Soh Rui Yong shares details of his ‘first records as married man’ in Valencia Half Marathon

SINGAPORE: After setting new records at the Valencia Half Marathon, runner Soh Rui Yong wrote his reflections on how the race went, calling his experience in Spain “a good trip overall”. He also noted that these are his “first records as a married man.”

National marathoner Soh, 32, triumphed at the 2023 Valencia Half Marathon Trinidad Alfonso Zurich on Sunday (Oct 22). He finished the race with a time of 66:45, a second faster than the previous record he set during the 2019 Houston Half Marathon. Additionally, at the race’s 10km mark, his split timing was 31:39, well under the 10km road national record of 32:10.

Soh tied the knot last month. He and his wife, Nantacha, have shared photos of their September wedding on their Instagram accounts.

He wrote that he was trying to get into the habit of once again sharing reflections on the races he participates in, especially his training routine while preparing for the Valencia Half Marathon. He increased his training mileage from around 70 to 80km to 120 to 130km per week in the last five weeks before the race.

He added that he had been talking to the event’s race director Marc Roig, and “had an indication there would be a group targeting 66:30 (3:09/km).”

“Felt fit coming into this Valencia Half Marathon and decided to be aggressive early on and give myself a chance to challenge my own NR from 2019,” he wrote, adding that he’d had “pretty much a perfect race in Houston 2019.”

However, Soh noted, “But a perfect race can be double-edged – it’s extremely hard to replicate, and half marathons are hard. It’s about 1 hour of racing at your threshold pace – a bit too fast and you cross the red line and pay for it before the end. Go out a bit too slow and by 10km your pb dream is over. The Covid-19 disruption meant that I didn’t race a half marathon in 2020 or 2021, and when I started racing half marathons again last year, I realised I had forgotten how to race it.

Running for 21.1km at 3:10/km is hard!!! I most recently told my flatmate Josh that while I felt I was in better shape than in 2019, 66:46 in Houston was honestly a bit of a fluke in terms of lucky race conditions and I wasn’t sure I could ever improve that performance unless I got a lot fitter.”

He then recounted exactly how he executed his record-breaking run, where he used every bit of willpower and discipline to set a new record.

“My official time is 1:06:45, a national record by 1 second. I sit on the ground and collect myself for about a minute before shaking the hands of my fellow finishers and thanking them for the competition they provided. I needed to squeeze every possible second out of myself, and they helped with that. 1 race, 2 national records, a good trip overall,” wrote Soh. /TISG

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