Volunteer Aid Station - To Be A Volunteer

Last year 2009, Takbo.ph and Reinier Pacific were given an opportunity to sponsor a Volunteer Aid Station on two races, the “Botak Paa-Tibayan takbo 100k” last June 28, 2009 and the Milo Marathon National Finals last October 11, 2009.

On both occasion the fruit of the labour was very rewarding. In sport as in any other aspect of life itself, “service” is the binding cord that enriches our passion and perseverance to a goal. Giving something back to the sport you love, providing a word of encouragement, handling water or banana to a runner goes a very long way to both the giver and the taker. We all know this by experience whenever we are on a road race. These things are what money can’t buy.

However, volunteering yourself to an aid station requires certain basic knowledge and mental preparedness;

KNOW YOUR DESIGNATED TASK – an aid station will have its purpose and defined specific functions as approved by the race sponsors and organizer. Restrict your aid station to that as agreed upon. Know your task as given to you. Do not hesitate to ask the team head to show you what you are suppose to do, speak up.

BE ON TIME – do not be late. Do what was designated of you and do your best. A lot of runners will be relaying on you and you don’t want to let them down.

BE ENERGETIC – move freely and swiftly. Be full of energy and enthusiastic as this will set the tone for the whole volunteer team. It is like a wild fire that will fuel the team to its service for the duration of the aid station.

BE A TEAM MEMBER – do not try to do everything yourself. Work as part of a team to make sure that everyone gets a chance to participate and do his fair share of work. If someone asks for help, lend a hand. If you need some help, ask your team member.

PICTURE YOURSELF ON THE RECEIVING END – we are all runners and have run a race ourselves. We all know what we need and appreciate during a race, try to see things through other people’s eyes. You serve as what you expect others to serve. There is no better teacher than your own personal experiences.

SMILE AND BE GENEROUS ON WORDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT – this is the most important tool that you should possess. A SMILE will go a long way and “words of encouragement” will be affirmations of your joy in providing a volunteer service. These two criteria you should bring with you in abundance and should not run short even if your material service will run out, these two should be readily available to ALL RUNNERS without being selective.

BE HUMBLE – this is the last criteria. Don’t brag or go around telling everyone about the good things you’ve supposedly done. Be happy knowing you’ve made others happy. If acknowledge, say thank you as well.

Takbo.ph and Reinier Pacific will once again provide a volunteer aid station during the CONDURA RACE on 07Feb10. The aid station will serve the 21k and 42k runners only. The exact location and its purpose are still being finalized. No matter what, one thing for sure Takbo.ph and Reinier Pacific volunteers will have all the smiles and words of encouragement to all runners.

See you at the Condura!!!!

33rd Milo Marathon Finals - Reinier Pacific / Takbo.ph Volunteer Aid Station

Reinier Pacific and Takbo.ph were the designated official volunteer Aid Station at the 33rd Milo National Marathon Final today 11Oct09.

The Aid Station was positioned along Sen.Gil Puyat Avenue just off the Chino Roces junction. Members from both groups were already manning the station by 04:30 ready to receive the 42k and 21k runners.

Much can be said from the experience gained by each member of the service team, however, we had only one unified wish and that was to be able to encourage, push, and welcome runners as they pass the aid station. We hope that our smiles and cheers were as refreshing as the bananas, apples, oranges, petroleum jelly and efficascent oil that were served and even to those that have requested the leg massage service, we hope to have given you a welcome relief.



Making sure that we leave the place as clean as it was before the servicing of the runners, trashes and litters were collected and bagged. At 830am with the traffic at Sen. Gil Puyat given the signal by the marshals to be opened, the Reinier Pacific / Takbo.ph Aid Station was closed.

Thank you to Nestle for allowing the group to be of service. And to all the runners, you were all winners in your own rights!

33rd Milo Marathon - Reinier Pacific and Takbo.ph Volunteer Aid Station

Come Sunday 11Oct09, REINIER PACIFIC and TAKBO.PH will serve as an official volunteer AID STATION during the 33rd Finals of the MILO NATIONAL MARATHON to serve the 42K and 21K runners. The aid station will be situated along SEN.GIL PUYAT AVENUE (formerly Buendia) just off the crossing of CHINO ROCES AVENUE (former name is Pasong Tamo).

The aid station shall provide to ALL runners of 42k and 21k services listed below at its fastest and efficient ways without sacrificing TIME. Runners can allocate a “PIT STOP” of no more than 15-30 seconds that would help a long way to ensure they be able to relieved themselves of muscle pains, apply lubricants and intake of solid food for fuel. The following will be provided at the aid station;

- 20 service bays for spraying of Methyl Salicylate Camphor+Menthol (Efficascent Oil)
- Petroleum Jelly for skin lubricants to avoid skin chaffing
- Leg massage (if requested)non-professional method best effort only.
- Banana
- Apple
- Orange
- No liquid supply will be provided at this station as this matter will be addressed by water stations along the route.
- Lastly staff of REINIER PACIFIC and members of TAKBO.PH community will provide the encouragement and full attention. A guaranteed SMILE and ENCOURAGING WORDS will the main serving for the day.
- Runners for 21K shall pass the Aid Station once, and for the 42K runners they will have two opportunities to pass the paid station, 1st on their way to the Fort and then on their return from the Fort.

REINIER PACIFIC and TAKBO.PH wish to thank the sponsors NESTLE for giving the group the opportunity to share and serve the runners of the 33rd MILO NATIONAL MARATHON FINALS.

To all volunteers, call time will be at 3:30am to set-up the logistical requirements for the aid station. Come with a lot of stored smiles and encouraging words!

To the 42k and 21k runners, WE LOOK FORWARD TO SERVE YOU.

