Immuvit Fearless Challenge adds obstacles to 10k, 5k runs

University of Santo Tomas mainstay Roger Denolo and Cecile Yuson of the Philippine Navy topped their respective 10k categories in the Immuvit Fearless Challenge Trail Run 2012, held Sunday morning inside the La Mesa Nature Reserve Forest in Quezon City. "Mahirap ang mga obstacles and challenges pero nalampasan ko naman," said the 22-year-old Denolo, a middle distance specialist who hails from Iloilo City, after booking a time of forty-four minutes and 10 seconds in navigating the challenging 10-kilometer race and winning the men's event. Participants in the 10k event found the route doubly hard as it was peppered with obstacles like the fire jump, mud crawl, log hurdles, military wall and mud wall. Runners who fail to pass the obstacles face a three-minute deduction to their clockings. The 28-year-old Yuson, on the other hand, needed an hour, four minutes and 15 seconds to navigate the slippery and muddy trail and reach the finish line. "Nahirapan din po ako dahil sa mga obstacles. Pero itinuloy-tuloy ko lang ang pagtakbo. Maputik ang ruta dahil sa mga ulan nitong nakaraang araw," said Yuson. Denolo and Yuson pocketed a cash prize of P10,000 each. Meantime, Kimbet Sarmiento bagged the P5,000 top prize in the men's 5K event with a time of 24:06 minutes, while Darling Jonafer Real pocketed the same cash prize because of her 43:15-minute performance in the women's 5k division. The Fearless Challenge is the first leg of the Immuvit Trilogy Challenge run. This will be followed by Leg 2 “No Excuses” on September 15 at the Quezon City Memorial Circle, while Leg 3 “No Turning Back” will be on October 6 in Nuvali, Sta. Rosa, Laguna. - AMD, GMA News