Engineer the first Singaporean to complete Spartathlon

SINGAPORE — Five years ago, he took up running to lose weight and pass the Individual Physical Proficiency Test (IPPT) required of National Servicemen. Pull-ups were his Achilles’ heel and research engineer Ong Kai Wei had to go for Remedial Training “all the time”.

Wanting to shed some pounds to make pull-ups easier, he started running and soon got hooked. And the distances he covered multiplied.

Nine days ago, Dr Ong, 39, became the first Singaporean — and possibly the first in South-east Asia, based on the race’s list on its website of finishers throughout its 32-year history to complete one of the most gruelling road ultra-races in the world, the Spartathlon.

The 245km race, which takes place annually in Greece, is particularly challenging as runners must pass 75 checkpoints by specific times — and reach the finishing line in 36 hours — or be pulled out of the race. Dr Ong completed the race in 32 hours and 55 minutes, with a slight sprain on his right leg but nary a blister.

The research engineer with DSO National Laboratories, Singapore’s defence research agency, did not scale down his work responsibilities when preparing for the race, despite clocking up to 32km a day and nine to 12 running sessions a week in the five months leading up to the event.

He would run before work at 8.30am and sometimes again at night. “There’s no such thing as ‘no time’ — it’s how you manage your time and prioritise what you’re going to do,” said Dr Ong, who has a PhD in robotics.

Asked about changes to the IPPT that were recently announced, Dr Ong ironically felt ambivalent about pull-ups being dropped from the new three-station format, as one “needs to pull up his own weight”.

He also welcomed changes made to the preparatory system for the physical fitness test, saying they are “quite creative”. Among changes under the new system introduced last month, NSmen can choose to take part in five programmes targeted at boosting different aspects of fitness.

Before he took up running, Dr Ong weighed 84kg at his heaviest, could manage only one or two pull-ups and clocked about 12 minutes for his 2.4km run. Today, he weighs a trim 58kg, manages eight or nine pull-ups and clocked 8 minutes and 23 seconds during his most recent 2.4km run.

He initially ran at stadiums and would see fellow runners donning Standard Chartered marathon vests. He started to read up on how the marathon came about and set his heart on running the Spartathlon after learning about the story of the messenger Pheidippides, who made his way from Athens to seek the Spartans’ help to fight the invading Persians and arrived in Sparta the day after.

The Spartathlon began in 1983 after British air-force officer John Foden wondered whether a man could really cover the distance between Athens and Sparta in 36 hours and discovered that he could.

Despite his feat, Dr Ong, whose girlfriend covered the event’s distance by car to meet and pass food to him at some checkpoints, said the Spartathlon had spurred him to do more.

“I actually don’t like to compare myself with other people, but when you’re in the field of the best road runners in the world, it opens your eyes — you think you’re very good, but other people are better!” he said.

Dr Ong is now aiming to run a 48-hour race. “I want to improve my speed and endurance,” he said.

Not many in Singapore may follow in his footsteps to run the Spartathlon, but Dr Ong said the principles he had applied to the race are equally relevant to life. “You need to have self-belief and stay positive to be successful. Part of my preparation for the race was to tell myself, ‘I can do it, I will be able to finish’.”