Marathoner Jasmine Goh hopes to inspire her kids with SEA Games feat
Sleep, social time and work – these are all sacrifices that many SEA Games-bound athletes have to make. Marathoner Jasmine Goh also has to give up another precious experience — time with her kids.
In chasing for SEA Games qualification for the past two years, the 37-year-old single mother of two has missed out on eating breakfast with her children as she is always out training or racing.
“Breakfast time is zero, I’ve never seen them for breakfast. I am always not at home, that’s why I make it a point to eat with them for lunch or for dinner,” Goh told Yahoo News Singapore on the sidelines of the Great Eastern Women’s Run (GEWR) 2017 launch event on Wednesday (19 July).
“There will always be a mealtime together for the family but it will always and almost never be breakfast because of the training and sometimes races.”
Goh’s target to qualify for this year’s SEA Games began in 2015 and she said she was “very upfront” with her family, who all got behind her to support her dreams.
“I think the family came together to support me. So my parents will take the kids whenever I couldn’t,” said Goh.
Goh joined the F1 Runners running club and trained under coach Lexxus Tan in 2015 as she shaved off her timings and improved gradually. The 2017 SEA Games debutant finally went under the qualifying time set by the Singapore Athletics Association in September last year at the Sydney Marathon.
With the qualifying mark set based on the bronze-medal timing of the same event in 2015 at 3:07:14, Goh finished her race in Sydney in 3:04:43.
Goh said this achievement did not come easy.
“I was very upfront from the start with my family and kids,” said Goh.
“So they knew when I increased my training load, they knew I was aiming for the qualification and… there were adjustments, that’s for sure,” she added.
“Adjustments to family time, family schedule, family budget, you know because of the time I have to take off work to train.”
Singapore will also be sending Rachel See to Kuala Lumpur for the SEA Games women’s marathon competition. With the SEA Games being less than a month away, Goh said she is still “in awe” of her journey.
“It has been a journey for the last few years and now it’s like one more month, it’s coming to an end, it’s like the finale,” said Goh, adding that she hopes to inspire her kids.
“The biggest takeaway to them I think is ‘if mommy can do it so can I’. And then all I need to is just take baby steps, work towards my dreams and anything can come true.”
