A Very Special Milo Marathon Clinic with Coach Rio

Last Saturday, Metro Manila’s running bloggers got a special treat: morning training with Coach Rio de la Cruz at the University of the Philippines Diliman. Aside from being the lead organizer for the Milo Marathon Manila leg, Coach Rio also coaches the University of the Philippines varsity athletics team and took them to their first UAAP gold last year.

The thrust of this year’s National Milo Marathon is “One Team. One Nation. Go Philippines!” with special emphasis on pumping up support for our national athletes as they compete at the SEA Games this year and try to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics next year. So the training session with Coach Rio was meant to give us a little taste of how to prepare properly to run, after which we would find out new developments in the country’s longest running marathon series.

After the warm-up, we did an easy run around the Academic Oval. There were one-loop and two-loop options. It was nice to run at my alma mater campus and reconnect with the fundamentals of good running with Coach Rio. (I think that short session activated my run muscles for the Fasttwitch Enduro Triathlon the next day!)

My mind is always sharper after exercise, so it was perfect preparation for the big info dump from Milo Marathon. Let me try to type it all out from memory:

• The Milo Marathon is the first to receive the PATAFA Silver Label rating. This tier rating system patterned after the IAAF road race label grading will help assure quality and standardize the major Philippine road races.
• There are 11 legs in the 2019 National Milo Marathon series.
• Subic Bay and Davao are the two new venues for this year.
• They have changed the naming convention. Instead of using the number of editions the race has had, from this point forward they will use the year instead.
• Due to the SEA Games marathon happening in December, they have scheduled the Milo Marathon final to January 19, 2020.
• BXtra Philippines is coming aboard as Milo Marathon’s official cashback partner (10K, 21K, and 42K race kits include BXtra cards), so by using BXtra cards you earn points as good as cash and redeem them at partner outlets.

For more information, check out the 2019 National Milo Marathon website. Register online at the Runrio website or at the following onsite registration centers.