I remember what day May 18, 2023 was. It was a Thursday. My day off.
You may be wondering what makes the day and the date so significant for me. Well, let me tell you.
It was the day the Cebu City Government shut down the Cebu City Sports Center (CCSC) without any warning.
I should know. I was tying my shoes getting ready to go to the oval when I read on our group chat that the facility was closed.
Just the day before we had our regular run inside the facility. There were no signs that it would be our last.
To think we just had our usual routine down pat after the break because of the lockdown caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. We were once again exiled from our home away from home.
You may be wondering why I feel so strongly against the closure.
For starters, I owe my second lease on life to the oval.
Friends who haven’t seen me for more than a decade are usually shocked when they do.
I know what’s running through their minds. Some worry that I may be sick. Others think I had picked up the vice and had become an addict.
Well, I hate to break it to them gently, but I am neither.
Not that I blame them. They probably still see me as the heavily obese, chain-smoking lush that I was back in the day.
Believe it or not, I have lost more than 100 pounds and I have kicked the habit of smoking.
And I have the oval and the CCSC as a whole to thank for the transformation in my lifestyle.
Starting in 2011, I made it a point to go there every day, rain or shine. For the first two years, I only brisk-walked for an hour for a total of five kilometers daily. That’s 12 rounds on the oval on the outer lane.
I made a friend there who encouraged me to jog, promising me that I would lose weight much faster if I picked up my pace.
And before you know it, I did. My shirts got bigger and bigger as the days wore on, while my appetite shrank.
You see, I never went on a diet. I had been on so many diets before I knew I would end up regaining the lost weight. So I was pleasantly surprised when the hunger pangs became less gnawing.
And just like that, I stopped obsessing about food and started obsessing about jogging.
And for the first time in my life, I managed to keep the same weight – give and take a few pounds here and there -- for eight years in a row.
Don’t get me wrong. I would fall off the wagon during the Christmas and Sinulog holidays, but I would always shed off the excess weight right after, thanks to the oval.
During the lockdown, I roamed the city streets for hours on end. As a journalist, I was an authorized person outside of residence, and hence could walk wherever I wanted without fear of being accosted.
I was happy when the City opened the oval after 14 months, only to close it down again when it converted the facility into a Mega Stay-in Facility for Covid-19.
It wasn’t until February 2022 when the CCSC was again open to the public. By then, I thought the worse was over and we could move on and try to pick up from where we left off before the pandemic.
And so I was back in the oval every day. Whatever weight I gained during the lockdown I managed to lose in three months.
And then there was the May 2023 debacle.
The City shut down the CCSC on the pretext that it was going to renovate the facility in time for the Palarong Pambansa in July 2024 which the City had won the rights to host in February that year.
That should have been the writing on the wall.
I knew the City would upgrade the facilities and replace the rubber on the oval. I was there when they replaced it back in 2012. It didn’t take that long. In fact, the CCSC remained open while they were removing the old rubber.
I hoped the same would happen this time around. But it didn’t. The City shut down the CCSC and the oval remained untouched for more than six months.
I heard they finally started work on the oval. They have no choice but to finish its rehabilitation before the Central Visayas Regional Athletic Association next month.
I mean, how long does it take to refurbish 400 meters of track?
So my question is, when will it be open to the public again?