After reading
the McDougal masterpiece “Born to Run” in December of 2009, I dreamed of
finishing a marathon. Prior to that, the
longest distance I have tackled was a 10-km
fun run, but something about the way the book was written made me dare to
significantly upsize my running experience.
Five months after, under the nurturing
coaching care of Jaymie Pizarro and Jim Lafferty, I crossed the finish
line of my first full marathon – The Bull Runner Dream Marathon, 2010 edition. It is definitely one of the highlights of my adventure here on
earth.
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| Marathon Dream Team |
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| Dreamers all : BP, Iya, Delsie & Rose. Not in photo are Icar and Emman |
It did not take
me long to pass along this dream virus of being a marathoner.In 4 months time, I was high fiving 3 of my
Ateneo de Naga HS Batch 1983 classmates at the finish line of the 2010 Camsur
International Marathon. Thru the months
and years, 4 more of my fellow 83neans
were to follow our pioneering footsteps in becoming marathoners. But none of the 7 passed thru the TBR dream
route.
It is on the
First Balfour side of my running life that I got to inspire officemates to go
for a full mary via the TBR Dream Marathon franchise. Sometime in November 2011, three co-workers
(Rose Dalawampu, Icar Hombrebueno and Lily Santamaria) said yes to my
passionate invitation that they sign up for
the TBR Dream Marathon, 2012 edition.
They piously participated in the
preparatory activities of the TBR Dream Marathon program. Come March 18, 2012,
all 3 triumphantly accomplished the dream to be marathoners.
I was present at
Nuvali on that fateful day and I saw in
their beaming faces that the dream would not stop with them. It would be a matter of time before the 3
would be able to inspire another officemate in First Balfour to dare to dream
to be a marathoner.
Come July this
year, I was happily informed by Icar that we have 2 co-workers that are bravely
interested to register for the TBR Dream
Marathon, 2013 edition. They are Delsie
Giray and Emman Balamban. Icar was
asking me if our company would be providing the same support that it gave them
when they pursued their marathon dream. I replied the affirmative because I believe that the TBR Dream Marathon
experience is a good way to nurture one of the Lopez values which are important
to the Lopez Group of Companies, of which First Balfour is a part of. I am referring to Employee welfare and
wellness.
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| Showing the well-travelled FB banner |
Delsie and Emman
got to register for the TBR Dream
Marathon which is scheduled for February 24, 2013. Our
list of dream marathoners in First Balfour is growing. And the future is bullish. Possibly, we have another First Balfour
employee waiting in the wings for her turn to cross the finish line in the next edition of the TBR
Dream Marathon.
She is Iya Pe
and she will join the First Balfour team
that will participate in the TBR Dream Team Run (21 kms) this November 17. The organizers have encouraged the runners to
come in team uniforms. We will follow this encouragement. Already, the First
Balfour team uniform is available and it
is in the form of a Philippine flag-inspired
Puma running shirt, a salute to another Lopez value – Nationalism.
Certainly, the
First Balfour marathon dream team will not be among the first ones to cross the
finish line of the TBR Dream Team Run.
It is even a bit of a certainty that we will be one of the last teams to
finish.
No matter for
certainly we will be one of the best dressed on the field in Nuvali come November
17.
Keep on dreaming.
Keep on dreaming.
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| Photos courtesy of Dolly Pasia |
3 comments:
Who would ever think that I can do the 42K?! and never thought I could but I did! :)Thank you sir macky for inspiring us and for all the support you have given us. During our training with TBR and after our marathon, I was finally able to learn how to run smart, and more importantly, enjoy it :) I will keep on running and keep inspiring others to make their dreams come true :)
Hi Icar. Thank you for your kind and generous words. It is a source of joy for me to be able to inspire my friends and officemates to pursue their passion for running to longer distances. That means I will not be lonely in the marathons and ultras we have yet to conquer. hahahaha. Next is the ultra for you. Keep on dreaming. As Steven Spielberg puts it "I don't dream at night, I dream all day; I dream for a living."
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