Vu Viet Thanh (born in 1990) - an amateur athlete - has successfully completed the 42km distance with a time of 3 hours and 45 minutes, meeting the goal that the runner set at the VPIM 2024 race. For a person with leukemia and having undergone many chemotherapy and stem cell transplants, this achievement is a personal breakthrough for Thanh.
Sharing about the running route and his achievements at VPIM 2024, Thanh said: “This year’s running route has many challenges for the athletes, especially the sections across 3 bridges due to the steep slopes. With today’s achievement, I am very happy because I have achieved my goal. Hopefully, in the future, I will be able to make more breakthroughs.”
Viet Thanh discovered he had leukemia in 2021, during a blood test before having a tooth extracted. At the prime of his life, he was almost in a panic at the thought that he only had a few months to live.
Running was the first sport that came to mind when Thanh was on the brink of life and death, in the bone marrow transplant room. At that time, Thanh thought it was the easiest sport to start. After more than a year of being diagnosed with leukemia, from the point of almost giving up, he officially fell in love with running.
Starting jogging in late 2022, at first, even a 100m distance made Thanh "run out of breath". Then, thanks to careful research of medical documents and running instructions, he saw that his body gradually responded to this sport. And that was when he decided to gradually increase the amount of exercise in a serious and methodical manner.
In 2023, Thanh participated in many domestic races, most of which ran Half Marathons under 1 hour 40 minutes. Only once did he register for a Full Marathon in a night race, achieving a time of 3 hours 58 minutes. This year, Thanh aims to participate in 3 races and VPIM 2024 is the opening race, which is also the second time he is determined to break his PR in the most difficult distance.
“This is the second time I have participated in the VPIM race. In 2023, I will participate as a pacer for a few friends in the club running in the 21km distance,” Thanh shared.
He also said that at this year's race, he set a goal of completing the race in 3 hours and 45 minutes. To do this, 1 month before the race, he made a specific training plan: running a 30km long run every weekend and doing interval and tempo exercises in between.
However, due to his current job requiring a lot of traveling, he has not been able to complete the previously planned work as expected.
“Hopefully, from VPIM onwards, I can focus and be more serious with my self-imposed training program. After the stem cell transplant and especially “falling in love” with running, I did not have to undergo any treatment or take any medication, so my previous illness did not affect my training much, I still practice the exercises every day.
My goal in the next 5 years is to accumulate enough achievements to participate in a World Marathon Majors – one of the six most prestigious marathons in the world held annually. I am still trying to train to prepare for the tournaments at the end of this year" - Thanh said.
