MARK your running calendar for a unique event this April — Lapu-Lapu City will host the country’s first midnight beer run as part of the celebration of Lapu-Lapu’s victory over Magellan. What’s a victory celebration without a little drinking, right?

Lapu-Lapu City Councilor Harry Radaza said the 2012 Kadaugan Street Party Midnight Beer Run will be the highlight of this year’s street party to mark the Kadaugan sa Mactan, the city’s annual celebration of its namesake’s victory over Spanish colonizers on April 27, 1521.

FUN RUN. Lapu-Lapu City Councilor Harry Radaza talks to reporters on the Midnight Beer Run the city would be holding on April 27 as part of the city’s Kadaugan Sa Mactan festivities. With Radaza are (from left) couple Meyrick and Perl Jacalan of Advertising Services & Promotion or ASAP. Click on photo to enlarge. (PHOTO BY MAX LIMPAG)

The race will have beer stations instead of regular water stations that will serve cold beer on cups. As soon as runners cross the finish line, they will be offered a bottle of beer and a shot of hard drink.

Drinking, however, is not compulsory. It’s all in the spirit of fun and revelry, organizers said.

Road party

Radaza, who is the chairman of the city council’s committees on sports and tourism, said participants will be running on a closed circuit from the intersection at the old Mactan-Mandaue Bridge to the junction of the new Marcelo B. Fernan Bridge.

He invited runners to go to the area early to have dinner and enjoy the festivities before the run. Assembly time is at 11 p.m. while gunstart is at midnight.

Radaza said the route will be packed with partygoers and there will be concerts staged on several areas.

“This is not a competitive run. This is for fun,” said co-organizer Meyrick Jacalan of Advertising Services and Promotions (ASAP). Meyrick said most of the participants would likely just be jogging or even walking.

Minors will not be allowed to join the race, said co-organizer Perl Jacalan of ASAP.

Organizers said they are asking people to “run, dance, crawl” during the event.

Registration, special shirt

Radaza said only those with race bibs will be served beer in the stations.

Registration for the event, which costs P150, will start today. Registration areas are in Runnr Ayala and the Youth Affairs Office of Lapu-Lapu City Hall.

The first 1,500 to register will be entitled to get a special “I survive the Midnight Beer Run” t-shirt. They will get a specially-marked race bib that they can use to claim the shirt at the finish line.

Radaza said the Kadaugan Street Party last year attracted about 16,000 revelers and he is sure more will be attending this year. He said the street party is already a tourism event and the addition of the unique beer run will attract more visitors.

Route map of the Midnight Beer Run

Kadaugan sa Mactan Midnight Beet Run route map

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LAST Sunday, 175 women crossed the finish line of the 1st All Women Ultra Marathon in Karancho beach resort in Lapu-Lapu City. Of the number, 167 made it within the cut-off time of 10 hours.

The last runner to cross within the cutoff time was Ungo runner Anne Susada who broke into tears in the embrace of fellow runners, husband Jesse and their sick child when she finished at 9:59:50. But the last to cross was my friend and fellow Ungo runner Bikik Besavilla, who persevered despite two huge blisters to complete the 50 kilometers in more than 13 hours.

The run, organized by the Ungo Runners and the Cebu Ultrarunners Club, was one of a kind. It was the Cebu running community coming together to organize an ultra-marathon to honor women.

Below is the opening remarks I gave before gunstart at the Ayala Center Cebu:

Good evening.

The first woman to run the Boston Marathon did so by hiding in the bushes. She was a bandit runner.

Bobbi Gibb was refused entry in the then all-men race when she tried to register in 1966. Back then women were thought of not being physiologically capable of running 42 kilometers.

But Gibb was undeterred.

She hid in the bushes near the starting line and, wearing her brother’s shorts and a hoodie, joined the middle of the pack after the starting gun was fired.

She crossed the finish line in 3 hours, 21 minutes and 40 seconds, ahead of at least two-thirds of the men.

The next year, another woman joined the Boston Marathon. Kathrine Switzer was able to register with race bib number 261 because she signed her name as K.V. Switzer. Kathrine, a journalist, always signed her name K.V.Switzer because to her young mind, all good writers used initials like EE Cummings or TS Elliot or WB Yeats.

But four miles into her run, reporters saw her and said something that at that time, was rarely, even never said in a long-distance foot race, “There’s a girl in the race.”

