In my shoes

​Soh Rui Yong(born August 6, 1991) is a Singapore track and field athlete who competes in middle and long distance events, ranging from the 5000m to the marathon. He won the gold medal in the marathon at the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in 2015. Soh currently holds the national record for the 10,000m and half marathon events. He represented his country at the 2012 and 2014 World Half Marathon Championships.

Soh attended and competed for Hwa Chong Institution  and Raffles Institution, before taking a two-year hiatus from training to serve in the  Singapore Armed Forces (2010-2011). He resumed running in 2012, enrolling at the National University of Singapore (NUS).

Competing for NUS, Soh completed a clean sweep of individual titles in his freshman season, winning the Singapore University Games (SUNIG) Road Race Championships (6km), and well as completing a 5,000m/10,000m double at the Institute-Varsity-Polytechnic (IVP) Track and Field Championships. His time of 32min 58.87sec in the 10,000m eclipsed the previous championship record, held by Mok Ying Ren.

Transfer to the University of Oregon

In 2013, Soh transferred to the University of Oregon to further his ambitions in distance running. There. he joined Team Run Eugene, and adopted a new training philosophy and program under the guidance of 2008 USA Olympian, Ian Dobson.

In January 2014, Soh ran 69min 15sec at the Cascade Half Marathon to break the 70-minute barrier in the half marathon event for the first time ever. He became only the second Singaporean to ever do so, after national record holder Mok. This performance qualified him for the 2014 World Half Marathon Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark.

2014 World Half Marathon Championships

Soh sustained an ankle injury after the Cascade Half Marathon and missed one week of training, but made a quick comeback and ran a 5,000m personal best of 15min 22.28sec at the Willamette Opener to display fitness leading into the World Championships. In Copenhagen, Soh ran a huge personal best of 68min 18sec, notably defeating recently crowned 2013 SEA Games Mok in the process. Returning to Eugene, Soh soon declared his intention to race at the 2014 Portland Track Festival, and go after the 41-year old national 10,000m record held by P.C. Suppiah.

2014 Portland Track Festival

On June 14, 2014, Soh made history by clocking 31min 15.95sec for the 10,000m at the 2014 Portland Track Festival. The mark eclipsed P.C. Suppiah's long standing record of 31min 19.0sec, set in 1973. He ran an evenly paced race, splitting 15:37 for the first 5000m and 15:38 for the second 5000m. On an interview with Flotrack soon after the race, Soh surprised many by declaring his intention to move up to the marathon.

2014 California International Marathon

On December 7, 2014, Soh made his marathon debut at the 2014 California International Marathon. Setting out with a goal time of 2hr 30min 30sec(the qualifying mark for the 2015 SEA Games Marathon), Soh was on 2:28 pace from the get go and ran the final 10km in 33:29 to clock 2:26:01 and finish in 39th place. The mark was a Singapore debut record, and the second fastest time ever run by a Singaporean, behind only the national record of 2:24:22 held by M Rameshon. Overnight, Soh went from never having run a marathon to medal hopeful at the 2015 SEA Games, which would be held on home soil in Singapore.

2015 SEA Games

On June 7, 2015, Soh faced off against multiple SEA Games champions and medalists such as Eduardo Buenavista of the Philippines and Boonthung Srisung of Thailand. In hot and humid conditions, with a tropical rainstorm hitting halfway through, the race was extremely tactical. Soh and Srisung broke away from the rest of the field at 35km, and the battle came down to a sprint over one lap of the Kallang Practice Track at the finish. Soh unleashed a final 200m hand-timed at 31.3sec to break away from Srisung and claim a shock victory in 2:34:56.

In the aftermath of the SEA Games, Soh declared his intentions to train full-time upon graduation from the University of Oregon in December 2015, in a quest to be the first man from Singapore to qualify for the Olympic Games Marathon. Soon after, he set a new half marathon national record (67:21) at the Rock N' Roll San Jose Half Marathon, indicating that the best has yet to come.

Follow Soh Rui Yong on his  journey, as he strives to inspire others that we can all live better through a sporting lifestyle.