In perspective: Mary Joy Tabal’s 2018 Asian Games women’s marathon run

As is always the case with news stories, online reports on the performance of Cebu City’s Mary Joy Tabal, the country’s bet in the Jakarta Palembang 2018 Asian Games women’s marathon, had basically the same content but were headlined quite differently.

One read “Tabal finishes a tad outside of top 10 in one of toughest Asiad marathons.” The other: “Tabal good for only 11th in women’s marathon.” I guess it was the runner in me, something I take pride in, more than the journalist that had me thinking:  Now, that sounds quite belittling. So why don’t you try and run all 42.195 kilometers in the heat of Jakarta and let’s see what happens.

But the reporter was correct. Mary Joy failed to barge into the top 10. She did not manage to improve on the previous 8th place finish of another Filipina marathon standout, Christabel Martes, who ran for the country in the 2002 Asian Games in Busan, South Korea. But, no, this does not mean Tabal’s accomplishment in Jakarta was not notable.

“One of the toughest Asiad marathons” is a description with enough reason. Run in Indonesia’s tropical monsoon climate, a marathon in Jakarta, which in August is said to have temperatures ranging from a high of 31° Celsius to a low of 24° Celsius, could sap you.  The amount of heat produced by the body can increase 30 to 40 fold during a marathon. Over the entire course of the marathon, you will lose three to six liters of sweat. In hot weather, this could easily go up negatively affecting your performance. It slows you down. Without enough hydration to replace the lost fluid, your body could shut down.

Rose Chelimo was apparently slowed down by the Jakarta heat. The Kenyan-born runner has a marathon personal best of 2:22:51 set in 2017. She ran a 2:27:11 in London that same year in winning the World Championships women’s marathon. She clocked 2:34:51 in winning the gold for Bahrain in the August 26 race in Jakarta, more than 7 minutes down from her time in the world Championships.

So was Japan’s Keiko Nogami who took the silver in 2:36:27. She ran a marathon best of 2:26:33 in Nagoya, Japan earlier in March this year. She was slower by almost 10 minutes in the heat of Jakarta.

Tabal ran 2 hours, 51 minutes and 41 seconds in taking 8th place, a tad more than 8 minutes slower than her personal best of 2:43:31 set in 2016 when she placed eighth during the Olympic qualifying 2016 Gold Label Road Races held in cold Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is also slower than 2:48:26 she set in ruling the 2017 Southeast Asian Games in Singapore last year.

Still, Tabal bested 8 other runners including two who did not finish, one from Kyrgyzstan and the other from China. 19 runners from 11 nations joined the race. Tabal was also the highest placed among the Southeast Asians, proving her gold medal finish in the marathon in the Singapore games last year was no fluke.

With Busan’s temperate climate conditions may have been a tad better for Christabel Martes on October 13, 2002 when she ran, one of 11 runners coming from 8 nations. Temperatures in Busan in October range from a high of 22° Celsius to a low of 14° Celsius. Martes finished in 3:09:48, the penultimate runner who crossed the line at the Busan Asiad Main Stadium, some 13 minutes ahead of Mariana Dias Ximenes of Timor Leste who arrived last in 3:22:03. Two other runners, a Chinese and a Korean, did not finish.

Christabel Martes still holds the Philippine women's marathon record of 2:38:44 set on July 2005 in Manila. When that will be broken and who will break it remains to be seen.


(Photo: Adrian Portugal/Rappler)