The photographers on the media truck were shouting. “There’s a girl in the race.” In that truck were co-race directors Will Cloney and Jock Semple.

Semple, who was known to have a temper, jumped off the truck and tried to pounce on Kathrine. “Get the hell out of my race and give me that race number!” He shouted in anger. Luckily, Kathrine ran with her boyfriend, a hammer thrower, who body-slammed Jock and sent him flying.

That scene was captured in a series of now-iconic photographs. Kathrine would finish the marathon in 4 hours and 20 minutes but she would be listed as an unofficial finisher, the Boston Athletic Association still did not allow women to run. Adding insult was the New York Times article that said she didn’t finish.

Kathrine said that she was so furious she called up the reporter to correct his mistake and told him “just because you filed your story while I was still out running didn’t mean I didn’t finish.”

It has been 45 years since. A lot has changed. But a lot still have to change. In other parts of the world, even in our parts of the country, women still find their options limited because of their sex.

As we celebrate women’s month, we celebrate and honor the women, and the men, who struggled to make this world better. We honor women like you who continually show us that dreams can come true if we work hard enough for it.

And it is great that we in the Cebu running community are coming together to celebrate it in our unique way. This ultra-marathon is truly a communal event, one that Cebu can be proud of.

To many of you—our mothers, wives, sisters, friends and daughters—this will be your first ultramathon as a runner. You have been very supportive when we—your husbands, sons, brothers and friends—did our own ultra-marathons. This much we could say, we couldn’t have done it without you.

Today, many of us are here to return a favor.

So run well and run safe all you wonderful and super women.

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Organizers are currently holding a press conference on the Cebu edition of Run United by Unilab and RunRio.

* Organizer says Cebu leg is final leg of nationwide Run United series.
* Lester Castillo, Sports Director of Unilab, says their company wants to promote active lifestyle among Filipino families.
* Castillo says they are targetting 5,000 runners for the Cebu leg.
* All 21Kfinishers will get finishers’ shirts and medals.
* RunRio says they are the first to use an iPad automated registration system for race registration.
*Local organizer Kenneth Casquejo of RunCheck says RunRio will not impose a cutoff on 21K runners.

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SHE died with her running clothes on.

That phrase got stuck in my mind after I called up Sun.Star reporter Davinci Maru Sunday to tell him that one of the victims of the massacre he was covering was an ultra-runner held in high regard by the local running community.

News had spread of Melinda Ponce’s gruesome killing through a shocked running community early Sunday morning. I woke up to find 18 text messages and seven missed calls – a portent of urgent, breaking news.

Runners have scheduled a run in Cebu and Manila to honor ultra-runner Melinda Ponce, who was killed last Sunday.

The text messages bore the same horrible news: ultra-runner Melinda Ponce was killed with her child.

The reality, however, was even more terrible. Melinda was killed with three of her children and her helper by her husband, who then shot himself. Melinda and the kids were shot in the head, Maru told me.

She wore running clothes, Maru answered when I asked him to check with police what Melinda was wearing. It was, after all, a Sunday – a day that is sure to find Melinda on the road.

Melinda’s running story is a big inspiration for weekend athletes like me. Unlike full-time athletes who do nothing but train and prepare for races, Melinda was a regular working person holding a full-time job and raising a family.

The stories of domestic violence and abuse that have come out in news stories recently provide, in hindsight, context to what turned out to be an even more difficult life. Running, I’m sure, provided her the needed refuge apart from physical well-being.

It’s never too late to start running, Melinda told members of the Ungo Runners, a group that runs on the streets of Cebu City every Friday night, during her talk last Sept. 30. Melinda started running only at 48, a year after undergoing total hysterectomy.

She went through worse things than what regular runners experienced as she pushed herself to her physical limits. “Niagi na ko ana, ni-graduate na ko ana. Collapse, pag abot sa finish line nag-barag barag na. Di na ko (I’ve experienced those things. I once collapsed at the finish line. I don’t want to experience it again),” she said with a chuckle. Runners should learn to take care of their health, she quickly added.

Five years and one mild stroke after she started running, Ponce would emerge the fastest woman ultra-runner in Cebu, winning successive 53K and 60K events.

Ponce had qualified for the national finals of the Milo Marathon and she had intended to run it later this year. She qualified last year but did not run in order to join the first ultra-marathon in Cebu, a 50K run from Mt. Manunggal to Capitol in Cebu City.

