I have the folowing insights and observations on the conduct of the Milo Elimination Half-Marathon Race held in Laoag City last 21 September 2008:

1) Local Government and Sports Development—My impression during the race was that the local government was used as a “contact point” for the Milo Run Organizers to conduct such race in Laoag City.  Local government officials were at the Start and Finish Line to Fire the Starting Gun and to present awards to the winners. In short, they were there for “exposure” and the “image” that they were promoting sports awareness to the people in Laoag City and Ilocos Norte. These local government officials were also late for the scheduled start time of the race.

2) Lack of Runners—I can not believe that there were only about 40 runners for the Half-Marathon Elimination Race. Out of the 40 runners, five of us came from Baguio City and Metro Manila; one female runner; at least 15-20 runners belong to the 40+ age group; and the rest were local runners. This is a sign that physical fitness or running is not well-exposed in Laoag City/Ilocos Norte. There is a need to develop more runners and promote physical fitness awareness for the province. In contrast with the lesser distance races during the Milo Run in Laoag City, 90% of the runners where children with ages 10-14 years old. About 200 children joined the other races to include some beginners among the adults. It seems that these children were obliged by the school authorities to join the race and be at the starting area at 5:00AM. Some of these children even came from the neighboring towns of Laoag City.

3) Start Physical Fitness at a Younger Age & Continuity of Program—I really appreciate the program of Milo to expose the children and other adults to join their provincial and elimination races but there are no programs or clinics that precede these races. Moreso, there are no programs that will serve as “follow-through” to these races. My point is that, after the Milo race is conducted in a certain city or province, runners would wait again for the next year’s event for them to experience such running event. If an establishment or company goes around the country to promote physical fitness to the people, it should be a continous process on a regular basis, but not annually. It may be expensive on the part of the company but, at least, the local governments or private organizations must be able to continue such physical fitness program to anbody who is interested.

4) Well organized race—As usual, because of its established reputation of being an annual event, the Milo Races in the provinces are well-organized where the military, police, civic action groups, local government, media and schools had cooperated to make the race a success. Road Marshalls, Water Stations, Ambulance and other support services were available and each of the support staff and volunteers had done their jobs efficiently. My congratulations for the Milo Management and Mr Rudy Biscocho for their time and effort in pursuing sports awareness through running. They had done an excellent job.

While waiting for the VIPs & Guest of Honor’s arrival to start the race, I approached one of the kids lined up and assembled in a “corral” for the lesser distance race, I guess, for the 3K run. I asked the kid his age and he told me that he is 12 years old. I advised the kid to run his own pace and make good in his run as it was his first time to join such road race. Looking at the kid, I could see that his age is a perfect age for him to be exposed in physical fitness and endurance sports. If he develops the love and interest in running or any sports event, in eight (8) years, he could qualify for the National Team, for the Southeast Asian Games, for the Asian Games, or even to the 2016 Olympic Games! Bottomline, if we want to have better national elite athletes for 2016 & 2020 Olympic Games, we have to start developing our 12-year old kids right now!