Maundy Thursday and Good Friday are two of only five holidays when there is no work in the newsroom. It is a much-needed work break that I look forward to.
In my first Holy Week as a runner, I decided to run to nearby Cordova town and visit churches located there and other parts of Mactan Island.
ON THE CORDOVA BRIDGE. With Marlen at dusk on the bridge marking the boundary of Cordova town.I wanted a runner’s equivalent of a visita iglesia—that Roman Catholic practice of visiting several churches on Maundy Thursday. The better route would have been toward Cebu City, where there are more churches (the visita iglesia apparently comes from an ancient practice of visiting 7 pilgrim churches), but I wanted to visit Cordova again after several years. I had fond memories of tasty batchoy being served by a roadside stall in front of the town hall.
I ran with Marlen, who had been sidelined by injury for weeks. She was slightly worried about running 21 kilometers, which was our target, so soon after running 7 kilometers in the Wednesday night run with the ungo runners and 18 kilometers last Monday when we ran home together.