Joy Tabal back on her feet, rules 21k of 7-Eleven Run

Moving on

If her performance in the 7-Eleven Run was to be the gauge, it seems that Mary Joy Tabal has now moved on from a painful chapter of her life.
Competing for the first time since her father passed away last year, the 28-year-old Olympian Tabal conquered a race that she considered a personal test yesterday, ruling the 21-kilometer distance of the 7-Eleven Run 2018 in Cebu City.

Tabal, who last raced in the National Milo Marathon in Cebu last Dec. 3, 2017, a day after her father died due to pneumonia, was upbeat in her first race of the year and went on to rule the women’s side by clocking one hour, 23 minutes and seven seconds.

“[I joined] this race to overcome my fear of what happened to me last year. I still can feel the emotions that I went through after my father passed away on the eve of my big race,” said Tabal, who rested for one month before plunging back to training last January.

“But right now, I can feel that I am ready to bring back my old form to compete.”

The petite runner from Barangay Guba, Cebu City, however, admitted she felt emotional at the early part of the race.

“While running, I still [felt] the presence and memories of my father. But later during the race, my mood changed because a lot of people cheered at the sidelines and I am so happy for that,” the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games marathon gold medalist said.

Based on her assessment, Tabal believes her performance was decent although she still also confessed that she had to improve on some aspects of her skills.

“This will be a good startup for my year. Though I didn’t have a convincing performance, I have a lot of time to improve my skills through training.”

Although she won easily over runners up Ruffa Sorongon (1:27.57) and Aileen Tolentino (1:30.31), there was something Tabal found unusual with the race.

“What made this race challenging was that I had to wake up very early. The race started at 1 a.m. I only slept for few hours and the route was challenging [because it had] a lot of turns. The run was too early, it’s unusual to run at 1a.m.,” Tabal said.

Organizers started the race at 1 a.m. since it was held simultaneously with the races in Manila and Davao.