At 38, Jo Hormiguera, is not your typical athlete.
Of below medium built, short bob hair, deeply sun-tanned, toned body, she could walk well among your average Boholanas in the mall, and no one notices.
That, is a way too off, from the thin book lovers club she belonged to in high school and college.
"I was on the edge of depression when I decided to return to my parents’ house," she confessed during the weekly Kapihan sa PIA celebrating gender equality and women empowerment for March.
Hormiguera, along with another iconic woman paddler and dragon boat paddling trainer Naty Celada Buenafe Oson, or Nanay Naty to the paddlers, came to the Kapihan sa PIA to share their insights on life and struggles of a woman and how to get over it.
Nursing on her pain from a failed marriage and at the same time trying to fit into her normal day working in the procurement division of a government agency under the Department of Transportation, Hormiguera, said she was glad her family took her in.
She shared focusing on her work played well from the start but eventually her personal demons caught up.
"At first, it was hard, strenuous, but then if you are into it, work hard, pray and do everything, you will definitely improve," she advised.
Bohol women paddlers, like Jo and Nanay Naty however bask in a paddling environment where every stroke and twist of the paddle, every body rotation and every extended reach out for deeper digs, is a team effort amplified in the glide of the short or long boat.
Dragon boating, a sport dominated by men, has opened up slots for women paddlers in Bohol, and that has leveled off the playing field for men and women in land and water training as both have to do repetitive exercises and coach each other on the proper way to a synchronized paddling for efficient results.
“I was 44 and I was running marathons still,” said Nanay Naty, who sat across Hormiguera during the talk show.
But that was also when she found out that she has problems with her feet, and her doctor told her to stop.
“Og dili kaya sa sports sa land, naa may para sa water,” Nanay Naty quipped engaging women and men who have time to spare and a body to take care, adding that there is even a team of persons with disability conquering the world of the complete and abled.
BPAI has brought dragon boating to Cebu and organized the PADS Assistive Disability Services Racing Team, a team of persons with disability (PWD) paddlers kicking in world victories in competitions abroad.
An athlete who races for marathons together with her retired army husband, both nanay Naty and her husband has shared in her kids the love for sports.
A son, she said runs marathons, and she, now advised not to run anymore, accompanies him in training.
That was where she met biker and runner coach Jojo Murillo Orcullowho suggested she join a paddle boat team.
“If my problem was my feet, then I could use my upper body still, to paddle,” she shared.
Unlike Jo, who has to start her core strength training from scratch, Nanay Naty found the training exercises not as hard, even as she was then tasked to be a pacer, a dragon boat’s most demanding role.
Joining the men’s team in mixed races, both Jo and Nanay Naty find it easy to mingle as their training tightens the bond between and among paddlers that in several instances, nobody looks when a lady paddler adjusts her underwear fit or her bra strap in between heats.
There is that looming shadow of Dr. Doyet Dumaluan, always encouraging, engaging us to beat ourselves to produce a better paddler the next day of training, both admit.
Dumaluan, himself an expert and endurance paddler and founder president of BPAI has patiently steered the group, paddling both bow and portside, to the finish line with dedication, determination and focus.
To help, they train on personal discipline, enough to pack everything in a drybag before going to bed, because once the alarm sounds in the early morning, much time would be wasted in gathering things needed for the next two-hour flexibility and endurance training.
“There is something in repetitive movements that keeps the body in focus all the time,” Jo, who has found that she can easily transition from starboard to portside paddler, bared.
With the repetitive movements, women with lumps in their breast find that these get dissolved, Nanay Naty said, citing the experience of Cebu’s Pink Paddlers, an all women cancer survivors competitive dragon boat team.
Asked how her training has helped her across her depression, Jo, who has changed her facebook name to Sunny Flower has not only helped the paddlers win races, she has also strengthened her will to do marathons, trail run competitions and advocacy fun runs.
Daku kayo og tabang para sa mental health, kining kauban nimo sa training nga permi nimo ikakita, mao ra pod ni ang imong ikahinagbo sa advocacy events, environmental activities ug sa panga-on, nga mura na sila og imong igsoon, Hormiguera commented.
Yes, kon nay problema, kami-kami na ang pag-estoryahay, she added, hinting that a paddler bagged by problems could easily lose focus and becomes a ‘heavy liability’ during competitions.
And when sharing delicate issues are still too hard, channeling your energies to repetitive paddling often keeps the mind away from the problem, that often leaves you feeling positive, and as always gaan permi ang paminaw sa lawas, adds Nanay Naty.
Dragon boating, for Sunny Flower, releases the happy hormones, makes you gain more friends and lets you go places.
And for Jo Hormiguera, releasing the happy hormones to win her personal wars by sports and dragon boating, picking on a Sunny Flower is already a ‘paddles up’ moment from that bleak fit of depression then.
Hormiguera and Nany Naty Oson are now training for the March 18 Saulog Dragon Boat races and the 2023 Bohol Island Dragon Boat Festival, to again prove they can equal men in a level course.
And a dragon boat course as always, is flat.
Already sitting as giants in women paddling in Bohol, both Sunny Flower and Nanay Naty have rowed on their lanes more impressively than many, but still continues to train, as getting the 56 kicks in 58 seconds to cross the 200 meter course could be a man’s best.
And then a woman’s too. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)
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