Ponce inspired many local runners and the community has come together to run in her honor. On Sunday, the Cebu running community will hold a run in The Terraces in Ayala Center Cebu to honor Melinda and raise funds for her sole surviving child. In Manila, runners will also run in her honor at the Bonifacio Global City. On Friday, Ungo Runners will dedicate their regular Friday Night Run to Melinda and will run from Ayala Center Cebu to St. Peter Chapel on New Imus Road.

Ponce told Ungo Runnners during her talk that her lifetime dream was to run until she is “already a senior citizen.”

Alas, that was not to be.

Last Sunday, Melinda Ponce died with her running clothes on.

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MELINDA Ponce died with her running clothes on.

Hours before she was killed in a gruesome massacre, Melinda was where she was almost every Sunday — in a run.

At 5:30 a.m. yesterday, the Banco de Oro (BDO) employee fired the starting gun during the fun run that opened her bank’s sports fest. She was happy and enjoyed being with co-workers during the run, said BDO E-mall branch accountant and fellow ultra-runner Virgilio Remo Jr.

MELINDA PONCE started running only at 48. Five years and one mild stroke later, she would win successive ultra-marathons. (PHOTO BY JAMES GO)

Having been featured in newspapers after winning ultra-marathons, races that are at least 50 kilometers, Ponce, 53, was an office celebrity and many of her co-workers had their pictures taken with her. Ponce instructed those manning the water stations and cheered on the bank employees who joined the 3K and 5K events.

“She was very happy,” Remo said.

Big shock

Hours later, Remo and members of the local running community would learn that Melinda, three of her children and their helper would be shot dead by her husband, who then killed himself. Melinda and three of the children were all shot in the head. Her husband spared one child, the youngest, whom he asked to leave and call the police before he started killing everyone.

“The news of her tragic death was a big shock to me,” said Don Bosco brother and ultra-runner Carlo Bacalla, “She is really an inspiration to so many runners, an example of hard work, dedication and determination. We in the running community will miss her. It’s sad that she has gone so soon.”

Ponce started running only at 48, a year after undergoing total hysterectomy. She suffered a mild stroke in 2009, which she blamed on her failure to look after her health and pushing herself physically despite the lack of rest.

Ponce ran every morning from her house in Bulacao, Talisay City to the IT Park on her way to work. She was still considering joining the 100-kilometer race from Bogo City to Cebu City in November.

“Dili nato ni undangon, makaayo man ni sa atong lawas (Let’s not stop running because this is good for our health),” Ponce told runners gathered in Ayala Center Cebu last Sept. 30.

Ultra-marathon wins

Ponce won the women’s category in the last two ultra-marathons she joined – the Be Resorts Warrior 53K that started and ended in Mactan Island and the Summit 60K in Talisay City last Oct. 9.

Ponce had qualified for this year’s national finals of the Milo Marathon in her age category after running 21K in 1 hour and 52 minutes. She said running in the national finals was her dream. She also qualified last year but chose not to run so that she could join the first ultra-marathon in Cebu – a 50-kilometer run from Mt. Manunggal to the Capitol.

But while she was looked up to as an inspiration in the local running community, she was battered at home, friends and relatives told Sun.Star Cebu.

Emmanuel would repeatedly beat up Melinda and her children, a neighbor who asked not to be named told Sun.Star Cebu. At one time, Emmanuel held a knife at Melinda.

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Running on the same road everyday or every weekend can be boring. Some months back the thought of doing ultra trail runs never attracted me. I thought it was risky and that injury was inevitable. But after my Nuvali Trail Run this year, I realized why many runners enjoy doing trail runs. Running on soft terrain is so much relaxing to the feet.

BROD CARLO. The author runs on part of the the route of the Summit 60k Ultra Challenge. CLICK ON PHOTO TO ENLARGE.

The adventure you will get from running inside the forested terrain is so enriching. You get to enjoy nature and a lot of beautiful sights that you won’t experience during road runs. While running on the road can be comfortable due to the fact that the route is familiar, trail runs can be exciting since you can’t always guess what’s ahead.

In Nuvali I did it without a prior test run. Not familiar with the route, I had to be extra watchful where to land my shoes. I made sure I had other runners on sight or be extra watchful for signage and landmarks so that I won’t get lost. I did miss the road on the first loop of that trail run. I had to get back with the lead pack on the right trail 800 meters behind us. Despite that, we still managed to laugh at ourselves since that was part of the surprises in trail running. We crossed a river and passed under an empty culvert along the route of that trail run. A herd of cows in a grassy plain watched us pass and mooed at us. It was indeed a great experience that road running won’t offer.

