“First time is always the best time” – Singapore’s top triathlete Mok Ying Ren shines at marathon debut

Story by Yvonne Yap/Red Sports. Pictures by Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports

The Padang, Sunday, December 6, 2009 – Mok Ying Ren, Singapore’s top triathlete, made his marathon debut in style, running away with the accolade of Singapore’s fastest male marathoner with a timing of 2 hours, 43 minutes and 42 seconds in the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon 2009.

The top 2 marathoners for 2008, Murugiah Rameshon and Daniel Ling, did not participate in this year’s race. Instead, the second and third spots on the podium went to Ashley Liew with a time of 2:51:22 and Benny Goh, who completed his run in 2:56:44.

“For the first 10k I was with the Gurkhas and some foreign runners. The pace was a bit slow so I went off by myself,” as Mok recounted his race. He then met a Hong Kong runner around the 15km mark and they ran together.

“We were like, enjoying ourselves and talking. It was very good and he was helping me.”

Mok reached the halfway mark (21km) in 1 hour and 19 minutes.

“I think we went a bit too fast, so at the 30k mark, wah, felt tired! The last 10k was torturous,” said Mok about the final stretch of his run.

Even though Mok ran with a local runner at the start of the marathon, he broke off after 5km and did most of the overtaking, except for the last few kilometres where he had to dig deep to keep going on.

He attributed his first marathon success to his parents, masseurs at Sports Council, friends and running buddies. When asked how he thought the competition would have been different if Rameshon and Daniel Ling had taken part in the marathon, Mok admitted that it would have been difficult to hazard a guess.

“The marathon is a long distance event and it’s unpredictable. Yesterday I was dying at the last 7 km, so maybe they would have caught me. You cannot say for sure.”

Runner-up Ashley Liew, a triathlete as well, came in eight minutes after Mok, setting a new personal best (PB) of 2:51:22, smashing his previous PB of 3:34:14 set during last year’s Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon.

The third-year student from Singapore Management University (SMU), having put in a great deal of training and preparation, thought his run went smoothly. He had aimed to clock a sub-3 hour timing prior to the run.

“There’s a wall that you tend to hit at 32k, but yesterday the wall wasn’t so great. Usually it feels really hard, but yesterday it was a lot easier to go through the last 10km,” he shared a day after the run.

“I was alone for most of it (the marathon), it was a pretty lonely race. It started off with a couple of people that I know, but we spread out after the first 4k.”

Ashley is under the tutelage of Rameshon, who trains the SMU and Hwa Chong teams. He acknowledged Rameshon’s coaching as an important factor in helping him break his PB.

“He imparts crucial knowledge like racing tactics and more so, imparting some kind of mental toughness. I think for any long distance, it is critical to have that mental alert and toughness.”

Benny Goh came in third with a time of 2:56:44. The 2008 Sundown Ultramarathon winner started off the race with his running buddies, including Dr Benedict Tan. However, they broke away due to the difference in their pacing.

“The highlight was that I managed to overtake our number two last year Anne Q (Qi Hui). She was always in front of me, but this year I managed to overtake her!” Benny beamed as he recalled his achievement. Qi Hui clinched the top spot for the local women’s event, coming in almost 20 minutes after Benny at 3:15:25.

Dr Tan, who came in third in 2008 with personal best of 2:56:20, did not do as well this year and clocked a time of 3:04:28. However, he managed to clinch the runner-up position in the men’s veteran category.

“Our race plan was to stick together but the plan fell apart because all of us ran at a different pace. First 10k, we were already at a different pace. During training our fitness level was okay, our timings were the same so we thought we could share the same race plan. But in the end during the race it didn’t turn out the same way,” analysed Dr Tan.

“It’s like this, some years you get it right, and when you get it wrong you learn from it and improve on the training program the next year. I have to go back to the drawing board.”

Benny will be participating in the Boston Marathon next, while Dr Tan will be going to the London Marathon. Both races will take place in April next year and both athletes will be training together for their marathons.