YOU can take this literally, Eva Air will really bring joy to Taipei this October, but I mean Mary Joy Tabal-Jimenez.

And believe this too, Mary Joy , the country’s very first and only Filipina runner to qualify in the Olympic marathon, something she did in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, is overjoyed for this opportunity as it will determine her future in running.

Which is why when she got the offer from Eva Air to become the airline’s ambassadress in the Philippines and to lead an expected 300-strong Filipino team to the event.

It was like a heaven-sent gift for her and there was no hesitation on her part to accept the offer, saying it was both an honor and a privilege.

If not for the Covid pandemic in 2020, she could have qualified again in the Tokyo Olympics but then the world was at a standstill for a long time, including sports and with no qualifying races to run, Mary Joy saw her possible historic second stint in the Olympics go down the drain.

But now at age 36, she is rethinking her future in the sport that has brought her fame and glory in the past, she ran her last race in the 2023 Tokyo Marathon and then returned to focus on her being a wife and mother to a precocious Athena.

In fact her hubby, Lt. Hector Dan Jimenez and three- year-old daughter will be running in the 3K category even as she goes for her goal of a sub three-hour marathon.Her personal best time and current national record is around two hours, 43 minutes.

She says she has already resumed her daily training and runs aroundc10 kilometers a day as she builds up mileage but was very clear that her decision to return to competitive running if ever, will depend on how she does in the EVA Air Marathon.

She has other reasons too for thinking of returning to running, aside from bondibg with her family, she wants to enjoy the joy that running brings her, a sport that made her an Olympian and brought her fame and glory.

Then there is that desire to prove that even as a wife and mother, and at that age, anyone can achieve that dream.She hopes too to encourage other fenale runners to follow the same path she took to the Olympics.

The problem she sees is that very few, it seems, share that dream, observing that young runners are putting limitations on what they can do, and thus limiting their dreams to becoming a national champion or maybe SEA Games champion.

Sunshine Lim of Travel Care, who is coordinating no, not just coordinating actually but even sponsoring some of the local bets from Cebu, including a PWD deaf and mute champion runner, is optimistic that runners from other parts of the country will also take up the challenge that the Eva Air Marathon offers.

After all, there are shorter distance races featured in the event.

She shared that Philippine Sports Commission’s Executive Director Paulo Tatad and Commissioner Walter Torres have expressed interest in joining the event.

It should be a good event for tourist runners as the route will showcase and pass through some of Taipei’s attractions in the city.

And Eva Air, ranked in the top ten amobg international airlines with its servicing 67 destinations scattered among four continents, is pulling out all stops come actual race day.

Now if you ask me where did I get all these information I am sharing, simple, I was invited by an old friend in travel writing, Bernard Supetran to the presscon launching the event in the country, held at the Crimson Hotel in Alabang, even won a prize for answering correctly the trivia question as to what is Taiwan’s top industry.

Of course it is the semi-conductor industry, not that I am interested to work on that side, not at my age though I my earlier years, I was HR Manager of a local semi conductor sub contractor in Las Pinas.

First time though for me to attend a dinner presscon in my long years in sportswriting.

But who knows, maybe I can go and cover this event come October.

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Lito Cinco