Visiting runners ruled the 42k and 21k categories of the Dumaguete Adventure Marathon last Sunday, November 20.
Josphat Kiptanul of Kenya won the men’s division of the 42km adventure marathon while another Kenyan, Ben Kipaski, won the men’s division of the 21k half marathon.
Kiptanul, 25, clocked 2:43:21 for the adventure marathon. “It was a really good adventure run,” Kiptanul, who had also joined several full marathons and half marathons before the DAM.
“The hardest part is the way going to an uphill and when you pass through stones and bushes. I just walked a little bit,” he said.
Unknown to most runners, Kiptanul and most of the Kenyans had been training for a month in Dumaguete before the contest. “My competitors were also strong but I had an advantage so I used it to win,” he said.
Following Kiptanul was Engr. Wendell Lopez of Sta. Catalina, who clocked 2:51:07.
The 42k women’s division was won by Jennylyn Nobleza of the ANZ runners of Silay City, Negros Occidental, with a time of 3:52:02.
She beat Kenyan Susan Jumutal who came in at 4:04:54.
“The route was very nice but very tough.” Jumutal, 29, said, as she also heaped praises on the organizers. “Organization was very nice. We get bananas, water, Gatorade less than 2km apart.” This was Jumutal’s first 42k but she’s planning to join next year’s race.
Two time-DAM champion Jeson Agravante, of Silay City managed only a fourth-place win in the 42k category, after getting lost in the trail. But he, too, looks forward to joining the DAM next year to reclaim his crown.
Some runners, like triathlete Hiroshi Takei, signed up for the 42k and got a big surprise. “I was expecting it to be a road race but it went up into the mountain and it was one of the toughest races I’ve ever joined,” he said.
Takei noted that there were marshals everywhere. In every corner, there were friendly students helping and giving directions. Water was OK.
He surmised that his performance was simply because he was not fit this year. “I want to come back strong and maybe I can race again.”
Asked to sum up his DAM experience, Takei replied, “Excellent!”
Ultramarathoner Simon Sandoval, one of only two Filipinos who finished the 166 km Ultra Trail Du Mont Blanc in France last August, found the trail just as he had expected. “The scenery is very beautiful, there was water along the way and no one got lost. It was a very good run,” he said.
Another runner, who goes by the name of The Scientist Runner, ran the DAM as his 23rd 42k run and raved about it in his blog as “A DAM good run, indeed!”
In an email to this writer, The Scientist Runner said “I enjoyed the race and will somehow advertise the DAM through my blog
The Scientist Runner and among fellow
Marathon Maniacs in Asia and elsewhere… I guess you can expect more foreign and out-of-town DAM participants next year :).
Organized by Foundation University, the DAM is “FU’s gift to the city of gentle people of Negros Oriental” and is held every third Sunday of November. It is a run that has an advocacy of rice conservation, in partnership with the Philippine Rice Research Institute and the Asia Rice Foundation.
Preparations are now being made for the DAM 2012 which will be held on November 18 next year.
The Robinson’s Place Dumaguete, the center of activity of the DAM and other Rice-is-Life activities, continued to be abuzz with activity after the run, with the holding of the Rice-is-Life cookfest. This was a contest that featured several ways of cooking rice dishes–from the ordinary boiled rice to native delicacies Suman, Biko, Bibingka and others. The aim of the cookfest, which was participated by representatives from various local government units in Negros Oriental, was to show the various ways of preparing rice and to stress the need to conserve it.
The final event for the day was the launching of the Gabo Ghas children’s e-book. This e-book, which was made by EntheosIT, a BPO firm, was based on the winning Visayan translations of the book Gabby-Ghas written by a student from Calamba Institute, which was won by the students of the Siaton Science High School in the town of Siaton, the rice granary of Negros Oriental and the Felipe Tayko Memorial School, also of Siaton.
The translation of the book was done with the support of PhilRice and the Asia Rice Foundation, who sent representatives to Dumaguete led by Dr. Benito Vergara.
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