From the Lazy Couch to Marathon Regular: My 2024 in a Nutshell
Prior to 2024, I already had two marathons and several half marathons under my belt but especially the former figure increased significantly thanks to multiple different reasons. Some of them are more serious than the others — I love to make stupid dad jokes FYI.
- First and foremost, I am incredibly stubborn (thanks dad).
- I found a local running group and many friends along the way.
- There are plenty of races nearby in South East Asia.
- You get a lot of medals, some trophies and … bananas!
- I found ways to hold myself accountable with virtual challenges.
- I want to be more healthy in the long run (pun intended).
These past twelve months have been quite eye-opening to me and my life was kind of turned upside down with the birth of my son Nathan in April. I more or less relocated to the Philippines by the time I turned 40 years old and en entirely new mysterious chapter has commenced.
Until then, the only thing I really focused on was my job in the poker industry. In pursuit of happiness, I kept on traveling all over the world without really knowing what to look for … ready to give up until serendipity snatched me out of the blue. And I am very thankful it did, because the feeling of loneliness and being lost can be very daunting.
Having kids obviously changes a lot of things, not only the sleeping patterns. You cannot afford to be lost anymore and actually assume responsibility for more than just yourself. I didn’t realise I wanted kids until that little bundle of joy screamed for the first time on the other side of the door.
And his place of birth had another impact especially on my running, since I was contacted out of the blue by a local runner who was trying to establish a local running group in Aklan, the northwestern part of the Panay island. He had seen my recorded runs on Strava and throughout the next few months, Run Aklan was growing rapidly with many weekly runs since.
Unfortunately, our home base on Boracay is a 90-minute drive and boat ride away so I have actually missed almost all of these weekly runs but the group chat keeps on flowing. Some of the members are also based on the island and we meet once in a while during nearby races on Panay and beyond.
My running flow was already set in motion by then but became a lot more frequent with the addition of Pinoy Fitness, which offers a lot of virtual challenges to earn running shorts and virtual credit. But now, without further ado, let’s dive into some of the running stats for the past 12 months.
Coming into the year 2024, I wanted to run as many kilometres but fell short by a lot, having underestimated how much time I would dedicate to this along with my frequent work-related travels. Strava’s “year in sport” is as follows:
Especially the number of active days and the diversity of sports lacks a lot, while the runs came just shy of 1.500 km. Garmin’s Connect platform paints a more active picture in terms of steps, which clock in at more than 5.3 million and average of more than 14,600 per day. However, these figures are somewhat flawed by the sheer number of races I have completed this year.
To be honest, I have no idea whether these figures are bang on average or not for someone remotely active throughout the year, but I certainly wanted more than 10,000 steps on average given my increased volume. For 2025, I do not have any specific figure in mind so perhaps that will help with putting things in perspective from a neutral point of view.
What has certainly increased in the past year were the number of races with 21 official races and one virtual edition of another completed. The focus shifted from half to full marathon and two Ultras were included as well, though, one barely counts as that since we ended up with a mere forty-four and a half (instead of the advertised fifty) on Boracay.
However, the 100km race in Bacolod was definitely way out of my depth back then with too little training and coming fresh off a longer work trip, too. The heavy rain for the first six hours left me soaked and with several blisters that ultimately led to me first DNF (did not finish). In hindsight, it was incredibly silly to even try but good to figure out the limits early on.
The year 2024 was also highlighted by my first World Marathon Major in Chicago. Having had no luck in the lotteries prior, I got lucky on my first try for Windy City (and for 2025, too) but the four and a half hour finish felt like a sucker punch when my potential should have been much closer to four hours.
That specific barrier is the unicorn I am currently chasing and with some luck, it will fall in either Sydney (August 31) or Chicago (October 12). Below are my race results for accountability:
Can I get faster with more dedicated training and some coaching? Certainly, yes. But I am also fully aware that I will never be a fast runner over the marathon distance and rather want to enjoy the journey to maintain the passion. Somehow, I do have the impression that being glued to certain finishing time goals might actually backfire and do more harm than good.
What I intend to do represents more achievable goals — be more consistent with the training, include more core / strength workout routines / gym sessions and improve my nutrition. This should hopefully lead to a better overall balance and increase the stamina for better efficiency over the marathon distance and beyond.
One other idea that I am currently contemplating is to become more active in helping new runners here in Aklan, though, I don’t know whether or not I am actually qualified for this. Perhaps just doing what I am doing, sharing my experience and improving my own results might be inspiring enough for others.
In 2024, I was able to bolster some of my personal records as follows:
1 mile: From 7:12 to 6:35 min (4:05/km split)
5km: From ~ 25:00 to 21:44 min (4:21/km split)
10km: Unchanged at 50:04 (second best effort 51:10 min)
Half Marathon: From 1:55:09 to 1:51:27 (four results better than previous record)
Full Marathon: From 5:06:41 to 4:07:30 (5:49/km split)
What has helped me a lot were the reminders through the challenges on Strava and Pinoy Fitness, because I hate signing up for things and not completing them. The Hoka Trilogy Run Asia series was also very helpful with it’s increasing distances throughout the four legs and I will try to qualify for the Milo National Finals in Iloilo this year.
The potential to improve even further should be there, on paper, even after (re)starting the running path again two and a half years ago and having turned 40 years old in 2024. And if not … c’est la vie. Plenty of races are on the horizon already and the planning in advance is becoming a whole lot more serious.
If only work would not always try to get in the way … but you gotta earn the money to afford this luxury habit, because running on your own may be cheap-ish but races are not. And those really fancy shoes with more cushion … damn it.