With the Tokyo Marathon fast approaching, we look back at Anne’s world marathon journey and advocacies
A long-time children’s rights advocate and UNICEF Philippines National Goodwill Ambassador, Anne Curtis puts action behind her words yet again as the March 5 Tokyo Marathon fast approaches. On February 19, Anne announced that her upcoming run is dedicated to helping raise funds for child victims of violence, abuse, and exploitation. This marks the third time she’s made UNICEF Philippines a beneficiary of her marathon.
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In a previous interview with MEGA Active, Anne revealed that she wants to finish all the Abbott World Marathon Majors and ultimately earn the Six Star Medal. She’s making headway on this goal as she had previously completed the New York City Marathon in 2016 in under five hours and the London Marathon in 2018 in five hours and 12 minutes. Anne also dedicated these two marathons to Filipino youth and their rights.
Notably, her goal for the 2018 London Marathon was to raise 84,000 pesos for UNICEF Philippines, but she actually raised close to 280,000 pesos in total. Now, her target amount is one million pesos, with the donation pool currently sitting at close to 230,000 pesos. In addition, Anne pledges to match the full amount raised, which will be donated to UNICEF Philippines.
Training for a 42-kilometer marathon is no easy feat. Some, like 2015 Miss Universe Pia Wurtzbach, prepare nine months in advance. However, Anne had only 2 months of training since she only decided to commit to the Tokyo Marathon on January 1 of this year. Worth noting as well is that Anne’s personal trainer is Gabb Rosario, the same athlete who had trained Pia for her New York City Marathon.
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Given the challenges ahead, Anne has been giving updates on her progress to inspire others as well. For instance, Anne posted on January 6 that she’d run 10 kilometers for the first time in three years. These updates continued throughout the month, with posts on January 10 and January 26.
Anne further ramped up her training in her second month, saying she finished running 25 kilometers on February 13 with the help of her RunRock playlist and her daughter to cheer her on. And with just two weeks to go before race day, Anne hit a peak at 32 kilometers on February 19. Following that, her most recent update on February 26 mentioned that she’d run only 15 kilometers, which is part of her taper period for her training.
Tapering is a tactic runners commonly use to improve their aerobic endurance, cardiovascular fitness, and ultimately their marathon performance. Aside from offering a much-needed reprieve from hard months of training, a taper period properly done can increase an athlete’s VO2 max, replenish glycogen stores in their muscles, reduce fatigue, and more.
Photos from ANNE CURTIS (via Instagram)
