Interview with Nordic Green Run runners from Team Finland

Ambassador Vänskä presented prizes to some of the runners and intern, Taiju Marttila had a chat with them to find out how they ran over a hundred kilometers each all in a week.

Prize presentation by Antti Vänskä

We had the pleasure of welcoming some of our top three runners and random winners at the embassy to pick up their prizes and chat about the run. 

Mr. Alex Tan ran a whopping amount of 107 kilometres in one go from June 5th to June 6th. The run took him around 24 hours, running all throughout the night. “I found out about the Nordic Green Run through Jasmine Goh, a Singaporean marathon runner, who was running for Team Norway”, Alex told us. “I had already pledged to run the Gila 100 kilometres in support of Chenny, a former Pulau Ubin dog, to raise funds for her medical expenses and for Singapore Cancer Society. I decided to combine my run with the Nordic Green Run in order to support another good cause, the protection and restoration of the oceans.”

Indeed, all of our top runners were very happy to run for the good cause and mentioned it as one of their motivators. They were all deeply enthusiastic about running and would recommend it for everyone. The most kilometres to Team Finland was contributed by Heidi, a Finnish Wärtsilä employee living in Singapore. “Running is not all about the kilometres, but about staying active - it is a way to relax for me, although I do feel motivated by the competitive element. Especially now in the covid times running has been such an easy and cheap way to stay fit, and Singapore offers great opportunities for it. I especially like the Green Corridor route.” 

Heidi and the Wärtsilä team participated in the run as a way of encouraging activeness and improving wellbeing at the workplace. “We had been discussing having a virtual run event, and then a few days later the Embassy of Finland contacted us, if Wärtsilä would like to sponsor the run. It was perfect timing!” Wärtsilä is one of the Singapore-based Finnish companies sponsoring the run, along with Nordic Glow Shop. 

The third-most kilometres to Team Finland was contributed by a Singaporean man going by the name Siao. His journey as Siao, “ex loan shark runner turned good” started out at a 2012 marathon, where he ran the whole course whilst dragging a tyre to raise awareness for the Bone Marrow Donor Programme. Since then, he’s taken part in numerous charity runs and inspired others. “Running is not just for competition, but it is a platform for doing good and challenging ourselves. One lesson learned is to begin with a simple step, but remember the big goal ahead and just keep on going one step at a time.” He thinks the Nordic Green Run and Team Finland managed to build a good community, where people supported and encouraged each other. “I felt like I was not running alone, but with a team.”

We would like to thank everyone who took part in the Nordic Green Run and especially those who were part of Team Finland. Together, all the runners completed over 46,000 kilometres - that is more than one circle around the world (40,000)! Altogether we raised 59,000 SGD for the Coral Triangle Center, a non-profit organisation working towards the restoration of marine environments. Thank you all and we hope you are inspired to continue running with us!