GOING to Laoag City in Ilocos Norte from Manila is definitely a long ride even at night which is what I experienced last Thursday night.

Upon the invitation of an old friend, Laoag City Mayor Mike Keon, who is better remembered by us veteran sportswriters as the founder of the highly-successful Project Gintong Alay, I made the trip together with sports media colleagues Fred Nasiad of Manila Times, Bong Pedralvez of Malaya and Robert Andaya of People’s Tonight.

The event we covered last Saturday was the 3rd staging of the Laoag Sand Dunes 5K and 10K races, an event that I am 3 of 3, having the initial one in 2023 and last year’s edition.

This is a unique race, a difficult one too according to the runners I have interviewed, going uphill or down hill over the soft and constantly shifting sand dunes is the same.

For 10K champion Edward Flores, a former UAAP track gold medalist and last year’s 3rd placer in the national Milo Marathon finals, running over sand reduces his normal strideby half, worth the effort for him though as he pocketed 15K for his effort.

Mike’s track athletes also train here regularly which Mike says has given the athletes an advantage when they run over a regular synthetic track oval.

Laoag athletes are preparing to defend their overall championship in the forthcoming Region1 Athletic Association (R1AA) set to start next month in La Union.and the fact that his junior athletes did well here augurs well for Laoag’s title-retention campaign.

More on that later.

There were a lot of first times in the Sand Dunes race.

Flores ran here for the first time while in the distaff side of the 10k race, Lany Adaoag also ran her first race here even as she was supposed to chapreone only the runners from Lingayen, brought by forner Gintong Alay Camp Director AC Cuda, Adaoag was not expecting to win but win she did with practically no practice, likewise winning 15K.

The 5K kids’ race female winner, Merry Miles Sunga was also a first time entry but a first time winner too.

Another old friend there, Nonoy Unso, who is the overall training director for Laoag City’s preparation for the R1AA meet believes this young kid has a lot of potential and can even do well in the R1AA and the Palarong Pambansa.

He related that when he first saw Sunga, she was running with shoes that had holes so he bought her a new pair which he found out later she lent to a friend who did not have shoes so he bought her a new pair again.

By the way, when I asked Nonoy where his wife April is, remember I did a piece on the love story of this couple, he said she opted to stay in Manila this time because she was gaining weight in Laoag.

April is a former national basketball player from U.P. and whom I had interviewed before, and last year, also in this event , I saw her for the first time since that interview.

In my interview with this young runner, she said she went into sports to earn money, which to me is the life story of many national athletes, and since she earned 10K for her victory, I asked her what she will do with her winnings , simple, she wants to buy a bike she can use to go to different places.

We kidded her she should just run instead of using a bike, the same thing Mike told her.

Tony Benson, a Munich Olympian and former head coach in Gintong Alay who has been tapped by Mike to help train his middle and long distance runners for the R1AA, shared the same observation of Sunga and her potential.

Another young potential among Mike’s young athletes also competed yesterday, Joy Taliente who won the 5K run for female adults.

I will not write about all the results because I am sure Robert will do that for People’s Tonight.

With Mike, Tony, AC Cuda, and Nonoy, it really looked like a Gintong Alay reunion , but then there was another grizzled veteran present, Constantino Sebastian, a one time member of the Bicol Express 4x400m relay team anchored by Isidro del Prado, the only non-Bicolano in the team, and he is part of the coaching staff of Laoag too.

This is why I look forward to going here every year in Laoag for this event, I meet old time athletes , some ofcwhom I had interviewed in my younger years in sports writing.

Though this time, I passed up already the 4×4 wheel drive experience offered fir free to all the participants, having done it twice already, can you imagine a running event with no entry fee, but with a free shirt, free breakfast, and either or both the 4×4 drive or sandboarding over the dunes.

This is the only running event I know that offers all these freebies to participants, and I hope to cover more Sand Dunes events in Laoag in the future, thanks to Mike.

Oh, after the awarding, it turned out Mike was not through yet with his sports engagement for the day as we followed to the opening of the 2nd MMK Sepak Takraw Open tournament in a nearby school .

The event attracted 25 teams from different towns , cities and municipalities in the North, even had a Manila based and Olongapo based teans, a proof of the growing popularity of sepak takraw under Karen Caballero whom I introduced to Mike last year.

So many other stories to tell but too limited a space.

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Lito Cinco