With my running buddy, Steve Ferraren, I have run thru Manipis road to Sitio Campinsa passing inside the forested trail to Barangay Tapul and out to barangay Maghaway. I confess that the first time I did it, it was a “wow” experience. It was meant to be a “secret” training that ought not to be revealed but good things are not meant to be kept hidden. So when the idea of organizing the Summit 60k Ultra surfaced, the first place that came to my mind was exactly that “secret” training route unknown to many Cebu City runners but familiar to most elite runners past and present. It used to be the training ground for many long-distance runners before Busay became a busy training ground to many runners.

When the organizers of the Summit 60k Ultra Challenge took me to recon the route of the run, I was so caught up by the beautiful sceneries and the natural beauty of the place that I said, “let’s take the ultra runners to see this place.” I would not have seen such a beautiful place in Cebu if not for this crazy thing called “Ultra Running.” After posting some of the photos taken during the recon run in the Face book, I received a lot of superlatives for the race route. One said that the place is a hidden paradise. The Bull Runner (Jaymie Pizzaro), the Bald Runner (Gen. Jovie Narcise) and Mr. Front Runner (Jonel Mendoza) had the same chorus: “NICE” and clicked “LIKE” on the Summit 60k Ultra Challenge. Many ultra runners from Manila and Mindanao expressed the desire to run alongside their Cebuano counterparts in this unique run. It’s not purely a trail run since 60 percent of the route will be on paved road. For runners who have not done the Trans-Central runs, running in barangay Manipis is exceptionally challenging but to those who did the Toledo-Capitol run, this is peanuts! The more beautiful portion of the route is better left for the ultra runners to see. I will leave the best for you to discover. It’s indeed a unique ultra challenge. It’s truly a Summit Run. Don’t miss it!

You can visit our event page at Facebook: “Summit 60k Ultra Challenge” to register and for more details.

Runners test part of the route of the Summit 60K Ultra Challenge. CLICK ON PHOTO TO ENLARGE.

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AT KM 50 in last Sunday’s Warrior 53K Ultramarathon, Jojo Militante told his wife to give up and get in the car, thinking she was nearing exhaustion and about to collapse.

SUSAN Militante's friends carried this poster to motivate the first-time ultramarathoner to finish last Sunday's 53K run.

“Is he nuts?” Susan Militante said in a Facebook interview. I could almost hear Susan saying “Wa siya mabuang (has he gone mad)?” Susan quickly told Jojo to go ahead and prepare her slippers at the finish line. The 42-year-old mother of two boys was running her first ultramarathon two years after getting hooked on running.

Her close friend Abby Ponce, an ultra-runner, led her support crew, Team Abbylicious, and saw her through to the end. The team was named thus because it was the same group, Susan among them, that supported Abby during her first ultra last May 1. The team carried a poster of Susan running with a statement that’s truly her: “50K? Ayaw ko hadloka!”

“I feel like I achieved a very enormous feat when I stepped on the finish line. I’m an average runner so having done an ultra seems unbelievable,” she said. She finished 76th with a time of 7:15:03.

“My husband told me that would be my last ultra. I answered, ‘yes that will be my last ultra….. in Cebu.’ I really like to go to different places just to run. I haven’t decided yet if I will run the 100K this November. I hope Dr. Stephanie Sy will allow me because I’m hypertensive and I maintain two medicines to control my blood pressure. I know that if it were not for running, I would be dead.”

Something magical

When she completed her first full marathon last January, bank employee Linaflor Chan cried long before she reached the finish line and vowed never to run 42 kilometers again. Last Sunday, she ran 53 kilometers in 8:26:42.

She completed the distance with her husband, ultrarunner Victor Chan, who convinced her to level up.

“Last Sunday’s run was so magical that I too cannot imagine until I crossed the finish line. But one thing is for sure, I couldn’t have done it without my loving and supportive husband who was with me all the way from start to finish. His cheerful disposition, optimistic outlook, encouraging words and our bonding together truly kept me going,” she said.

Linaflor said the intense heat of the sun made her weak and exhausted but she pushed herself to finish. She crossed the finish line with her husband and to the cheers of her friends and fellow Ungo Runners and members of Team Pinay (Jinky Yray, a frequent ultrarunner, and Michelle So, an upcoming ultrarunner).

