — John Bryan Ulanday
