Caris Estabillo Sanchez, a 44-year-old insurance manager and mother of one, was struggling — to hold back tears, and to keep moving.
It was February 16, a Sunday, and Caris was running the second marathon of her entire life. You look at her and you wouldn’t automatically assume that this is a woman capable of running 42.2 kilometers on a single morning. Maybe for a moment, she thought the same, but she powered through.
“Around the 34-kilometer mark, I was crying,” said Caris, who was dedicating the long run to her mom who passed away over a month after her first marathon in 2020. “I thought, ‘Mom, I might fail you.'”
“But in my head, I remembered, just one foot in front of the other.”
With the extra push from Caris’ run club UPDreamers, who helped pace her, and despite all odds — an upset stomach, excruciating pain on both feet, the physical challenge imposed by the hilly route of Muntinlupa’s Filinvest business district, and the mental agony that came with the possibility she would not cross the finish line on time, she actually made it, 20 seconds before the eight-hour cutoff.
It was worth it.
A marathon for beginners
Caris was one of the crowd of amateur runners who took on the gigantic challenge to conquer their first-ever 42-kilometer road race last weekend.
All of them were participants of the TBR Dream Marathon, a running event founded by Jaymie Pizarro, a marathoner and entrepreneur who fondly calls herself “the bull runner” (where the acronym was derived).
TBR, now on its 14th edition, prides itself as the only running event in the world that exclusively caters to first- and second-time marathoners. The event is unique in the sense that it tries to appeal to the average Filipinos — perhaps even the couch potatoes — who have decided to reinvent their physical life.
Registration for the next race usually takes place more than half a year before the event, and participants undergo a structured training program designed not to intimidate beginner runners. On race day, the energy is electric, powered by spectators who include the tight-knit community of TBR program alumni themselves.
TBR doesn’t recognize top three finishers but hands out medals to everyone who crosses the finish line before the cutoff, guided by the belief that everyone is a winner.
A test of grit
Also feeling victorious that day was Fatsen Amano, a 32-year-old government employee. She had to be, she almost thought she would not finish.
She was not a fast runner by any means, and she only got into physical activities sometime in 2023. On the first day of June 2024, peer pressure led her to sign up for the 2025 edition of TBR.
When work didn’t get in the way, she tried to take the marathon training program seriously. On the eve of the marathon, she got proper sleep, and on race day, she wasn’t as anxious as she thought she would be.
Her plan was to finish in under six hours. But like many first-time marathoners that day who were confronted by the beast that was 42 kilometers, extreme fatigue got the best of her by the 30-kilometer mark.
Time was running out, and Fatsen recalled that at one point, she only had less than 18 minutes to complete the remaining distance of around two kilometers. She couldn’t run anymore, and she was trying to brisk-walk with all her strength.
“I told myself that I was closer to the finish line than the starting line,” she said. “I would be more emotional and be frustrated with myself if I didn’t get to finish it.”
She made it, just a few seconds after Caris.
“I’m not the fastest runner, I’m not the strongest runner, but I told myself, I can do it,” Fatsen said.
“People were rooting for me, and I knew my friends were waiting at the finish line. I knew they stayed. I wanted their wait to not go to waste.”
Race against the clock
The cutoff time for the world’s seven most high-profile marathons — Tokyo, Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago, New York, and Sydney — ranges from six to seven hours. Cutoff times are there for logistics and especially safety purposes, as slower runners may face a higher risk of injury and dehydration.
Some of the more popular local road races in the Philippines such as the marathon legs of the Trilogy Run Asia and the Asics Rock n Roll Manila have a cutoff time of around seven to seven hours and 30 minutes. TBR has one of the more generous cutoff times, at eight hours.
Despite this, some runners on Sunday fell just a bit short.
Pauline Manuel and her two sisters signed up last year for their first marathon to keep themselves healthy in the post-COVID world.
During the trainings, Pauline found fulfillment in the progress she had made through running. “Before, I could barely do three kilometers,” she said.
But anxiety burdened Pauline in the run-up to the race, and she was unable to get the needed sleep nights before the marathon. Last Sunday, it cost her.
“I would hear runners saying they were on their last five kilometers, while I had to do one more loop (covering 10 kilometers),” Pauline said. Before long, reality hit her — she would not be able to beat the eight-hour cutoff.
“By the 40th kilometer, one volunteer was telling me I could just take the shortcut to the finish line. But one pacer passed me, and they said, ‘Let her finish the 42.’ I was really happy that they pushed me,” she recalled.
Pauline said she completed the distance around 20 minutes after the eight-hour mark, injury-free. She’s not shutting the door to the possibility of coming back stronger and finishing the marathon within the cutoff next time.
“The pacer reminded me I may not have a medal but no one can take away the fact that I ran 42 kilometers.”
A growing phenomenon
It’s difficult to deny the running boom that has captivated the country after the pandemic. Anecdotal evidence supports it — popular running spots in the University of the Philippines have become more crowded on weekends than usual, more than a dozen newly-created run clubs have sprouted across the metropolis in the past year, and at least two of your friends have already sported their new running shoes.
But hard data also back that observation. In TBR alone, the number of first-time and second-time marathon finishers has soared from 251 during its inaugural year in 2010, to 1,674 finishers for the 2025 edition.
The boom is not without its setbacks. Long-time enthusiasts of the sport have complained about steeper registration fees for fun runs in light of increasing demand, and race organizers have faced bigger challenges in reducing hiccups driven by the growing number of participants. (Even in the latest TBR, one brouhaha erupted when suboptimal crowd control at the finish line resulted in unflattering finish line photos for many of the runners.)
Still, running’s renewed popularity in the Philippines is a net-positive in the world, transforming ordinary Filipinos from various backgrounds, including those with sedentary lifestyles.
And for many runners, finishing a marathon has become the pinnacle of their shift to a healthier life.
The whys of running
For the latest TBR, one-fourth finished after the seven-hour mark, and more than half made it to the end of the course after only the six-hour mark.
This does not automatically mean that marathoning is for everyone, but it drives home the point that the sport, contrary to initial assumptions, has space even for the slowest runners who aim to achieve a seemingly ambitious physical milestone in their lives.
Finishers believe the entire experience teaches them discipline, resilience, and patience, and guides them to the path of self-discovery.
One common signage during marathon spectating — as cliché as it may seem — reminds runners that the person who starts the race is not the same as the one who finishes it.
“When you’re a mom and a wife, a part of you gets lost in taking care of your family and your child. So it’s something I do for myself, for my own self-care, to find again the version of myself that was lost before and to become determined in the things I still want to achieve or do in my life,” Caris said.
For Fatsen, her first marathon opens more doors of possibilities in her fitness journey.
“Once I crossed the finish line, I was ecstatic, despite all the physical pain I went through just moments earlier,” Fatsen said. “I told myself I will do it again.”
TBR’s mantra reads: “You’ll never forget your first.” For those who have fallen deeply in love with running, Sunday’s marathon won’t be their last. – Rappler.com
* All quotes in Filipino were translated into English, and some were shortened for brevity.
* The writer was among the 1,600 first-time marathoners on February 16.