Two for the road

A math teacher and a former varsity sprinter will run the race of their lives at the La Salle Bank marathon in Chicago today as the Philippine winners of an all-expenses-paid trip courtesy of New Balance.

Debbie Marie Bautista, 28, and Dennis Anthony Bejasa, 36, topped 25 finalists in a New Balance promotion where entrants submitted a 100-word essay on what the popular footwear and apparel brand means to them and how it has changed their lives.

The 5-4, 120-pound Bautista is a math professor at Ateneo where she earned a Master’s degree in 2004. Bejasa was on the University of the Philippines track and field team and an athletic scholar from 1987 to 1991. A communications graduate, he now works for San Miguel Corp. as a customer development officer in the centralized key accounts group.

Bautista and Bejasa left Manila for the US last Thursday and will be back Tuesday night.

Both will run the half-marathon in chilly Windy City weather, expected to be about 16 degrees Celsius, on a relatively flat road route that makes for a fast course. Some 40,000 runners will answer the 8 a.m. gun at Grant Park on Columbus Drive to start the race.

Neither Bautista nor Bejasa expects to be among the top finishers in the 25-kilometer distance but they’re determined to make good for flag and country. They’re among some 25 Asian winners of the New Balance essay contest, a world-wide promotion to celebrate the brand’s centennial anniversary.

Bautista and Bejasa ran the 25-kilometer event at the New Balance Power Race at the Fort in Taguig last May. They were told they won the trip to the US that day.

"I already finished the race and was having breakfast with my family at McDonald’s near the finish line when I heard an announcement calling me to the stage," recalled Bejasa. "I couldn’t believe it. I was in shock."

Bautista was still on the road, her third straight 25-kilometer race in the yearly New Balance run, when she heard the public address announcement.

"I wasn’t sure if I could finish the race although I finished the last two I joined," said Bautista. "I was having difficulty running that morning then I heard my name on the public address system. I knew I was being called up to the stage, not because I did well in the race. I had a good feeling it was because I won the trip to Chicago."

Bautista wrote her essay last Holy Thursday and she was particularly inspired during Holy Week. For someone who’s a whiz at numbers, she’s also a whiz at words.

Bejasa, a dead-ringer for University of Santo Tomas basketball coach Pido Jarencio, said he prayed hard for the honor of joining the New Balance team in Chicago.

Coincidentally, he goes to the same 9 a.m. Sunday Mass at the Immaculate Concepcion parish in Project 3, Quezon City, as his look-alike Jarencio.

"I had put on weight after graduation and I was determined to run off the excess pounds," said Bejasa. "In two months, I lost 30 pounds from 180 to 150. It was running, using my three pairs of New Balance shoes, that was the biggest contributor to my weight loss."

Bejasa said a San Miguel officemate, Mike Francisco, encouraged him to keep physically fit. Francisco is a serious triathlete.

There were over 50 entries in the New Balance essay contest and some even came from abroad. Choosing the best two essays wasn’t easy but Planet Sports, which distributes New Balance here, found two outstanding runners to represent the country in Chicago.

"We’re very excited for Debbie and Dennis," said Planet Sports president Anton Gonzalez. "It’s a milestone year for New Balance and we’re proud that two Filipinos are part of the New Balance global centennial team running in Chicago."

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Luke Pasiliao of Solar Entertainment Corp. fired an ace on the island green, 155-yard, handicap one, hole No. 6 of the executive course at the Valley Golf and Country Club in Antipolo last Sept. 24. He hit a No. 1 Titleist ball using a cavity back, six-iron Honma.

Luke is a member of the Sun-Wed golfers of Valley. He was playing with his regular golfing buddies Bong Guatno, Cris Pangilinan, Rey Roxas and Edwin Yutuc, all members of Sun-Wed. He will be honored at a dinner party by friends in a venue of his choice, to be announced later.

It was Luke’s second hole in one since he started playing golf 35 years ago. His first ace came in April 1994 during the Johnnie Walker tournament on hole No. 4 of the famed Valley south course.

Postscript: Noted artist Salvador (Dodong) Arellano will launch his exquisite book, "Salvador Arellano—Game Fowl Art and Other Works" at the Cameron Forbes Room in the Manila Polo Club, Makati, tonight. A collection of Arellano’s watercolors and oils will be on exhibit during the launch from 6 to 10 p.m. The Armand Hammer Museum curator Hillary Gibson has described Arellano’s art as "powerful work" as "Salvador brings to American contemporary art a personal insight into the equestrian world that few artists have achieved." Mrs. Gretchen O. Cojuangco said, "I have admired and collected Dodong’s paintings over the years; they have been a constant source of delight and pleasure for both myself and Danding, my family and friends."