CHAMPIONS are never satisfied. They want to improve everyday, knowing fully well that their biggest challenge, is with themselves.
It’s the same across all sports, but more so in running, where improvement is easily measured by time.
Love Joy Cordovilla is one of those champions.
After ruling the 3-km (2013, 2014) and 5-km (2015) regional finals of the Milo Marathon in Naga City for three straight years, Love Joy said it was high time to level up.
In the 39th staging of the country’s premier marathon competition, right in the grandest stage of all – the National Milo Marathon Finals held in Clark, Angeles City in Pampanga, the 13-year-old Love Joy ran in the women’s 10-km and came up with a performance so fast, her older rivals didn’t know what hit them.
Following instructions from her father-cum-varsity coach Jay, who went on to run in the 42-km event, Love Joy reached the SM City-Clark finish line ahead of Tarlac qualifier Cherry Doronilla.
She had an impressive time of 36 minutes and 13 seconds, beating the 37:28 of Doronilla, followed by veterans Maricel Maquilan and Flordeliza Donos, who had 38:50 and 39:19, respectively.
For someone so young, who had never ran in this distance before, Love Joy’s time was the fastest in recent memory.
So far, the lowest time clocked in the women’s 10-km run was the 34:41 by Feliz Marie Hernandez in 2011, while the Philippine record was set by Christabel Martes way back in 2001 with a time of 34:40.3.
“Nag-enjoy lang po ako,” said Love Joy, a freshman at Cabangan High School after the race, while she waited for the official time inside a tent, with her father, a pedicab driver, who started joining fun runs back home in Legazpi, Albay two years ago.
“Ako ang nag-encourage sa kanya. Nakita ko ang ability niya nu’ng maliit pa. Malakas talaga sa takbuhan. Sabi ko, may potential itong anak ko,” said Jay, who used to be a baseball player from grade school to high school, before shifting to running in recent years.
Jay said that when his daughter turned nine, he let Love Joy join small fun runs and got impressive results from them.
By the time she was 10, Love Joy finally participated in her first serious running activity–the Philhealth Run– where she placed 16th in the 3-km event.
Jay said Joy’s performance was fast for her age and so he continued to encourage her daughter to keep on improving her own time.
For three consecutive years, Love Joy took top podium finishes in the Milo regional legs in Naga and always qualified for the national 3-km finals in Manila afterwards.
This year, her father encouraged her to go to a higher distance, the 5-km run in the Naga regionals to see how far she can go.
Jay had a hunch that Love Joy can do better after she made it to her school’s varsity team again. Last year, she was able to make the cut in the 800-meter action. And now, she made it to the 1500-meter and 3000-meter events as a varsity runner.
Last August during the Milo Marathon regional qualification event in Naga, Love Joy topped the 5-km run in 21 minutes and 24 seconds.
It was a performance that was so impressive her father planned to ask her to go for 10-km in the National Finals in Angeles City.
But Jay didn’t have to say a word as Love Joy volunteered to try the longer distance.
“Siya mismo ang nagsabi na gusto niyang i-try ang 10-km. Ako naman as a father, in-encourage ko lang siya dahil alam kong may potential siya,” added Jay, who himself joined the Naga qualifiers and landed 39th place with a time of 1:41.50, becoming one of 141 finishers, who made it to the national finals.
Jay has been joining the Milo races since running became his passion in 2006, with his daughters, wife and family watching him run.
“Umiiwas lang ako sa sakit, kaya tumatakbo ako,” said Jay, who landed no. 401st in the National Milo Marathon Finals after clocking 4:26.18
But while Jay became part of the 505 runners, who completed the men’s 42-km route in Clark, his heart and mind were with his daughter, who was to run in the 10-km later.
“Siya ang nasa isip ko noong tumatakbo ako, pero confident ako na maganda ang itatakbo niya,” said Jay, whose confidence in his daughter was affirmed later with Love Joy’s conquest of the 10-km run.
Now that Love Joy has proven herself in a longer distance, Jay is still mum if he will encourage her to go for the lung-busting 21-km.
It may not be next year or the year after, but Love Joy’s champion’s heart, will definitely seek that longer distance in the near future, with or without her father’s encouragement.
After all, champions of the Milo marathon move forward by getting better every year.