Early this year, I gave in to the hype and migrated all my running data from Runkeeper to Strava. And just like that, I now live for the handful of kudos my small circle of followers doles out after each run.
Admittedly, I like Strava more. Its features are cleaner, the interface feels more intuitive, and most of all, I enjoy following my friends’ runs and dealing out kudos of my own. It’s a small gesture, but one that feels surprisingly meaningful and encouraging. There’s something special about seeing friends turn to running to improve their fitness, just as I did three years ago.
I find it even more special when I get to run with friends, whether here, back home, or some place else. When my friend Karl visited over the Easter weekend, we went for a 10km morning run along East Coast Park. He clocked a PB that morning, but I’m pretty sure he also swore off running with me again. My friend Gino doesn’t even pretend, he flat-out refuses to run with me. Walking together, though? That’s totally fine.
As I follow my friends’ progress on Strava, I can’t help but feel happy and proud. There’s no better time to take care of our health than now. More than just physical longevity, I truly believe that movement strengthens our minds too. It expands our capacity to handle the stresses of daily life with greater clarity and resilience.
Looking back, I’ve come a long way in my running journey. There was a time when completing a full marathon felt insurmountable. But as of last Monday, I’ve officially kicked off my training block for my second one this October.
There are a few tweaks I’d like to make to my previous training plan. Leading up to my first marathon, I only ran three days a week, with virtually no cross-training. This time, I’m aiming to increase my volume to four runs a week and add two Pilates sessions as strength training. I’ll reserve my full thoughts on Pilates for another time but first impression? I’m in love.
In the past, I wasn’t too particular about my running shoes. I ran my first marathon in a pair of Nike Vomero 17s. They did the job, carried me through and I was grateful for them truly. But after trying the Nike Zoom Fly 6, I became convinced that a faster shoe really does make a difference. At my last half marathon race, I ran a personal best of 2:01:51—just a couple of minutes shy of breaking the sub-2 barrier. My current 5km PB is 00:25:46, clocked on an ordinary Tuesday at a weekly run club I started with my colleagues. Sure, these paces might still be achievable in my old Vomeros but they’d come at a significantly greater effort.
Fortunately for me, my friend Peter—who recently got hooked on running—has several shoes on rotation. “Several” being an understatement as last I checked, he had 18 pairs.
Peter doesn’t gatekeep. He’s always generous with his advice on which shoes perform best based on his own thorough testing. He’s become my go-to person for all things running shoe related. Honestly, I’m grateful for the work he does. He ran so we could run faster, I guess. On his advice, I’m planning to snag a pair of ASICS Metaspeed Sky Paris while I’m in Hong Kong next week, where shoes are supposedly cheaper.
I haven’t really set a particular goal for this upcoming marathon other than to hopefully do better than my previous one. As always, I don’t want to put pressure on myself but I’ll always aim to do better. I’m posting this for accountability. Wish me luck.
And friends—come run with me!
