Last Sunday, a horde of Manila runners gathered at SM by the Bay to celebrate the prestigious Milo Marathon – Manila Leg, 2018. Known all over the country as one of the most challenging races to beat — with the massive amount of competition and the cut-off times for each category — the Milo Marathon rakes in participants of every kind like a stick of honey for flies. And we mean it when we say ‘every kind’ because aside from your usual, competitive and technical runners, all serious and meaning business, we also found the funny and quirky, the resilient as well as the unexpected ones amongst them.
Spotting these extraordinary runners on the route would surely have put a smile on your face and kept you going even if you were on the verge of crawling the remaining distance due to exhaustion:
Even when she’s running, all she ever does is shine
Am I the only one who sang that to the tune of Bazzi’s song: Mine? Yeah, sorry. But the real question anyone should really be asking here should be: who didn’t spot her at last weekend’s race, am I right? Such a beauty is hard not to notice, with her bright smile and elegant demeanor… and also because she gave an opening remark as Milo’s official Brand Ambassador for Nutri Up. Solenn Heussaff was a shining star not just on-stage but on-route, as well. Everybody’s favorite it-girl and fitness enthusiast, ran alongside hundreds of participants at the 10K category, breaking a personal record instead of a sweat and finishing her run at an official time of 55:56:00!
Definitely a strong finish for a youth role model.
We also have our elders at the race
Who we can also turn to for inspiration to do better. Tatay Pablo Recafrente Francisco, a 75-year-old runner of the 5K category finishes his run happily. But wait, there’s more to it than that. You see, our dear Tatay Pablo, in his younger years, has competed for and represented various regions of the country for a total of 57 years! That makes him one of the pioneering runners for the first ever Milo Marathon way back 1974. Truly, age is no true barrier when it comes to your passions. Thank you, Tatay Pablo for inspiring us to keep running!
On the topic of age, we were hoping you could clarify the timeline, because we’ve gotten a bit confused…
Milo Marathon is only at its 42nd year, right?
Because else my eyes deceive me, I’m quite certain I saw Homo Erectus running the 5K category. Oh, it’s just someone dressed as a caveman? Okay, good. I thought I’d gone through a time warp back to 400,000 BC. Dressed in an impressive caveman costume, Larry Ronquillo would have either had you stopping to take a photo with him or running faster because he scared you off on the race route. We hope you went for the former, though because he’s a friendly one!
Related Article: Meet Larry Ronquillo, the Taong Grasa Runner
But then again, why would you be scared of running with a caveman, when security was running with you all the way?
Milo Marathon takes security very seriously, as it seems
Especially at the 42K run, because seriously: the 42K runners were running with a security guard. I mean, props for the runner who not only ran a full marathon but did so in a complete security guard uniform, too! We see you, Carl Rudas with bib #84318. Now, we just wanted to say that we applaud very much that you not only passionately ran your 42K yesterday, but also safeguarded all of our runners with utmost diligence. Your dutifulness is truly honorable.
And among much honorable and inspiring things…
Going against all odds is our one-legged runner,
Renson Emradura, who is famous in the running community for relentlessly racing despite his handicap. This truly admirable runner just continues to defiantly refuse to succumb to the odds that seem to fight against him. Although, is it even really still a fight when he’s overcome this setback time and time, again? A lot can be said about strength of will and character for our 10K finisher, here—yes, you read that right: finisher—as he continues to show each of us that limitations are only self-imposed allusions that we need to break free from. To Renson Ermadura: we thank you for being an ever-resilient light of hope and fount of encouragement for the running community.
One doesn’t need to have a tear-jerking, or laugh-inducing story at the Milo Marathon to be ‘extraordinary’
At the end of the day, you just have to look in the mirror.
Because you’re also extraordinary. Because we know you put in a lot of effort—from training day-in and day-out, to nursing aching muscles to get back to training, for sacrificing nights out to train, and everything else in between—and all effort should be appreciated and applauded. Sometimes we get calloused towards bouts of effort, because we so casually presume that each of us only does things to such an extent that never goes beyond our comfort zones. At other times, we also undermine ourselves; becoming our own worst enemies in our heads whenever we don’t hit a new PR, or if we your pace suddenly drops after keeping it consistently up during one training session, or another.
Most of the time, we just think that we’ll never be good enough to be called ‘extraordinary.’ Those are all lies in your head. And the only truth here, really is that: you are a Milo Marathon Runner—one of the toughest there is—and you are extraordinary.
And with that, your Pinoy Fitness team would like to wish all Milo Marathon finishers a humungous CONGRATULATIONS!
you did not see kuya Aga the blind runner…he ran 10km as well and is a finisher