4 years ago, I hiked Annapurna Full Circuit trek, my first ever attempt of above 5000m elevation altitude, whilst I was totally defeated by the amount of legworks I spent, meanwhile I was very much inspired by the locals Sherpas, how amazing human’s feet can be, these individuals can walk miles after miles. And I came to know that, there is even big events like ultra marathons that people run at these elevations for days. I learned that there is this enormous human potential hidden in everyone, awaiting to be explored beyond, that is yet to be unleashed, as the song goes “ how many roads must a man walk down, before you can call him a man”. Then I started to ask myself, How about me, can I run? If I ever start running, how far can I go?
Returning to my country, I began to engage myself in running interests groups, learned how to run short distances and little bit here and there about the running shoes and apparels from some senior runners. Just like anyone else, the journey was difficult, never been running frequently, or I shall said seriously since young, and had to start to awaken all these long hibernated muscles day by day. At that time, a marathon is still a goal far from my reach, something that I would never dream of to achieve. And I stayed on doing weekly running and started to participate in short 10 -15 km races.
After a year, I decided to take this running to the next level, and had my husband helped me to sign up for my first 21km race, just to give it a try to have a feel of how does a “half marathon” feels like. It took me 3 hours to finish the race and I had to remove my wrongly sized shoes towards the final 10km. That race had given me a heads up of what I would be expecting to happen if I am not fit to be ready for a 42km run, so I start to focus on my running postures, nutrition planning and running gears. Basically it is not a one size fit all formula, I learned to find the right gears and apparels and nutrition plans that fits my physical fitness, feet sizes. Then I decided to sign up KL Standard Charted Marathon, one of the iconic marathon event in Malaysia, a race big enough to motivate me to do my virgin marathon.
Doing marathon is whole new level of preparation, I learned from books, friends, to plan systematically my weekly running programs towards the race day. In between I put in some B races with 15km, 21km and 30km just to get my body used to these sort of distances. And the D day came on 2017 May, I successfully crossed the finishing arch after 6 hours and 15 minutes from the start time, although just an insignificant participant in the world of marathon, but a big leap in the heart of this small town girl. The race had taught me newer lessons, newer experiences on the areas that I need to improve, and of course, giving me much confidence to look at other marathon races - in the world.
After my virgin marathon, I went on finishing another 4 more marathons with humble sub-6 hour results, Nov 2017 Penang Bridge International Marathon, Jan 2018 Cyberjaya Twin City Marathon, May 2018 Standard Charted KL Marathon and July 2018 Hulu Langat Full Marathon.
On 25th Sep 2018, I received the email from Tokyo Marathon Organizer “Dear Ms. Fei Li Ho...Congratulation!.. you have been accepted for participation...”
I was overjoyed, and I am very thankful to the organizer, giving this girl from small town to have a chance to run in one of the most buzzling city in the world - Tokyo. TOKYO Marathon, I am coming, I will try my best!
My sports report for the year of 2018 ：-
01. Ultra-Trail Tai Mo Shan YTF Hong Kong 50km (Jan 18)
02. Watergate 16hrs Ultra Looping 50km (Jan 18)
03. Twincity FM (Jan 18)
04. 113 Aquathlon Standards (Jan 18)
05. 24H Looping 85km (Feb 18)
06. MWM HM (Mar 18)
07. SCKLM FM (Apr 18)
08. Melaka 113 OD Triathlon (Apr 18)
09. Penang Eco 100 55km (May 18)
10. Port Dickson Open Water Swim 2 Challenge 2018 (Jul 18)
11. Hulu Langat Marathon (Jul 18)
12. Port Dickson International Triathlon - Olympic Distance (Jul 18)
13. NPE HM (Jul 18)
14. RHB Shimano Highway Ride @ Lekas [E21] 120km (Aug 18)
15. Karak Shilinmen Trail Run 13km (Aug 18)
16. Challenge Iskandar Puteri 113km (Sept 18)
17. Ironman 70.3 Langkawi (Nov 18)
My climbing report for the year of 2018 ：-
18. Gunung Rajah Tranz KKB-Bentong 30km (Mar 18)
19. Gunung Semangkok 32km (1824m) (Apr 18)
20. Gunung Merbabu Indonesia (3142m.a.s.l) (Apr 18)
21. Gunung Merapi Indonesia (2930m.a.s.l) (May 18)
22. East Peak of Xue Mountain Taiwan （3201m.a.s.l）(Jun 18)
23. Syue Mountain Taiwan (3886m.a.s.l)(Jun 18)
24. DaFeng SiGuNiang XiChuan China (5038m.a.s.l)(Oct 18)
Now that I wish to express my appreciation to Capt Ronnie, I have the chance to meet him in person in one of the local trail run because we will only manage to see his elite result through social media and normally they are already home when we just reach finishing line. Captain advised me the technique in running and invite me to Lake Garden as their playground to do training. From what I know since starts running, Pacemaker Malaysia is popular in its elite running performance, and the website is very informative for running communities . Many thx to you Captain, I will keep it up!
I will keep doing sports, regardless of the results, I am prepared to accept the fact that my performance may drop as age goes by, i’m racing against myself, every milestone is my PB, every move is an achievement & I’m doing all this for my late mother.
Brought 2u by
Lily Ho @ PM111
to add Lily at Facebook, click here!
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