I can be quite extreme – at least that’s what people around me sometimes observe. I can’t quite remember why I resisted running any form of marathon when I was younger. I do remember that I love hiking. Before my knee injury from climbing Mount Kinabalu in 2007, I used to run short distances around my old condo before sunrise. The timing was decent. Then, about 18 years ago, I stopped jogging altogether.
This year, I decided it was time to run a half-marathon.
My first attempt at any marathon category, at the age of 53, with only 8 days to prepare.
Long story short, an opportunity came up just 8 days before the event in the form of a free bib if I was up for it. I had been thinking about running a couple of months ago. First, since getting the Oura Ring, I’ve become more active and more aware of my body. Second, some of my team members at work were organizing a 5 km run. The idea was already in my head.
But I wasn’t sure if I could be ready in time – which, in hindsight, is ironic. Because 8 days is frankly not enough time to prepare for a half-marathon.
And then, here comes AI.
ChatGPT and I have been in daily conversation. It has become a surprisingly good tool for self-reflection. Given my reasonably active lifestyle – running and swimming – I brainstormed with ChatGPT on whether this was even doable. Working with AI, I learned that setting a clear goal was crucial. Looking at the half-marathon cut-off times in Singapore (4 hours) and Hong Kong (3 hours), I set myself a conservative target of 3 hours, with the priority being to minimize knee injury.
We came up with a confidence-building 12 km test run a week before the event, a simple daily plan leading up to race weekend (including recovery and diet), and even a detailed strategy for race day itself.
Suffice to say, I couldn’t have done this without AI assistance.
That said, I didn’t follow the plan 100%. I improvised. And that, to me, is the beauty of it. I recall from one AI workshop that someone said: AI knows everything, but it doesn’t know anything about me. The plan was created at a point in time. Over that week, both my physical condition and mental state changed — and I had to adapt.
Looking back at race day, there were things I could have done better. I ran in my trail running shoes, half a size too large – my feet hurt for days afterward. I underestimated the importance of refueling during the run. Despite eating two bananas near the end, I still completely ran out of energy.
Although my pen was the second last, the flag-off was still very early – 4:45 am. With no public transport available, I cycled 8 km from home to the F1 Pit Building, burning through what little breakfast I had. The 1.5-hour wait before flag-off, mostly spent standing, wasn’t kind to my feet either. And yes – the toilet queues were very long.
The running experience itself was good. People asked me what I was thinking while running. I suppose I’m a strategist. I didn’t fully take in or enjoy the scenic experience – I wasn’t that chill, to be honest. Even though ChatGPT had calculated a very high probability of success (above 95%), there was still a lot happening in my head.
I constantly checked my Garmin watch – pace, progress, projected finish time – and monitored my heart rate. I listened closely to my body, gauging how much I could push. I also had to actively dodge many runners who were resting or walking on the course.
So, what were the final stats?
Here we go.
- Distance: 21.1 km
- Timing: 02:42:55
- Average pace: 7:40 /km
- Average heart rate: 145 bpm
- Max heart rate: 156 bpm
- Average run cadence: 165 spm
- Average stride length: 0.79 m
In the end, this half-marathon wasn’t really about running 21.1 km. It was about testing assumptions – about age, preparation, limits, and the stories I’ve been telling myself for years. I didn’t run perfectly, and I certainly didn’t run effortlessly. But I finished. And perhaps that’s the point: sometimes progress doesn’t come from being fully ready, but from being willing to start, listen, adapt, and see what unfolds along the way.