Pride and joy

Mary Joy Tabal wins the first gold medal for the Philippines when she ruled the women’s marathon at the 2017 SEA Games in Putrajaya, Malaysia. INQUIRER/ MARIANNE BERMUDEZ

The Southeast Asian Games marathon distance—which uses the Olympic standard measure—is officially listed at 42.195 kilometers.

Mary Joy Tabal, however, ran farther than that before she finally crossed the finish in Kuala Lumpur.

Her starting line was far away from the Malaysian capital. It was everywhere, all at once: In her hilly hometown of Guba in Cebu, where the dream began. In the athletics association office, where kinks of her membership in the national team were ironed out. In Italy, where she trained beyond her limits.

It was in the morning, when she got up to hone—some say punish—her body into gold-winning form. It was in the evening, when she would wonder if she could even lace up her running shoes at all.

Mary Joy Tabal started her race much farther back than her competitors that she measures the distance not in kilometers or miles, but in days, weeks, months. And in stories.

“There are a lot of stories behind this gold medal,” Tabal said in an exclusive video interview at the Cebu Daily News office that was aired Thursday on Sports IQ, the Inquirer’s multi-platform live sports talk show.

Officially, her time is listed as two hours, 48 minutes and 26 seconds—almost seven minutes clear of silver winner Hoang Thi Thanh.

Meaningful victory

But it seemed Tabal had ran a longer race. This made the victory much more meaningful for the Cebuana runner.

“It’s not just that I got the gold medal but also because of all the sacrifice, pain and sweat I’ve been through,” Tabal said.

“It wasn’t an easy road to the SEA Games,” she added.

The root behind the anxiety had been her status as a member of the national team. Depending on who you talk to, Tabal had either resigned or was excluded from the national roster. And after going through the same experience before the Rio Olympics, a dreadful sense of deja vu kept her constantly anxious.

“I kept wondering: Will I be able to run in the SEA Games or not?”

Eventually, the athletics association, led by Philip Juico, approved her inclusion to the national team. And Tabal managed to cram a training stint in Italy into her preparation schedule.

Toughest training

“It was the toughest training I ever had,” Tabal said. “There were days when I was disappointed that I couldn’t finish my workout. After long runs, when I could not complete my training, I’d feel sad.”

“My coach would add two more days of recovery, and I’d tell him ‘coach I have only 29 days left,’” Tabal recounted.

She counted those days off in a regimen that included altitude runs with some of the best marathoners from all over the world. She would be breathless, spent, after each training day but she refused to leave anything to chance as far as the SEA Games was concerned. There had already been so much talk about her participation and defeat would only stoke the fires of controversy.

Race day

Once she hit concrete in Malaysia, she tore up everything that stood in between her and the finish line: Her competition, her doubts, the numbness that overtook her body like it did when she was running a qualifying race for the Rio Olympics.

“In the Olympic qualifier, my body became numb 200 meters away from the finish line. But in the SEA Games, I already felt it in my last loop with 9 kilometers to go,” said Tabal.

“I was worried that if I didn’t overcome [the numbness], I might not finish the race.”

It was a dreadful thought, especially since a lot of Filipinos were cheering her on.

Sure gold

“They were so excited and they were shouting ‘it’s a sure gold!’ So I really had to make sure I would finish the run. I knew I was going to get the gold and all I had to do was finish the run.”

She kept her emotions in check, reining in her excitement, and eventually, the numbness melted away.

A lot more disappeared once she had the gold medal around her neck and the national anthem began to play.

“I felt proud that the national anthem was playing because of my gold medal,” Tabal said. “It felt like a thorn was pulled out of me.

“This medal is for the country. Not just for myself or for Cebuanos but for all Filipinos. I wanted to lift our spirits and make us believe that everything is possible… If you put your heart, and passion and hard work and sweat into it, you can achieve your dreams for the country.”

She hugged everyone at the finish. Friends, supporters, members of her team, PSC Commissioner Mon Fernandez and even Juico—triumph, it seems, has a way of mending strained relationships.

“We forgot what happened in the past and we knew we were doing this for the country.”

Tabal hopes that her victory encourages the athletics association to be “open to changes.”

“There are no bad programs but it’s more on adopting changes, new inputs for sports. Let’s not limit our programs. Let’s welcome new ideas.”

She also hopes that it inspires more young athletes to chase their own finish lines.

Set your goal

“Set your goal. Think of a good motivation, something that’s enough to help you survive that hardship of training. It’s free to dream but it takes a lot of sweat, time, sacrifice, dedication, discipline to reach that certain goal,” she said.

With the journey to the SEA Games gold finally coming to an end, Tabal has no plans of slowing down just yet, plotting her preparation for next year’s Asian Games, the 2019 SEA Games here in the country and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

For the runner who measures runs with more than just distance, Tabal’s next race started the moment she crossed the finish line in Malaysia.