The Philippine Online Chronicles

The 100 kilometer marker in Nasugbu, Batangas, is not an unfamiliar benchmark for ultrarunner Joy Rojas.  

She has run to that finish line from Manila so often that she can no longer say how many times she's stamped footfall after footfall on the winding asphalt leading to it. Once before, she zipped through the mountain highways of Cavite and Batangas from the zero kilometer mark in Luneta in a single day, completing the course in 16 hours.

Still, for the first Filipina to have run across the Philippines, logging kilometer after kilometer on the tried-and-tested route has never become trite routine.

“Not at all, not at all it doesn't,” insists Rojas. “It's never something you can master or that you can conquer because it's just such a challenging course.”

For this reason, Rojas explains, she chooses to do the laborious uphill jog from Manila to Tagaytay and the downhill trot to Nasugbu whenever she trains for a major run—as she did on March 28 and 29, when the Philippine Online Chronicles accompanied her on her multi-stage endurance test.

On that weekend, Rojas completed her last ultrarun in preparation for Takbong Pangarap/Trans-USA 2009, her endeavor to run 5,000 km in 120 days across the United States ofAmerica

Rojas has never been to the U.S. Nor has any Southeast Asian woman accomplished such a feat. In this case, “been there, done that” certainly does not apply. And if the customary Manila-Tagaytay-Nasugbu route is something she says can never be mastered, what else can be said of a path that runs through 12 foreign states from California to New York?

Because of this, the weekend proved to be as much of a test run for the two other members of the Takbong Pangarap team, manager Chuck Crisanto and trainer/navigator Mateo Macabe, as it did for Rojas. 

From the moment Rojas started jogging from the 16 km mark outside Imus, Cavite at 4:20 am on March 28, Crisanto was already going through a mental checklist of what will be necessary on their trans-USA trip. 

Are we trailing Joy at just the right pace, Crisanto wondered as he took turns with Macabe in driving the support vehicle that crawled behind Rojas in pre-dawn blackness. In the dead of the night, the van stocked full with supplies provided light and a shield from vehicles coming from Rojas' blind side. Come daylight, when close surveillance was no longer as needed, it served as a station where she momentarily rested, rehydrated and tested a new local sports drink for use in the U.S. That only raised another point of concern for Crisanto: How much farther ahead of the runner should he keep parking the van? 

What sort of vehicle would best follow Rojas across 12 states? Would an SUV be enough? Wouldn't an RV be more ideal? Crisanto's musings continued even after Rojas logged her first 50 km upon reaching People's Park in Tagaytay seven hours after beginning her run. He kept them coming as Rojas resumed the course the next day, setting off at 4:30 am from the Tagaytay rotonda. He consulted Macabe (set to run and bike alongside Rojas across the U.S): What sort of bicycle did he think he will need for the trip? A motorbike, perhaps? Or an electronic bicycle? 

By the time Rojas tapped the 100 km marker in Nasugbu at 10:30 am on March 29, both men had a clearer feel for the long haul ahead of them. But there were still challenges and changes for the Takbong Pangarap team to consider.

Having run for so long in the tropical climate, Rojas will have to acclimatize herself to the changing environments and time zones of the U.S. Gone will be the familiar Philippine heat and the expected cool reprieve of Tagaytay. Gone, too, will be familiar watering holes along the way. (One stop after the 86 km marker in Batangas is so familiar, in fact, that Rojas and Macabe have noticed how the toddlers at the store where they once bought water have become adolescents. The store is now gone, but its proprietress still remarks “O, kayo na naman (Oh, it’s you again)!” when they run past). According to Rojas, a runner who has crossed the U.S. assured her that hospitality shouldn’t be a problem in the States. Still, she hopes “there will be nice people along the way.”

Dogs, an inevitable hazard while running in the Philippines, may not be the only unfriendly animals she will meet in the States (When Rojas quipped if she would have to watch out for coyotes, someone told her she’d have to watch out for deer). Even the usual starting time of 4 am would probably change.

“[I said] maybe we shouldn't try to leave too early also because probably it's too dark and I won't see anything,” notes Rojas, who says she wants to take in the sights and scenery while traveling through the U.S. “Sometimes I'm so focused on that white stripe on the road but then I keep remembering to look up and look around.”

True enough, Rojas is on the brink of an entirely different challenge this time.

Yet while no track or trial may become monotonous for her, one thing remains constant whenever Rojas starts putting one fleet foot in front of the other on the open road.

“Manila, Nasugbu, Tagaytay, Tanay, wherever, Manila to Baguio, UP Diliman to UP Los Baños—each time I do it, I'm really happy in the entirety,” Rojas says. “Of course, yeah, I'm in pain sometimes, but I don't feel any regret that I did it.”

“I'm just happy that I'm doing it. There's just something that I feel. How do you say it?” she reflects. “It's just very fulfilling. It's an uplifting experience. I mean it hurts, yeah, it's hot. But then, I'm just happy being out there.” 

And so she tells herself, whenever she stares down a seemingly endless highway, whether it leads to good old Nasugbu or uncharted New York: “Sige, I'll finish it. I'm going to finish it.”

Photos by Sabrina L. Oliveros for The Philippine Online Chronicles. Licensed under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 Philippines.