Singapore #Fitspo of the Week: Sebastian Cheong

Life goes beyond the digits on the scale and your body is capable of so much more! Yahoo’s #Fitspo of the Week series is dedicated to inspirational men and women in Singapore leading healthy and active lifestyles. Have someone to recommend? Hit Cheryl up on Instagram or Facebook!

Name: Sebastian Cheong (@imsebastianrun)

Age: 42

Height: 1.78m

Weight: 64kg

Occupation: IS&T engineer

Status: Married

Food: I eat normally like a regular human being with no control of diet. My favourite food is chicken rice and mee rebus.

Exercise: I do lots of running – about three to four runs per week, with distances ranging from 10km to 21km on road and one in the trails..

Q: When you were younger, were you active in sports?

A: I was quite active during my primary and secondary school days while taking part in track and field, cross country and aiming for gold for my physical fitness test. I also took up table tennis back in the days and got into competition.

What did you get into as you got older?

As I grew older, things started to go downhill during my national service (NS) days. I was not as active as before and I got lazy as time went by. I didn’t do well for my IPPT and even tried to avoid taking the test by reporting that I have chest pains. I admired those people who took part in running races though, something that I had no clue about at that time.

When did you really get into running?

I only started running seriously when I was 30, after completing all my NS cycles. I was challenged by one of my colleagues, who just picked up running at that time too, to attempt a full marathon at the Sundown Marathon. That was my first running race in my life.

Together with a group of colleagues, we joined the New Balance Runners group at Novena and Scape to kickstart our training for the marathon. Of course, I couldn’t make it past 5km for the first few runs. But after running regularly with the group, I could eventually hold a steady pace and go for a slightly longer distance.

The runners in the group were so friendly, like a family to me. That made me fall in love with running. I liked that I never ran alone, I made a lot of friends and there were people who constantly encouraged me.

What do you like about running?

Running helps me to know more runners – people who have the same passion for running. I like that running is not defined by age, race, religion or career. I also love running because I get to wear pretty and cool gear from top to bottom.

My most memorable highlight or experience in running is when I dress up as a superhero character and participate in running events. It feels amazing to have people shout out, “Iron Man!”, “Spiderman!” or “Superman!” based on which character I dress up as.

You co-founded a running club Superhero Runners.

Yes, this was founded with two other running friends that I met at the New Balance Running club. We are all superfans of superhero characters and movies! At that point of time, it was the beginning of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, hence we thought, since we love superheroes and running so much, why not call ourselves Superhero Runners? That was it!

We were just a trio with no intention of setting up a running club and simply wanted to give ourselves a name for the fun of it. But as time went by, we drew the attention of many runners out there who also wanted to join us for a run. Slowly the group size grew from three to 10 to 20. That’s when we decided to make this a regular thing and officially create a running club.

Any highlights or challenges about maintaining a running club?

The key highlights for Superhero Runners are definitely the times we joined running events as pacers or participate as a big group of runners while dressed up as Superhero characters.

I wouldn’t say there are many challenges. One challenge would be trying to keep runners, especially those who have been with us for a long time, from leaving. However, I wouldn’t exactly say this is a challenge or anything bad. People have their own plans or journeys in life and they are free to go where it meets their needs.

When did you feel the least confident about yourself?

If there’s something insecure about myself, it would be the inability to gain mass or weight. I used to be skinny to the bones, to a point where friends and family would keep asking me to eat more.

I admire people who have a nice build and physique. I tried to consume mass gainers and did strength training for many months. I ended up getting chubby and heavier instead. It also affected my stamina in running. Eventually, I stopped the mass gainers and just continued to run and gain back my stamina, as running is my main priority.

Are you satisfied with your body now?

After all these years, I’m satisfied with my body. Even though I’m still on the lean side with a tiny tummy, lol! At the end of the day, I know I am enjoying life without having to avoid certain foods or go on a controlled diet. I eat what I crave for; that’s the best thing in life.