The body is capable of amazing things, among which is: running 600km in 14 days, all without proper marathon training. This is the story of philanthropist Marko Kasic, who founded the non-profit FundLife. Since 2014, FundLife has been working to support marginalized children across the country, developing grassroots initiatives that support education, gender equality, COVID-19 efforts, and even sports access.

Since the triumph of two-time Olympic gold medalist, Carlos Yulo, much of the spotlight has been shed on local youth who aim to succeed in a similar way. Unfortunately, as Marko Kasic has acknowledged, not everyone is given access to such opportunities.

His latest initiative — which found him running from Pagudpud to Manila in 14 days — had aimed to call for investments in order to grant children access to sports, specifically running clinics and DepEd teacher training.

“If they excel at running or in any sport, it could provide them with an athletic scholarship to finish high school and enter college. Running can be an attainable pathway from poverty to educational and economic prosperity,” Marko emphasized.

The advocate’s run, which began at the Patapat Viaduct was — quite literally — no walk in the park. The word “exhaustive” may even be too mild an adjective; the founder had had to rise at 3 AM to run at least 40km every day. “I felt like shit 99% of the time!” Marko laughed. “Waking up was the hardest. I would only get four to five hours of sleep; the first step after waking up was agony. Everything hurts, calves are sore, knees are spent, blisters are fresh, back is jacked, but so what? Still gotta run.”

On the seventh day of his 14-day journey, Marko began to experience the adaptive powers of the human body. Things began to get easier for him. Before this multi-day run, he’d never even completed a full marathon before; but the runner had been dedicated to a quotidian practice.

“As we speak, it is day 599 of running every single day,” he shared. “My body is used to running daily, albeit 10km on average. My mental state really helped me throughout this journey, the thought of ‘I’m running today, no matter what. If I’m sick, tired, busy, hungover, depressed, or whatever reason I might have, I’m still running.’”

Of course, there were a handful of magical moments throughout those 600km too. Seeing the majesty of the Ilocos Windmills and the man-made brilliance of the Sagada rice terraces were among some of Marko’s favorite moments. Running with strangers was another.

“Along the way, there were always curious and friendly onlookers, sometimes children would run alongside or people would be shocked to see someone running at 8 AM in the heat,” Marko recalled. “These small moments with strangers can give energy when you feel down.” He was also joined by run clubs from La Union, Baguio, and Rockwell; the latter cheering him on during his last 30km in Makati.

Ultimately, sees running as a fantastic metaphor for life. “[Like in life, in running] some days are good, some days are bad. There were days when the pain was less or my mind was in a good place and it felt better. But then there were a lot of times when I would question why I was doing this,” he admitted. “These moments of doubt are always. I think the trick is to know when you have the funks coming and try to snap out of it. It’s not easy, but that’s the challenge; to keep moving forward, even when all you want to do is quit.”

Marko has since recovered from his arduous journey. With a little help from the spa — and a good massage to boot — Marko’s body has bounced back quickly; the founder has since continued his 10km a day running streak. All this has taught him how capable the human body truly is. “We shouldn’t be so scared of trying to push our bodies further,” he added.

With his journey, he's focusing his efforts on putting more attention towards sports access for kids. He points out that children outside of NCR have a great advantage for sports: they have more accessible spaces to play sports and be outside. They also have fewer distractions, and thereby more time to invest in playing sports. “However, there is a lack of investment in these communities, not to mention a lack of expertise for coaching these children,” he acknowledged.

Ultimately, Marko’s dream is a nationwide one: to produce more great athletes like Carlos Yulo and Manny Pacquiao. “To produce an athlete like Carlos, who is able to reach the pinnacle of his sport and outshine his peers from the biggest and richest countries, is the perfect example of the kind of talent and commitment that exists in the Philippines,” he said. “But Carlos is literally 1 in 8 billion. My view is that it’s possible to make these successes much more frequent, but it takes a bold vision and courageous, unified leadership from everyone to make it a reality.”