My running

MY RUNNING

Running is great. It is fun and helps to build character, too.

(see TED talk by Andrew Johnston: What is the Best Business Education – Run a Marathon.)

Other sports are great, too. But running is still my favourite, because it is really effective in getting you in shape, it is really self-confidence building and it really gets your mood and energy up, every time.

Winning a 3,000m race in the Army in 1987

23 years later in 2010 at NUS biathlon – I need to get fit again!

13 September 2026 – My triathlon that wasn’t

After training for my 70.3 triathlon for the past three months, making all the complex race preparations and traveling to my parents’ home in Germany for the race, I decided in the end not to participate. I felt not ready.

I fell ill with food poisoning two weeks before the race and based on the workouts I tried after recovering, I felt that I did not have the fitness to complete the race. Running felt very difficult, and on the days leading up to the race, I simply could not imagine that I could actually complete the distances.

I believe I did make the right decision, but it was not easy. This is in part because when I try to make a decision such as this, I often consider how other people may judge me, and I am probably not alone in doing so.

Rationally, I do know that others usually care much less than I think. And if they do, they care much less about my achievements and much more about my well-being and happiness. But even knowing this, there is still a voice inside me telling me I did not live up to the role model that I want to be. Ultimately, however, it is important to remember that while achievements do attract attention from others, it is our actual day-to-day behaviour and care that really makes the difference in how we are perceived by others.

Despite not participating in the event, I did learn some useful lessons.

Firstly, I realised that I did not prepare well in practical terms. I forgot to bring my swimming goggles and realised during a subsequent bike ride that one of my bike petal cleats was loose and probably would have come off during the race.

I also learned that preparing for big events is risky. After spending a lot of time and effort preparing to achieve an athletic goal, there is always the chance that something unexpected happens close to the race. In fact, I have spent the last weeks in constant anxiety about falling ill and taking precautions to prevent it from happening. As such, it is worth considering whether such big goals are really worth my time and effort.

Even more importantly, the training for this event kind of took the joy out of doing exercise. Looking back, the workouts I actually enjoyed were those where I took breaks while cycling around Singapore or stopping at East Coast park to go for a swim, or went for an easy run in a beautiful park.

It is true that goals are important for me to stay motivated. It is also true that achieving milestones that I can look back on and that I am proud of makes me happy and adds meaning to my life.

On the other hand, it is also crucial to find the right balance between pursuing goals and not forgetting the joy that exercising brings. This balance is different for everyone. There is no right or wrong. Everyone needs to find their own balance for themselves. My failed triathlon experience has certainly helped me find mine.

20 April 2026 – 130th Boston Marathon

My preparations for the race went rather well. I did not fall sick and paradoxically, being very busy this semester helped me to stick to my training plan. Due to all my commitments, there was usually only one slot into which I could fit my running training. This turned out to be very effective in preventing me from procrastinating.

Nonetheless, I felt very anxious whether I would be able to finish the race, in part because the race conditions in the Boston Marathon are very different from my training conditions. Thus, I felt very uncertain of whether my long runs in Singapore, which for the most part left me completely exhausted, prepared me well enough to finish the race.

And so my prevailing feeling during the last couple of days leading up to the race was worry. What made things worse was that on the day before the race the weather was cold, rainy and windy, and I was asking myself how am I going to endure running under those conditions.

But then race day came and the weather suddenly turned sunny (although still quite cold). There was very little time to worry about the race itself because the bus loading in downtown Boston was chaotic, with huge crowds trying to get onto the buses and runners being worried whether they would make it to the start on time. Eventually, I got on a bus to take me to the starting point in Hopkinton (42 km from downtown Boston), and I literally arrived at the start line two minutes before the flag-off of my wave. And then the race to run the 42.2 km back to Boston began.

Already after 1 hour of running my legs became very heavy. I am not sure if this was because I did not feel my best or because my legs were already tired from the, at this point mostly downhill, slopes. The race continued with slopes all the way, more downhill than uphill, but certainly some challenging uphill ones.

So already at 1 hour, I started to wonder how I would be able to finish the race, knowing that when I feel that my legs are heavy during training, I tend to not last until my target distance.

But, there were things that made it easier to keep going. Firstly, there was the crowd of participants. For the entire race I was surrounded by runners everywhere. And as far as I could look ahead, I saw an endless stream of runners.

And then there were the spectators. In every town along the course there were hundreds of unbelievably enthusiastic people lining the road, with kids offering fruits, people displaying creative banners and blasting energetic music, and bands performing music. All this was spontaneous and voluntary, and it left me truly amazed and impressed.

And so somehow I just went on and kept running mile after mile. At three hours, my quads became very sore from all the slopes and there was no way to speed up anymore. I just tried to keep running.

When shortly after three hours of running I saw the Prudential Tower near the finish line in the distance and the end was in sight, my motivation picked up. And during the last few miles, the crowds lining the street in downtown Boston were absolutely amazing.

Eventually, I made it to the final two turns before running into the homestretch on Boylston Street, which I watched so many times in online videos. The final 800 metres on Boylston seemed really long, but eventually I achieved my main goal, which was to finish the race running the whole distance (I only stopped once when I dropped my towel), and to not crash at the end of the race. In the end, I ran exactly 10 minutes slower than my qualifying time and finished in 3:50:27. But much more importantly, I did not slow down that much towards the end and my second half was only eight minutes slower than the first.

Looking back, I feel amazed that I managed to do it and very happy to have been part of something that I will always remember.