Personal best
CEBU’s running queen Mary Grace Delos Santos continued her impressive form and sliced some three minutes off her personal 21K record to top the Gen. Santos City leg of the 34th Milo Marathon.
Delos Santos reset her personal record of 1:24:00 she made in the 2nd Great Lapu-Lapu City Run after finishing the Gen. Santos City leg in 1:21.15. Last year’s winner, Monaliza Ambasa was second at 1:30.
“I was so happy and proud of my feat. Okey lang ako dagan kaganina, ” Delos Santos said.
Delos Santos, who skipped two runs in Cebu for the Gen. Santos leg, said her weeks of training has paid off. Although, she didn’t have any specialized training program under coach Sherwin Managil, the running events she joined in Cebu helped her a lot in improving her performance.
Her personal best was also just a minute short of the 21K record of two-time Milo national marathon champion Jho-an Bana-ag, who ran the 21K in 1:20 in Davao City.
Delos Santos time was also good enough for fourth spot in the overall rankings. Davao City Joselito Dugos took first, while Elmer Bartolo, another prominent figure in Cebu’s running scene was second. Gerald Sabal took third and was followed by delos Santos.
Dugos finished the race in 1:13:07, while Bartolo clocked in at 1:13.53.
Kenyans
“What I will be doing now is to continue with my training and start preparing for the national Milo marathon this December,” said Delos Santos, who won second place last year.
Delos Santos chose to join the Gen. Santos City leg to give her more time for the national event. The Cebu City elimination is on Sept. 5, which would have given her less than three months for the national finals.
Meanwhile, now that the organizers have allowed foreigners to join the event, delos Santos hopes she will be able to beat the Kenyans in the national finals.
“It’s every runners dream to win the top post. I hope Mary Grace can win it this year,” said her coach said.