The fastest walking man in Baliwag is a barrio official who is also a farmer and former sorbetero.  He could have been the national walkathon champion in 1960 had it not been for some very unfortunate incident.

He is Crisostomo Fajardo, barangay captain of Tarcan who turned 55 on January 27, 1985.  This steel legged man developed his rhythmic speed and stamina during the three years that he was hauling palay for a living in the 1950s.

Everyday, from Mulawin to Tarcan, he used to trudge the narrow, crisscrossing paddy dikes carrying two sacks of palay with the use of pingga (bamboo pole) slung across his shoulder.

To augment his earning, Fajardo, now a father of nine children and grandfather of five, peddled ice cream in town. 

Fajardo joined the first Central Luzon walkathon contest organized and sponsored by Baliwag Jaycees and Pesi Cola Bottling Co. on October 11, 1959.  It was a "special 40-kilometer hike" which started from Baliwag, passing through Plaridel, Malolos, Guiguinto and then back to Baliwag.  Fajardo handily won in this game over a field of 234 rivals, having made it in only four hours, five minutes and ten seconds.  He received P 500 cash prize.

Fajardo's exciting victory automatically qualified him for the national championship slated for December 11 that year.  At the same time it titlated the people of Baliwag with the bright prospect of bagging the coveted title.  They felt they had sure winner in Fajardo because none of his two closests rivals, both from Intramuros could duplicate his record.

Aside from being a barangay captain, Fajardo devotes much of his time now to tending his poultry and his fishpond.  Such preoccupation, he admits that he enabled him to keep doing a lot of legwork and thus keep him in good shape.

Source:   Baliwag Then and Now by:  Rolando Villacorte

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