NYC Running a Breeze for Filipina
Posted on 08. Dec, 2009 by Roman Espejo in Uncategorized
by Roman Espejo
Blocks after the finish line at the New York City Marathon, Bernadette “Bards” Bathan flashed her unofficial time on her running watch: 4 hours, 39 minutes and 32 seconds. Sixteen minutes under her personal best.
“Do you want to take a picture of it?” she asked me.
Bathan, 36, and four others from her local running group had traveled from Manila for Sunday’s race. Back home, Bathan trains in heat and pollution, around snarled traffic and on uneven pavement. She charms her way into gated communities, where the roads are smoother and there are fewer cars.
She also made a pact with a friend, Michelle Villanueva, 36, to run the marathon together before they turn 37. “We were thinking, ‘You know, let’s have a blast in New York,’” Bathan said three days earlier, at the Marathon Expo in the Javits Center.
But Villanueva was not in New York; applicants are selected through a lottery system, and she did not get a spot. “If she gets into the lottery next year, I’m going to be there 26.2 miles cheering her on,” Bathan said.
Bathan began running two years ago to lose weight. “I’m not coordinated enough to do Tae Bo, you know, jump and kick at the same time,” she said. “I can’t dance. So I needed a cardio.”
Her fitness and lifestyle coach advised her to run, and she couldn’t stop. “I just got hooked,” Bathan said. “Five kilometers was just not enough. ‘Okay, let’s train for 10.’ And then, ‘Maybe let’s train for a half marathon.’” So far, Bathan has shed almost 40 pounds and completed five marathons, including this one.
She trains around her nine-to-five desk job, and Bathan’s family is supportive, although the draw of marathons eludes them. For instance, her mother still wonders why she would run the distance to another city.
Bathan said the sport has gained popularity in Manila the last few years. “Before the 5K would be, like, filled with runners. Now they say the 10K has got the most number of runners,” she said. “People are all heading towards a marathon—everyone’s dreaming to run longer.”
Race conditions have been inconsistent in the Philippines, Bathan said. The second marathon she ran in was measured incorrectly. “If you’re prepared to run for 42 [km],” she said, “you’re hoping you’re just going to run 42—it was 44.”
Water for runners is a problem, too. “In the Philippines, you’re lucky if you still get water,” Bathan said. “Water stations there will run out, and it’s really hot.” She brings 20-peso bills to buy water from convenience and sari-sari stores along the route.
Cars, buses and jeepneys are another hazard, since streets and roads may not closed to traffic during competitions. “There we have races where vehicles, traffic, drivers are cursing at you,” she said.
But Bathan said that conditions have improved and made her a stronger competitor. “I still say if it’s your first marathon, do it in the Philippines, ’cause you’re going to be stronger when you go overseas.”
On Sunday after the race, Bathan mingled with some of her running group and relatives on Central Park West. “I wasn’t heating up—that’s part of the problem when you run in the tropics,” she said. “So here you have an opportunity to run faster.”
Some of Bathan’s family, like her brother Lito and his wife, who live in Queens, also pushed her to best time yet. “My family were there every 10 kilometers, and you just run for it. I was just running to my family the whole time,” she said.
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