Cindy Ong Tells Her Fitness Story

Cindy Ong's predawn training routine and the road to a Top 10 SCSM finish.

- Lionel Kong

For 36-year-old kindergarten teacher Cindy Ong, running was always her way of getting a healthy amount of ‘me’ time into her daily routine. With two young children to care for and a very involving career role, she never really thought of herself as capable of being a fast runner.

It was all about running in the middle of the pack until SCSM marathon winner Jasmine Goh and SEA Games gold medallist Soh Rui Yong saw her potential and encouraged her to reach further.

“I thought it was an impossible dream. In 2016, I ran a full marathon in five and a half hours. With some consistent training, I had reduced that to just over four hours by 2017. When Jasmine Goh encouraged me to try for a Top 10 spot at the Singapore Marathon, I thought it was an absurd idea. I was so busy with the other responsibilities of life that I did not even think that I had the time to train for it. However, that thought became a challenge,” says Cindy.

She became acquainted with marathoner Soh Rui Yong at the 2017 SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur, when she was there to support the rest of the Singaporean runners at the competition. Motivated by his gold medal win, Cindy resumed training with the 2018 Army Half Marathon as her target race. Working with Rui Yong through phone messages, she put his training tips to use and beat her personal best time for a half marathon by 10 minutes.

She realized that her training routine was delivering results when she took part in more races through the rest of 2018 and discovered that she was faster than ever. The year was closed with the completion of the Singapore Marathon, which she completed with a time of 03:34:46. This made her the eighth fastest Singaporean woman across the line, and the impossible goal was achieved.