Ezel Conde carries a small statue of the Sto. Niño after her stint in the Cebu Marathon, her first race after her freak accident last October, 2018. /Contributed
Cebu City, Philippines – Ezel Conde still remembers vividly every bit of that fateful Sunday morning on October 14, 2018.
Closing in on what would have been her first Top 5 finish in the 10-kilometer race of the 42nd National Milo Marathon Cebu leg, she was thrown off the road.
She later found herself lying on the ground, in pain, with blood rolling down her face.
She was less than two kilometers away from the finish line at the Cebu City Sports Center and was running along P. Del Rosario Street when she got hit by a car.
She survived the accident, but the memory of it stung too much that it took her close to three months to get back in the racing scene.
Read: NMM Cebu’s Miracle Girl
Last January 13, Sunday, the 22-year-old Conde from Pinamungahan town, south Cebu finally mustered the guts to race again in the 12th Cebu Marathon.
But it wasn’t easy for her seeing the road again.
“Murag nahaglok pako mo dagan sa road balik. Nag dagan ko ganina napay trauma,” said the runner of the Philippine Long-Distance Runners. “But ni pray lang gyud ko na kaya nako.”
(Before the race, I felt scared of running again on the road. While I was running I still had that bit of trauma. But I just prayed that I will be able to handle it. I eventually finished.)
Conde competed in the 5-kilometer race. She didn’t land a spot in the Top Five, but she was satisfied with her performance, especially coming from that freak accident.
Read: Driver who accidentally hit Milo runner wasn’t drunk
“Ok ra. Wala man sad ko nag target ug time. Ang ako lang nga maka finish ko bisan naa pay hadlok mo dagan balik sa road,” she said.
(It’s okay. I wasn’t targeting a specific time. All I wanted was to finish the race despite my fears of running again on the road.)
She added that her first Cebu Marathon race may have not been that successful but crossing the finish line was already like a win for her because it was her offering to Señor Sto. Niño, whose feast Cebu is celebrating this week.
“I did it para halad kang Senyor Santo Niño. Happy na kaayo ko.”
(I did it as an offering to Señor Sto. Niño. I am happy with that.)
Now that she has finally conquered her fear, Conde, who looks up to Cebu’s Marathon and Olympian Queen Mary Joy Tabal, plans to run in the 9th SM2SM Run and the 7-Eleven Run in February. bjo