“Run with me” was Kenneth Casquejo’s wish for his wife in one of the marriage encounter seminars the couple attended.

And with that, Dr. Eleanor “Tata” Casquejo laced up and started running. When before she couldn’t understand why her husband woke up at such ungodly hours to hit the road, now she was plotting her own training program.

“I told myself that there must be something in this sport that he’s so passionate about,” Eleanor told a group of runners last Friday night. Kenneth started running in college and, after years away from the sport, took it up with such passion that he wears a shirt saying he eats asphalt for breakfast.

DR. ELEANOR CASQUEJO talks on the reasons she run in last week’s Friday Night Run with the ungo runners of CebuRunning.com. CLICK ON PHOTO TO ENLARGE. (SUN.STAR CEBU PHOTO BY ALEX BADAYOS used with permission)

“As doctors, we should set good examples for our patients on being healthy,” said Eleanor, an obstetrician and gynecologist.

She first ran in the fun run organized by the Lions Club Lakandula last year.

“I’m a slow runner,” she said. She said it was discouraging to hear race marshals say, “Here comes the last runner” whenever she passes by and then see them pack up the road signs and other race materials.

She was the last runner to finish the Lions Club charity run that when she crossed the finish line, workers had disassembled and packed up the finish line arch.

Nevertheless, she keeps on running.

Eleanor said running helped her deal with the increase in her cholesterol levels, which went up partly because of her sedentary lifestyle. She said she’d do nothing but eat when going on labor watch.

But through running, Eleanor said she lost 20 pounds, weight she wasn’t able to lose even while on diet or taking diet pills. “I have never lost weight this much,” she told the runners.

And just a year after starting to run, Eleanor will join the Chicago marathon in October with Kenneth.