When I first read the ROCKstar of the Month stories, I found them so inspirational and amazing. I thought I’d never make it as the standards are so high. So when I was informed that I am ROCKstar of the Month for February, I was surprised because I felt like I’m just a normal “average joe”.

I have stopped growing (taller) since I was 13. Petite is a nice way of describing me, but truth is, I’m just short. I inherited short legs and thick limbs from my dad’s side of the family. And that means I can never look really thin. Being short, every kilogram makes a difference. Fortunately, for most part of my life, I hardly experienced any great change in weight, aside from pregnancy.

When I gained almost 14kg from my first pregnancy, that was my first weight challenge – to try and lose the post-pregnancy fats. It came as a shock to me, because I had been so careful with what I ate during pregnancy. I don’t indulge myself nor use pregnancy as a “reason” for eating more. It’s nature’s way (from what I read) that the fats get stored in the mummy’s body, in case there isn’t enough food for the baby post-delivery. Still, its not an excuse to keep the “mummy fats”. Hence I turned to the exercise that I could do – running, to lose weight.

Running has always been close to my heart, even though I was not the sporty type. Back in primary and secondary school, I wasn’t fast enough to be part of the Athletics team. It was only in my Junior College that my friend encouraged me to take part in the mid-distance events. There usually aren’t many participants for the mid-distance events, so that means a higher chance of getting a medal, thus I went for it.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t running correctly and the sudden surge from zero exercise to 3-4 days of training a week caused me to get injured. The injury stayed with me for most part of my life. I was unable to run anything more than 2km without feeling the pain in my achilles tendon. I kept to no more than 3km, just to get things going. I didn’t particularly enjoy the runs; it was mainly a means to get some exercise and lose weight.

I only explored longer distances when I started running with my colleagues. Our usual route was from Fullerton Bay to Marina Barrage. It was a struggle to complete each run, but I kept going. Then we went on to participate in 16.8km runs. I remembered being so nervous about it, preparing gels and all, and my legs almost giving up on me after the 12km mark. After I left that company, I stopped my weekly runs and would only run once in a while.

I picked up running again three years ago, when my work place was back at Raffles Place. Trying to get this new group of colleagues to run together was tough and the group exercise stopped after a year. I turned to running on my own on weekday evenings, to try to build my stamina. That was when I started to enjoy my runs (instead of feeling like dying after each run), and it became something I enjoyed doing. Losing any weight became a bonus, not a target.

Few months into my weekday evening running routine, my dad had a stroke and was hospitalised. It was a big blow to the family. With my dad ill, I also lost my main pillar of support – my mum – as she had to take care of my dad every day and could not help with my kids.

With two school-going daughters, and one of them in the PSLE year then, it was a challenging period to juggle between parents, kids, work and home. Ironically, this was also the time that I ran even more, trying to find pockets of time to do my 5km runs. I found running helped me to focus and cope with stress better.

It was during this period that I took on a half marathon with the persuasion of my brother (21.1km isn’t that much from 16.8km, he said). After I survived my first half marathon, I decided to keep up with the momentum and target to do a full marathon – at the Stanchart Marathon 2017. 21.1km is a far cry from 42.2km and I did have my reservations.

When I received the email on SCSM Women Squad, I responded almost immediately. Being a lone runner, I wasn’t sure if I was doing enough preparation for the full marathon, and having the sessions by SCSM Women Squad seemed like a great checkpoint for me, to get me in condition in time.

At the sessions run by ROCKrunners, they were so friendly and welcoming that I wanted to be part of them. So aside from the SCSM Women Squad sessions, I started to join the weekly ROCKrunners sessions and these sessions really helped me in improving my running. I received a lot of support from fellow Women Squad members-turned-friends, such as Wendy and Tanglin. And not forgetting many other ROCKrunners who are always there encouraging and giving support to one another.

So 2017, though a challenging year, was a bumper running year for me in which I did my first half-marathon, completed three half-marathons, a 32km, and a full marathon. Half of these runs, I participated with ROCKrunners and participating with the ROCKfam makes it so much different. The ROCKfam support, the sharing and the cheering makes the races more exciting and the overall feeling is just AMAZING!