​Run And Inspire – Reuben’s Incredible Story

It is extremely inspiring to witness ordinary people achieving extraordinary feats, and in running, we can find many examples of such uplifting human stories of runners victoriously overcoming personal challenges and obstacles. These inspirational stories, in turn, will inspire others to take-up their own challenge – e.g. to lose 30lbs or to run an ultramarathon – and to pursue their personal dreams – e.g. write a book or learn skydiving – before it is too late.

One such source of Running Inspiration is the TV personality, Reuben Kang who bravely accepted the huge challenge to run his first Full Marathon at the Standard Chartered Kuala Lumpur Marathon (SCKLM) on 7th August 2016. Given that Reuben had no prior running experience, plus the fact that he only had 4 months to prepare and train for it, made his task even more daunting. To add to the pressure, being a public figure, he was going to be under constant scrutiny of his followers, and any hiccups in his training preparation could be potentially embarrassing. The good news for Reuben, however, was that he had a personal running coach and mentor, Mark Williams to train and guide him every step of the way.

I have to take my hat off to Reuben for sticking to his training programme despite the initial hardship of getting used to distance running. After 3 months of strenuous training, Reuben managed to complete his first 21km distance at the last running clinic which was organised by Scklm and conducted by Coach Mark. It was clear that Reuben was making good progress, and he even managed to reduce his weight by 10kg. Reuben shared gleefully, “I was getting 10 personal messages of support daily from my Followers, and one guy told me that he had followed my training programme and he had lost substantial weight too!”

I met Reuben at the Friendship Run which was organised by Scklm 2016 in conjunction with KL Car Free Morning on the eve of his virgin marathon date. At that time, I told him, “No matter what happens tomorrow, you are already a Champion for getting this far and achieving so much as a novice runner.”

Check-out how Reuben describes his running journey! the 

On 7th August 2016, Reuben successfully completed his first full marathon in a time of 5 hours and twenty five minutes. A jubilant Reuben admitted that, “Running has changed my life.”

I asked Reuben, how was he going to keep motivating himself to continue running, and he replied, “I would need some goal to aim for like joining other running events in the future”

So, remember this, the next time you go for a run, you could be inspiring someone to greatness…

About The Author

Gus is the Founder of Running Toons and a HIIT Fitness Coach. As a freelance writer, he has contributed numerous insightful articles to The Star newspaper, Running Malaysia magazine, Cycling Malaysia magazine, Cycling Evolution magazine, Swim Bike Run magazine and more. LIKE Happy Runner, and

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