Cebu UltraMarathon Scene: North and South, Medal and Buckle

By owrange on 30 October, 2012 in Race Alerts 0

While in October we were witnesses or participants of fun runs/run for different causes, half-marathons, a 10-km less to full marathon, and a time-based ultra marathon races, in November, Cebu will be a witness and a few will be participants to ultra marathons — foot race with a distance more than 42KM. The shortest ultra races usually have 50KM distance.

I guess it’s a normal thing for Cebu to have two or more fun runs and half-marathons on weekends, but 2 ultramarathons on the same date is yet first time to happen this November 17, 2012.

It’s either simply pure chance, or maybe it’s a sign that we can officially call Cebuanos as crazies. For a small strip of island to host foot races with ultra distances, I’d say it’s NOT really the usual.

So what can these ultra races be about that are slowly becoming a mainstay in Cebu? What are with these races that a multiple weekend fun runs and half-mary’s could not satisfy the “few” people that will flock to it?

Is it about the posters?

* CUC 100K Ultra Marathon – Leg 2

CUC 100K ultramarathon, cebu, philippines

* Hardcore Hundred Miles Ultramarathon – Cebu

hardcore hundred miles ultramarathon, cebu, philippines

Is it about the route and scenery? Travelling on foot for a change?

* CUC 100K Leg 2 will bring you to down south of Cebu. Aside from the butanding attraction down south, it has a beautiful coastal view and a lot more in between. (You can read up here Tour de Cebu 4 >>, Tour de Cebu 6 >> for more glimpse of the route.)

cuc leg 2 official race route map, ultra run, cebu, philippines

* Hardcore Hundred Miles Ultramarathon – Cebu will bring you to up north of Cebu, which will be a mix of coastal and mountain views.

hardcore hundred miles ultramarathon official route map

hardcore hundred miles ultramarathon, bogo, cebu, philippines

(A few random shots I took during Tour de Cebu 13 here >>.)

Is it about the “bling” at the finish line?

* CUC 100K Leg 2’s shiny transformer-ish medal.

cuc 100k leg 2 medal

* Hardcore Hundred Miles Ultramarathon Cebu will be giving out buckles to official finishers. Buckles are like that of Manny Pacquiao’s champhionship title belts only much smaller, and you can really use it as a belt buckle.

manny pacquaio with his title belts

Is it about the lure of distance, of testing one’s limit, of taking walk breaks, of pride? Thing is even the participants probably don’t really know that one specific answer to why race that extra long distances that would take even two days to finish.

Whatever is each of runners’ reason, medal or buckle, let’s give them our warmest cheer! CHEERS to the crazy ones who will be a reminder that limitations is only in our minds.

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As our cheers to these rare happening in Cebu, we will be posting a few articles related to these 2 upcoming ultramarathons. Please watch out for them: LIKE our facebook.com/runroo page, or connect with us at twitter.com/runroodotcom.

~oOo~

Rose Buenconsejo is an ultramarathon runner mom-of-three, who loves pounding the trails of Cebu, Philippines. She writes ‘thoughts from the foot’ at rawsole.com.