Cecille Bordato, 63, is the winner of the Flair/Jamdammers Reggae Marathon Contest.
WHEN WE threw out the challenge to readers to win their entry fee for the Reggae Marathon and Half Marathon, Cecilla Bordato responded immediately. She wrote, in part: "...now that my children are away and my husband died last year, I'm ready to have a second lease on life."
Last week Freelance Writer Keisha Shakespeare met Bordato who will be running the half marathon -- 13.1 miles.
A Jamaican by birth, Cecille Bordato grew up on North Street in Kingston. She attended the Alpha Convent of Mercy high school in Kingston before migrating to London, Ontario, Canada where she worked as registered nurse.
She returned to Jamaica with her husband and two sons in 1989.
RUNNING AND AEROBICS
"While I lived in Canada I did a little bit of running and aerobics, but stopped for a while. However, when I returned to Jamaica I started running again but then my husband got really ill and I had to stop to care for him," said Bordato.
When her husband died a year and half ago she decided to start running again -- just for the joy of it -- and would set out at 5:00 in the mornings to run in the bushes around her Shrewsbury, Portland, home.
Then one August morning while shopping in the Port Antonio, the Portland capital, she picked up a Monday copy of The Gleaner with the Flair magazine announcing the Reggae Marathon Contest. It got her attention.
"After I read the article I decided that I would love to enter the marathon so I wrote a letter but I never thought in a million years that I would get the chance to enter a marathon.
"Now that I am going to participate in the race I have started to follow the marathon training programme that was been outlined in the Flair magazine on August 16, 2004. My whole aim in entering this race is to get caught up in the whole excitement and just have lots of fun with everyone else who is going to be there."
LP RECORD COLLECTION
When she's not running, Bordato says she enjoys listening to her more than 2,000 LP record collection that date as far back as the 1930s. She is also writing a book about her experience since moving back to Jamaica with her family.
The Reggae Marathon and Half Marathon kicks off Saturday, December 4, at Long Bay Beach, at 5:00. The course loops into the town of Negril then heads north towards the town of Green Island.
The final two races in the Jamdammers Road to Reggae Marathon Grand Prix series are:
Hugo Chambers 10k, Sunday, November 7 at 4:00 p.m., Jamaica College on Hope Road, St. Andrew
Burger King 10k, Sunday, November 14 at 3:00 p.m., Burger King, Portmore, St. Catherine.
Participants must pre-register.
Call: 922-8677; fax, 922-0155;
racedirector@reggaemarathon.com.
