Name a city, a city state like Hong Kong and Singapore, a tiny country like Nepal and Brunei Darussalam, even poor Bangladesh, and you can be sure, each of them has a marathon. Why? Because marathon is the biggest tourism event in the world today.

Thus, there are thousands of marathons being staged all over the world the more famous being the Amsterdam, Boston, Berlin, Chicago, Honolulu, London, New York, Paris, Rotterdam and Stockholm Marathons.
In Asia, there are 77 marathons scheduled for this year, with Japan having 24, India (10), Taiwan (7), China (6), Korea (5) Thailand (4) and Malaysia (3). The Singapore marathon, scheduled on Dec 22, has more then 60,000 entries, forcing the organizers to stop further registration.

During the past three weeks, three international marathons were held in Metro Manila: 1st Quezon City international marathon, celebrating its 70th anniversary; the 2nd Subic international marathon; and the Pasig River international marathon with some 21,000 participants. It was a sight to behold on TV the multitude of walkers and runners with leading environmentalist, Gina Lopez, among the participants.

In Dumaguete and Negros Oriental, we have the three-year old Dumaguete Marathon, being promoted as the biggest sports tourism event in Negros Oriental. This year’s event is an “adventure” marathon, covering a distance of 28k, traversing several barangays in Sibulan, Valencia, and the City. To appreciate the “world-classiness” of the event, logon to its website: dumaguetemarathon.com/2009.

The DAM, as a tourism event, features the following activities:

Nov 21 (Sat) – (Sidlakaang Negros)

1:30 pm – Opening of an exhibit by the DA-PhilRice, celebrating November as the Rice Awareness Month with the theme: “The future is bright, the future is rice.”

4:00 pm – Rap and Hip-Hop Concert by the Negros Oriental Children for Clean Water and the Environment (NOCCWE) with the theme: “Dumaguete City, the City of Gentle People.” The FU choral group, under the baton of our musical director, Alan Bana, will sing publicly for the first time, our version of a Dumaguete Song.

6:00 pm – Carboloading Party

Nov. 22 (Sun)

5:00 am – Assembly at Rizal Blvd
5:30 am – Start of 28k adventure marathon
6:00 am – Start of 10k, 5k and 3k

(At Sidlakaang Negros)
8:00 am – Rice Festival cookfest with high school and college HRM students competing in the preparation of puso (traditional rice wrapped in coconut leaves), bibingka and other rice delicacies, utilizing the traditional pugon and kalan by way of preserving our traditional cooking practices.

8:00 am – Awarding ceremonies for marathon
11.00 am – Awarding ceremonies for cookfest
12.00 noon- Closing ceremonies

The entire Foundation University community, faculty, staff and students will join the marathon to manifest its support in the effort to promote Negros Oriental and Dumaguete City as a tourism destination. It is FU’s gift in fulfilling the government’s development plan to make the Visayas region a national tourism hub.

I wish to acknowledge the offer of the Dumaguete Rotary South, through its president Dodo Bustamante, for the use of its ambulance and the support of the club’s Anns and family to set-up water stations in front of their residences for the runners who will pass through. This is the practice of residents in the famous marathons like Boston, New York, Chicago and even during the 1st Quezon City and Subic marathons where residents offered water and candy bars to the runners. Perhaps, we will likewise develop this same sense of community spirit of sharing and caring for others.

Jon Colburn’s Dumaguete Rotary East will provide medical doctors, cardiologists and medical assistance to the runners.

And most of all, the local government units of the Province, Dumaguete, Sibulan, Valencia, including the full force of their barangay units, are giving full support to the marathon.

FU’s annual gift—the marathon, will become the gift of everyone to our beloved Province and our City of Gentle People.