Mary Joy Tabal spending Christmas Day 2019 at home in Cebu City. | Photo from Tabal’s Facebook page
CEBU CITY, Philippines – With their grueling schedule for trainings and competitions, we sometimes wonder if athletes ever take a break during the holidays.
For Cebuana marathon Olympian Mary Joy Tabal, she at least gets a day off from her training on Christmas Day, which she spent with her family in Guba, a mountain barangay of Cebu City.
“Spending it with fam diri sa Guba, celebrating it with papa kay kada Christmas ga Christmas Party man jud me dri sa balay kato naa pa si papa, and na yearly najud ni namo, na ma gather namo tanan iya igsuon ug ako mga cousins,” said Tabal.
(Spending it with the family here in Guba, celebrating it with papa because every Christmas we hold a party here in our home when papa was still here, and it has become a yearly thing wherein we gather all his siblings and my cousins.)
Tabal’s father, Rolando Sr., passed away in 2017, just a few hours before she made history and claimed her fifth straight National Milo Marathon title.
However, after spending the day partying with her family, Tabal immediately returns to training. “Just a day off, karon lang then training resumes tomorrow,” quipped Tabal.
She just came from clinching a silver medal in the 30th Southeast Asian Games (SEAG) which the Philippines hosted from November 30 to December 11.
Tabal will be spending half of 2020 qualifying for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics happening in August. Up first for Cebu’s marathon queen in 2020 is the national finals of the National Milo Marathon on January 19 in Tarlac City where she’ll be hoping to defend her title for the seventh straight year.
Then she’s also gearing up for the Tokyo Marathon on March 1.
Moira Erediano/ CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
As for one of Cebu’s top female young triathletes, Moira Frances Erediano, she also took a day off and spent Christmas with her family before resuming training.
“Papa gifted me with a guitar, so I am trying to learn how to play it. It was what I asked for Christmas this year. On Christmas eve we had dinner at the house with our pets, family and friends. Tomorrow and onwards, back to regular training,” said Erediano.
Like Tabal, Erediano will also start competing next month thus the training continues.
“I’m preparing for NAGT (National Age Group Triathlon) in Subic and the National Duathlon in Cebu this January,” said Erediano.
That, however, doesn’t mean that Erediano will not be celebrating the holidays, as she will be “attending all the parties with our employees and friends in between my schedules.”
Pamela Jane Ruiz shows off the gold medal she won in the mountainbike event of the Philippine National Games (PNG) in Manlayag-Patag, Danao City on May 20, 2018.|Contributed Photo/Keith DeFiebre
Cyclist Pamela Jane Ruiz, on the other hand, also spent Christmas with her family but also squeezed in a few leg exercises.
“Just spending my time with my family and doing road bike criterium and chill riding,” said Ruiz.
Still, she managed to squeeze in a few cycling runs during the holidays.
While there’s no specific major competition yet in the offing for the budding cyclist, she’ll continue to train not only because she wants to be always prepared but because she also loves biking./elb