150 singlets

After eight hours on the road, Lowaii Cebu Marine Beach Resort operations manager Lucrecia “Lulu” Valiente felt dehydrated and bloated. She felt dry and her hands were swollen and she thought she could no longer finish the distance.

But after being attended to by volunteer support crew members, she regained her strength and finished the distance, although beyond the official cutoff time.

Valiente is from Bilar, Bohol but she has been in Cebu for 30 years, actively involved in the tourism industry. She got into running in 2005, joining fun runs every Sunday when registration was only at P150. “In fact, I have a collection of over 150 singlets.”

To train for Sunday’s race, Lulu joined LSD (long, slow distance) runs and cross-trained on a bike. She ran like an ultra hamster at night in Mactan Memorial Garden. She also cut her intake of rice and meat.

When she received her medal, Lulu said she felt like she was in heaven. “It was one great accomplishment for me in my running career. I was so proud of myself that even in my late 40s, I could still compete with the younger ones.”

Virgins no more, and it’s Jonel’s fault

Last Sunday’s race by Jonel Mendoza, who is responsible for the rise of ultrarunning in Cebu, was well-attended by ultranewbies because of its relatively flat route. Other first timers who finished last Sunday are (this list was compiled through the help of FB contacts) Juliet Amazona, Francis Rosos, Martin Daiz Jr. , Mikur Ombos, Francis Cabanban, Gerald Anthony Laput, Lloyd Benjie Lumapat, Neil Nacario, Aquiles Ymbong, Mazil Rubic, Jing Sente, Aeda Mae Siao, Pam Ampuhin, Rowena Duarte, Brandon Bon, Toto Ric Lacro, James Jason Rodriguez, Jofre Nastor, Dindo Santos, Brian Gonzales, Loven Macario, Anastacio Cavan, John Paul Ong Villanueva, Bonnie Pusta, Jr., Edgar Sanchez, Earl Anthony Alas, Randy Laroa, Jojo Santiago, Arnold Lorenzo, and Jigs Bulawan.

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In late October of 2009, Toledo Assistant City Veterinarian Wilfredo “Willie” Estepa applied for the renewal of his driver’s license at the Land Transportation Office. He sat on a bench at the LTO lounge along with several people waiting for their names to be called.

All of a sudden, he felt dizzy, weak and nauseous. He also started feeling tingling pains on his neck. A friend saw him nearly fall from the bench and quickly brought him to the hospital, which was located just a few blocks away. Estepa said he was too weak to respond and thank the friend.

Estepa had suffered a mild stroke, his years of excesses finally catching up with him.

Peer pressure

Decades ago, Estepa lit his first cigarette as an 18-year-old sophomore vet student. All his college friends were smokers and pretty soon, he was smoking regularly. His smoking worsened because he lived in a convent where the priest was a heavy smoker. He was a working scholar and served as parish secretary and sacristan mayor for six years.

From that first stick, Estepa was addicted to nicotine and soon, he was smoking two to four packs a day.

Estepa said he tried quitting a hundred times, to no avail. It was his son’s intermittent asthma due to secondary smoke that made him decide to quit smoking permanently in October 2005.

Quitting smoking

“It took me a full week to quit from two to four packs a day to zero stick. It was a slow, painful and difficult process. I tried several alternatives like gums, coffee, candies just to keep my mouth and lips busy. I got sick for almost a month probably due to my body adjusting to the slow removal of nicotine from my system,” he said.

Dr. Wilfredo Estepa at the finish line of the May 1 65K Coast-to-Coast ultramarathon. CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE

He quit smoking in 2005 but not drinking. He was, he confessed, an alcoholic with an active nightlife, drinking with his friends in videoke joints almost every day.

His mild stroke was a wake-up call.

The emergency room nurse took his blood pressure and the reading was grave, 180/145. His blood sugar level was a stratospheric 392 mg/dl. He was given medications and IV fluids and told to rest. Estepa said he only stayed overnight because he felt strong enough to go home.

But finding out he was hypertensive and a diabetic caused him to plunge into depression.

A week after that mild stroke, he decided to quit drinking alcohol and stayed away from his drinking buddies. In November 2009, he started walking for 30 minutes in the morning before going to work and then 30 minutes after leaving his office.

