I AM in the twilight of my life though I hope I reach till midnight, and by this time I really thought I would still be writing sports but more as opinion pieces and not as covered events.

But that has been my life lately and last Sunday was an example, early morning, I was at the MOA grounds for the revival of the National Milo Marathon and afternoon till night of the same day, I was at the MOA Arena for the start of the PVL finals between Creamline and Petrogazz.

Starting off with volleyball, which ended last Thursday night in Game 3 , this championship series showed why women’s volleyball is now the country’s spectator sport, the venue was filled up with people all nights, with maybe 70% of them Creamline fans.

And Creamline proved the steadier team under pressure, they lost Game 1, lost set 1 of Game 2 but extended the game to 5 sets to arrange that deciding Game 3.They dropped the first set but won the next 3, including the deciding 4th set where Petrogazz lost the will to fight after a strong start by Creamline.

With that, Creamline won its 6th title , and they did it without franchise player Alyssa Valdez because of her leg injury, but she was there with her team providing emotional strength, some times even doing ballboy chores, a real superstar wthout airs whatsoever.

The series was complete starting from the semis actually,with all the ingredients, long lines at the entrance, big boisterous crowds, marquee faces on and off the court, long rallies, swags, the specialty of Tyang Aby in the semis, an overexcited coach whom i saw jumping up and down when his team scored a point, dancing on the sidelines for the reserve players, this time a specialty of Risa Sato, plus an energized air inside the venue.

No wonder women’s volleyball is on top of the world here as a spectator sport, and I will continue to watch from the ringside.

The Milo Marathon on the other hand was a sea of green when I went there as the shorter distance races were still at it when I arrived.

The advantage of this event is its popularity that even after a few years absence due to the pandemic, runners signed up for it , 12,000 of them, and a nationwide cast of 2000 virtual runners, according to MILO PR lady Gabie Desales who made sure I ws fed with both info and real food.

Had a chance to meet Milo Sports Head Carlo Sampan, who was not born yet when the event was born in 1974, he ran his first Milo fun run when he was in college already in 2012, did not realze he will be behind the event 10 years after.

His mission now, bring it back to the times when there were races all over the country, one time reaching 200,000 overall and with regional qalifying races plus a national finals.

Next leg this year is on May 28 in Batangas City, no full marathon though, and I plan to be there with hopefully former Milo Marathon organizer Ron de los Reyes. He was also there last Sunday morning, in fact he slept overnight tgere in his car to be able to see the 2 AM take off for the 42K runners.

A lot of old tales swapped between two old men who have many shared experiences about Milo Marathon.

And by the way, even if I did not get a chance to interview them like I used to in my earlier years with Milo Marathon, 42K champions were James Jevin Cruz and Maricar Camacho.

Will be seeing more of them in the future. By Lito Cinco

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