235 42K QUALIFIERS IN MILO MARATHON NATIONAL FINALS OCTOBER 11

For 13 Sundays in 26 key cities all over the Philippines scenes of thousands of runners in green singlets flooding the major thoroughfares highlight the 26 elimination races of the 33rd National MILO Marathon this year. The qualifying runs, held in two cities every Sunday, aim to search for worthy challengers to last year's King and Queen of Philippine Marathon Eduardo Buenavista and Mercedita Fetalvero (inset).

A total of 235 men and women runners advanced to the finals of the 33rd National MILO Marathon Finals slated on October 11 in Manila.

Of the total qualifiers who survived the eight-months, 26-leg nationwide elimination races, 169 are from Metro Manila, 160 of them men.

The runners will converge in Manila all expenses paid to challenge reigning men champion Eduardo Buenavista and current women queen Mercedita Manipol Fetalvero in the strength-sapping 42k contest. The men and women champion each brings home P75,000 plus elegant glass trophies.

Rene Desuyo and Christabel Martes, the 2005 Manila SEA Games marathon winner, topped the Metro Manila leg men and women division, respectively.

Prominent qualifiers include two-time marathon champion Allan Ballester, Alley Quisay, Rogelio Sarmiento, Ronald Despi and Reynaldo de los Reyes, Jho-Ann Banayag, Aileen Tolentino, Geraldine Sealza, Librada Tamson, Meshelle Villanueva, Maricel de la Peña and Rosario Alberto.

Ballester, the 2000-2001 champion, Desuyo, Quisay, Bernardo Desamito Jr., and the Sabal brothers, Cresenciano, Gerald and Elmer loom as the biggest threat to Buenavista’s title retention bid.

The SEA Games-bound Buenavista, the 2002 and 2008 champion, is seeking to duplicate the three-peat feats of Jimmy de la Torre and Wilfredo Ballester.

Buenavista holds the best record 2:18.33 he registered during the 2007 Metro Manila elimination.

De la Torrre, from Pototan, Iloilo, won the race in 1981, 82 and 84 while Ballester, from Sorsogon, did the trick in 1985, 90 and 91.

On record, Roy Vence holds the still unmatched six titles in 1993, 94, 96, 98, 99 and 2004. Vence qualified to the finals by placing third in the Batangas leg topped by Alquin Bolivar.

Martes and Banayag, both former marathon champions, are picked to provide strong challenge to Fetalvero, who is making the race her final preparation for the Laos SEA meet in December.

Of the 26 legs provincial sorties supervised by race director Rudy Biscocho, only the cities of Santiago (Isabela) and Tagbilaran (Bohol) did not produce qualifiers in both men and women divisions.

Cebu and Metro Manila had registered the biggest number of entries with more than 20,000 runners.

Few runners qualified to the finals because of the imposition of time barrier by the organizers of the country’s longest running footrace aimed to raise the level of competition and acceptable to the running enthusiasts.

The organizers imposed the time barrier 1:15 for men and 1:30 for women ostensibly to make the race more challenging and exciting.

“We introduced the time barrier for the first time precisely to improve the quality of competition,” justified Nestle AVP and Milo Events Sports Executive Pat Goc-ong.

There were no women qualifiers in Palawan, Iligan, Butuan, Laoag Tacloban, San Fernando, Baguio, Legazpi, Iloilo, and Bacolod while no male runners qualified in Cagayan de Oro, Roxas, and Naga.

Meanwhile, national MILO Marathon organizer Rudy Biscocho announced that registration for the other side events – 21K, 10K, 5K, and 3K kiddie run in the upcoming MILO national finals is now on going until October 5 at 51 Annapolis St. in Greenhills in San Juan, Planet Sports at the Rockwell Plaza, Mizuno outlets at Bonifacio High St. and Trinoma.

Registration fees is P150 for 21K, P100 for 10K and 5K, P50 for 3K. Registration fee for participating schools is P50 for 5K and P40 for 3K.

33rd Milo Marathon Finals - Event Update

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It is all system go for the 33rd National Finals Milo Marathon scheduled on for October 11, 2009 at 4:30am. The qualifiers for the full marathon are now complete and have a month to fine tune and complete their training for the much awaited showdown to determine the 33rd champions for the men and women category.

To add fanfare to the event a 21K, 10K, 5K and 3K run will also be held simultaneously and is expected to generate great attendance from different sectors of the society as in previous years. Registration for these race categories are now open and accepted at Annapolis Greenhills, Mizuno The Fort, Mizuno Trinoma and Planet Sports Rockwell.

The route for the different categories has been finalized and will cover the areas as shown in the following chart;


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To keep the event abreast with the latest technology, disposable timing chips will be used for the 10K, 21K and 42K events. Milo has taken this step to ensure that the standard of the race event will be at par if not better.


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For the finals, Reinier Pacific and Takbo.ph has again joined hands to offer a voluntary Aid Station as approved by the sponsors and race organisers. The aid station will primarily service the 21K and 42K runners and will be located at Sen. Gil Puyat Avenue and Chino Roces Street in Makati City. The aid station shall be providing muscle relaxant spraying to any/all runners that may wish to avail of the support service. Participants need not worry that should they avail of such support service the process will waste/eat previous time, but in reality such spraying service will take only a maximum of 15 seconds and will go a long way to relieve muscle pains. To avoid congestion, there will be 15-20 slots to provide spraying at one time. The 21k runners can avail once, while the 42K will pass the aid station twice and avail as much. Vaselinee and bananas will also be able on the same aid station.

On the same day Milo will also launch its new product ”MILO 3 in 1 For Adults” that will address the much needed added nutritional needs of Adults in their quest for energy.



To all the 42k finalist, serious runners and fun runners we wish you all the best... “KAYA MO ‘YAN”