When he found that his close friend and drinking buddy, fiscal Raul Bajarias, ran on the oval in Ilihan Vocational School thrice a week, Estepa decided to join him.

“I decided to join him on Feb. 20, 2010 and that was my first ever run. I remember running four loops non-stop on that day and bragged that I already ran four kilometers straight only to find out that four loops in an oval was only 1.6 km. And that was the beginning of my passion called running. Today, I can say that I’m no longer hypertensive and diabetic. My BP and blood sugar levels are now normal. It is thanks to the medicine called running.”

From walking and jogging, Estepa is now ultra-running. He finished the first Cebu ultramarathon 50K in November 2010 and the 65K May 1 Coast-to-Coast Ultramarathon.

On his third full try, Estepa recorded a sub-4 finish (with a time of 3:54) during the Aboitiz Race To Reduce Challenge 42K category last Aug. 14. He missed the sub4 finish by a hairline during the Kawasan Falls Marathon, which he ran in 4:02.

Estepa said his goal is to run while his age and legs allow it. His running bucket list includes Milo National Finals, Bataan Death March (BDM) 102, BDM160 (or any 160k race), TNF100 and the Boston Marathon.

Estepa is also a hardcore member of the Ungo Runners, a group that runs every Friday Night. Estepa, Bajarias and a few running groups organized the TAD (Toledo Adik og Dagan) and held Wednesday night runs patterned after the Ungo Friday night runs. Estepa said the group is growing exponentially.

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VETERAN runner and race organizer Raffy Uytiepo took back his threat to ban runners who called for a boycott over their complaints on the Aboitiz Race To Reduce Challenge 2011.

“We have decided to forget everything. For those who threatened to boycott (the Aboitiz Run), it is their right to join or not. I am closing the issue already,” Uytiepo told Sun.Star Cebu.

Two organizers also clarified that they are not implementing a ban on runners.

“Raffy is entitled to his own opinion but he can’t threaten to reject any runner to join our event because firstly, he is not part of the organizing team of Milo. Precing (Capampangan) is,” said Milo Marathon local organizer Ricky Ballesteros.

Ballesteros is the organizer of both the Milo Marathon in October and The Don Sergio Osmeña Sr. (DSOS) Run on Sept. 9.

Raffy said in his column in The Freeman last Monday that his team, including technical lead Precing Capampangan, will reject those who threatened to boycott the Aboitiz run next year from all their races.

Capampangan has been handling the technical aspect of the Milo Marathon since 2002.

“I have worked with Capampangan since 2002 and we haven’t encountered any problems with him and his group and they are in the technical aspect, not in accepting the registration,” said Ballesteros.

Warrior 50K organizer Jonel Mendoza also said he will not ban anyone from his races.
Uytiepo is the race director of Mendoza’s ultra-marathon, a post he served in the first two ultramarathons in Cebu.

“I won’t ban runners from my event. I don’t see any reason why I should ban runners who are voicing legitimate views,” Mendoza was quoted as saying by Sun.Star Cebu.

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VETERAN runner and race organizer Raffy Uytiepo fired a broadside at critics of the recent Aboitiz Race to Reduce Challenge with a warning to those who called for a boycott that he will ban them from his races.

“Although it’s a person’s right to join or not, I really don’t care. In fact we have noted the names and will see to it that we will reject their entry forms next time around,” Uytiepo wrote in his column in The Freeman.

“We will remember the names of these guys who called for boycott. You might not even get to run in the other big races we will officiate.” He then listed the races he is organizing, including upcoming ultra-marathons The Warrior 50K Ultramarathon on Sept. 10 and the first ever 100-kilometer run in Cebu on Nov. 18.

It’s quite a turn of events from last week’s apology and pledge to do better next year by Sebastian Lacson, the chief reputation officer of Aboitiz Equity Ventures.

I disagree with Raffy’s response and hope he changes his mind, for the benefit of the local running community—a community he helped start and where he is one of the pillars.

That there were problems during the race is no longer a question, with organizers already admitting it and pledging to improve next year. What is important is to look into how the local running community can move on from the debacle.

I don’t think banning runners is the best way to move on and deal with the issue. I also don’t think people can blame runners who felt bad after the race and expressed their disappointment in online social networks, among friends and with the media.

Instead of banning them, I think it would be best for organizers to engage with and listen to them. Some of the most vocal critics of races are also among the most passionate advocates of the sport.

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