Army Captain Ge Peng-hsin (葛芃欣) on Sunday became the Taiwanese military’s first “six star finisher” as he crossed the London Marathon’s finish line, becoming one of an elite band of runners who have completed all six of the world’s major marathons, the Ministry of National Defense said.
The ministry’s spokesman’s office made the announcement on its official Facebook page as it congratulated Ge on his achievement.
Ge, 27, who is assigned to the Military News Agency, is a former combat frogman with the 101st Reconnaissance Battalion “where he received arduous training that resulted in superb physical fitness,” the spokesman’s office statement said.
Photo: CNA
In London, Ge joined more than 40,000 runners at the world’s biggest for-charity marathon, it said.
The runners departed from Greenwich Park, and passed many of the city’s famous sites, including Tower Bridge and Big Ben, before proceeding through Saint James Park, it said.
Ge said his time of 3 hours, 40 minutes, 10 seconds, was not a personal best, as he was still dealing with a strained ankle and fatigue from running the Boston Marathon just 13 days earlier.
“Marathons are like that. Regardless of how much you practice, poor weather and unfamiliarity with the ground could have an effect on the finish time,” he said. “I did not set any personal goals for the London Marathon, as it was the last of the six, and I just wanted to enjoy [the experience].”
The Boston Marathon is widely considered the most difficult of the six, and men of his age have to have completed a marathon in at least 3 hours, 5 minutes to qualify for the race, he said.
He used his record from last year’s Nagano Marathon to qualify for Boston, which was 2 hours 59 minutes, 49 seconds.
Ge said he was still in college when he decided to become a star finisher, but he had not set a timetable for achieving the goal.
He took personal time off during his first year of military service to run in the Tokyo Marathon, he said.
Between 2016 and last year, he ran the New York City, Chicago and Berlin marathons at the rate of one race per year, saving Boston and London for last, Ge said.
“A marathon is not a purely physical challenge, but also demands spiritual strength,” he said. “Willpower is an important aspect in the armed forces’ approach to training.”
“When training for marathons, I often remind myself that I completed the amphibious recon battalion’s training, so there is no excuse for not getting it done,” he said.
“The thing that attracted me to running is that your effort directly results in your achievement and a lot of my thinking about work and life is done when I am running,” he added. “If you are not thinking about stuff when you run, you are probably not exerting yourself enough for it to hurt.”
Asked about his athletic plans, Ge said he is hoping to enter the Hawaii Triathlon next year.
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