YES, the real MILO Marathon is back, and I hope for good.

I received an email from MILO people informing me that in celebration of its 60th anniversary in the Philippines, they will be bringing back the format before of having provincial qualfying races.

This will culminate in the national finals set in Cagayan de Oro on December 1 while the kick off leg will be on April 7.

They are also doing something of a first in the long history of the MILO Marathon, an event close to my heart as I regularly covered this race from the time I started writing on sports in 1977.

Three legs will take place simultaneously on April 7 to launch this year’s National Milo Marathon, Mandaue in Cebu, Batangas City, and Laoag with the rest of the legs to follow in Manila ,April 28, Puerto Princesa, May 12, Legazpi, June 2, Cavite, September 22, Tagbilaran, September 29, ,Roxas City , October 6, Iloilo, October 20, Bacolod, October 27, General Santos, November 10, Davao, November 17, and Tarlac, November 24.

So this year, we will have again a national champion like in earlier times but I do not think he will be rewarded with a trip to the Boston Marathon, which was the additional incentive before.

No wonder Carlo Sampan, Head of MILO Sports, is pretty excited about this crown jewel in MILO’s sports program that has been geared more towards grassroots sports development recently, but now to be infused anew with elite running.

In fact, being introduced this year are two new categories, the 1K Active Kids, and the 5K Champ Family to encourage families and children to get into sports.

As I said, this event was one of my most covered sporting events since the time of the late Jun Castro, the original race organizer to the time of Ron de los Reyes, Rudy Biscocho, and Rio de la Cruz.

I saw races starting at 12 noon in Cubao, and I covered races nation wide when I worked with Rudy when he took over the race organizing role, and I had just retired from full time work then that I readily took the opportunity, ended up going to a lot of regional races all over the country.

For me, MILO Marathon will forever be part of the country’s sports history and is assured of its place at that, this event has ignited mass running at the same time that it produced several champions some of them Olympians, Leonardo Illut was one of them, and SEA Games champions led by Ed Buenavista and Roy Vence.

In the distaff side, I did not reach the time that Mary Joy Tabal was dominating , she has won six titles, the most by a female runner, but I am very familiar with the likes of 5x champion Arsenia Sagaray, Cristabel Martes who won 4 times, Lani Camargo, Jone Gayumba, and Liza- Relox Delfin.

What saddens me, however, is the fact that a lot of road race running champions have already passed on to the next world , among them are MILO Marathon champions, thanks to Nonoy Unso, Ignacio Dee, and Dino Jose for updating me on this list.

Jimmy de la Torre, a three-time champion in 1981, 1982, and 1984 and the first back-to-back champion, leads the list, he was shot inside the Crown moviehouse in Iloilo on June 27, 1990.

Justo Tabunda Jr., champion in 1978 and 1980, who died just last year I think, Leonardo Illut, who won in 1983, has also passed away, as confirmed by Dino, 1976 champion Ernesto Mendoza, and last is Rafael Poliquit Jr., champion in 2016 and 2018, died in 2019 at the young age of 30.

Though not MILO Marathon champions, there are other equally known road racing champions in the past who have crossed the Great Divide, among them are Irving Gallardo, Guillermo Padilla, Primo Ramos, and Mario Castro, the most recent,just this month.

But then that is life, and everything moves on, just like the MILO Marathon.

And that includes my age as I turned another year older last week, happy in the thought that I have a lot of friends, at least based on the birthday messages I got.

My special thanks to Alex Wang, Ral Rosario, Fritz Gaston, Francis Dy, Paolo Tancontian, Ed Hayco, Dino Jose, and Mike Advani, and to my wife and kids.