It is July  1995. One man is ready to swim. No, not from one swimming pool-end to the other, but from one island to another: from Guimaras to Bacolod City. The distance? Thirty-two kms. The hazards? The black sea is murky, rough and angry, swarming with jellyfish and sharks.

Rudy Fernandez leaps into the water. He throws one arm into the water, then another, he gasps for air, then pedals forward. One hour has passed. Two hours. Three, four... an alarm sounds. The pump boat accompanying Rudy blares a loud siren. There is panic. Nothing appears wrong with Rudy, but it's something in the waters: it's moving, lurking about, encircling the swimmer. The patrolmen look. No, it's not a jellyfish nor a shark - but possibly something even scarier: a sea serpent called "walo-walo." It circles Rudy, teases him, draw near, then far, ready to pounce on the fatigued swimmer.

Rudy stops, treads on water, while the men on board aim their rifles. the serpent disappears. Thank God, Rudy thinks, that problem is gone. A bigger one lies ahead: He has 16 kms. more to go.

Finally, eight hours and 43 minutes after he jumped off Guimaras Island, Rudy's arm touches the shores of Bacolod City. Dozens greet him at the City of Smiles.

Rudy smiles.
Everybody smiles.
Unbelievable? Not yet. Wait til you read this: RUDY FERNANDEZ swam with only one leg. He owns two arms, 10 fingers, countless strands of hair - but only one leg.

It is April 2004. It's the day after Holy Week and I'm seated inside an eatery in Iloilo City named Tony's eating bihon. Rudy Fernandez sits right across me. He is dark-skinned, sports a mustache and a pair of deep-set light brown eyes, and is 56 years old. On his wrist is a TIMEX Ironman watch. He wears a World Cup France '98 cap and a pair of black Adidas rubber shoes: one for the left leg, all flesh-and-blood, and another for his right leg - the mechanical hydraulic leg. "I'm half-human, half-machine," he jokes.

From an envelope, Rudy pulls out a gold medal. "I was the lone one-legged competitor at the Subic Intl. Triathlon, " he says, smiling. "I beat several two-legged competitors my age." I borrow the gold medal and see it glittering. Like Rudy, the medal looks proud.

For many years now - ever since I first read of him from Al Mendoza's columns at The Inquirer, - I longed to meet RP's No.1 one-legged triathlete.
One-legged. Was Rudy always minus one?
No. There was a time when Rudy was RP's No.1 two-legged athlete.

In September 1972, at the Peska Sukan Track and Field Championships in Singapore - today's SEA Games - Rudy was 24 years old, at the peak of his career. He was a prized champion. Twice he medaled: a silver and a bronze. In the years that followed, Rudy is peerless at the oval.

Until tragedy struck. The year was 1978 when Rudy entered Alegro Theater in downtown Iloilo City. In the middle of the movie, a grenade was tossed. BOOM! Dozens die and the theater is turned into red. And just like that, Rudy's dreams - and his leg-are blown to pieces. "I wanted to end it all," he tells me. "My legs were everything."

"My only way out of poverty." he says, "was sports."

After that nightmarish blast, first in wheelchair, then in crutches, it took years for Rudy to lift himself out of doldrums. Until he read about Terry FOx. "He was an amputee athlete who ran across Canada, raised $24 million for charity and inspired millions," he says. "I knew I could do it, so I made it my mission."

Soon after, sweat started trickling, Rudy runs, from the town of Sara to Iloilo City, 105 kms. Two months after, from southern to northern Iloilo, 150 kms. The next month, from Victorias, Negros Occidental to Bacolod City, 38 kms.

A total of 14 excruciating feats Rudy has finished to date. All for personal glory? To land in the January 1996 Reader's Digest article as one of their "Heroes for Today," as he did? To grace the Poster of Hong Kong's Standard Chartered race, which he's joined since '99?

"No. My goal is to inspire," he says. "Especially the less fortunate." For every single feat Rudy tackles, a beneficiary is aided; like the Red Cross ("to repay them for the blood transfusion I got during the blast") and the Iloilo-based families of the slain soldiers in Mindanao (who got over P200,00). "the greatest achievement," he says, "are those that benefit others."

By the year 2000. Rudy is a hero - in Iloilo, in athletic circles, among his fellow handicapped. Then disaster bites back. Again. While training on a bike, an L300 rams Rudy head-on. He flies through the van's windshield and undergoes a major operation.

But one month after, still bruised and aching, what does the man do? He fastens his head gear, spins those pedals, and takes the road. "The mind commands the body," he says. To top it all, eight months later-all of 246 kms. in 13 hours-he bikes the whole Panay island.

Today, Rudy Fernandez is a national celebrity. Since joining the Pinoy Big Brother Celebrity Edition on ABS-CBN, millions have seen him on TV. He is now a major crowd drawer - not only in Iloilo City and around athletic circle - but everywhere he goes.

But one thing hasn't changed in Rudy. His heart which he continues to share with the less fortunate. He offers his time to charity. He runs and swims and pedals the bike to take risk and to show the world that "The Filipino can!"

For with Rudy, two legs or one leg, that's unimportant.

All he needs is one brave heart.