A sportswriter reporting on the visit of Bill Rogers to the Philippines, as a guest of the Marathon Association of the Philippines, back in the early eighties wrote that “…in the Philippines, even a run around the block is called a marathon. With this explanation, the knowledgeable reader will understand the rest of this piece.

THE DUMAGUETE MARATHON was inaugurated in November 2006 as a component of the City’s Fiesta celebration. This inaugural race was only a 10k event, with special 3k and 5k for children and youth, and saw the participation of children with disabilities (CWDs). The event was organized by the Foundation University Institute of Youth Sports for Peace (IYSPeace), with the technical support of the Metro Dumaguete Roadrunners Club.

The 2007 race was a 21k half-marathon ran around the City. Fun and competitive runners from as far as Metro Manila came to join the race and brought home major prizes consisting of “bags of rice.” A unique feature of road races and sporting events organized by the FU-IYSPeace is the use of rice, instead of cash, as prizes. This practice is adopted by the organizer as one of the components of its institutional corporate social responsibility to create awareness of the need to conserve rice and in support of the Asia Rice Foundation’s “Rice is Life” Campaign. The 2008 event was more or less a repeat of the previous year.

With the encouragement of Honolulu Marathon Clinic Founder, Dr. Jack Scaff, the 2009 road race will be dubbed as the “DUMAGUETE ADVENTURE MARATHON. Dr. Scaff is no stranger in the Philippines, having spent a considerable phase of his medical career in such exotic places as Mountain Province in Luzon and Cebu in the Visayas.

The Dumaguete Adventure Marathon 2009 covers a distance of 25-kilometers along scenic barangays (sitios) of the municipalities of Sibulan and Valencia, and the City of Dumaguete. Though slightly over the distance of a half-marathon, the intrepid road runner and adventure seeker will be challenged by a 3-kilometer uphill ascent to Barangay Balili starting at 110 meters above sea level and up to 390 meters above sea level. Coming down, the runners will be treated to natural scenic sights and views of the famous Cuernos de Negros (Horns of Negros) and the islands of Cebu, Bohol and Siquijor across the Mindanao Sea.

The race will start at the Rizal boulevard and finish at the Sidlakang Negros, the tourism center of the Province of Negros Oriental. Both locals are located in Dumaguete, described by the country’s National Hero, Dr. Jose P. Rizal, as the “City of Gentle People.”