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Nan-Hie In

For many new mums, fitness routines are put on hold as they juggle the demands of parenthood and a career.
Not Jenny Chui Pui Kwan, who works in Hong Kong at Japanese finance company Nomura and is mother to four-year-old Mila Mui Ka-yin. Instead, she took up marathons.
It all started when 43-year-old Chui, looking for ways to shed around nine to 13kg (20lb to 30lb) of weight after her pregnancy, was introduced to Marathon Training Centre, an organisation that hosts training sessions at public sports grounds around the city.
“I ran twice a day with people at a track just to get the motivation to run,” she says.

Her first marathon was in Osaka, Japan in 2016. Since then she’s competed in cities around the world.
In April the 43-year-old finished the London Marathon, wrapping up the “six majors” – the others are the Tokyo, Berlin, Chicago, New York and Boston marathons. To top off the London event, she also raised £1,400 (US$1,780) to benefit VICTA, a charity for the blind and partially sighted.

But Chui is modest about her achievements. She says her husband Tim Mui Chi-yan and coach Fung Wah-tim have played key roles, encouraging her to chase more challenging athletic goals.
When she started, Chui loathed the heart rate boosting interval sessions, the short distance runs at 80 per cent of your highest pace that many runners use for core training. But looking back, she can see how this helped build the foundations to run marathons.
“I gradually picked up the pace and my coach saw some improvement,” she says.

But Chui was reluctant to take the next step and join a more elite training group until Fung motivated her with some wise words about being a role model for her daughter and showing her that one should never give up easily.
Chui took the words on board. Her race times improved and the excess kilos melted away.
At her marathon debut in Osaka, she was happily shocked to clock three hours, 35 minutes, having trained towards finishing in three hours, 40 minutes. “It wasn’t difficult, because I had done enough training,” she says. “I cannot forget the training I did at that leisure [running] group as that built a foundation.”

For many new mums, taking up a sport and committing to it is tough. But Chui says her husband’s encouragement and support – he takes over child-rearing responsibilities while she trains – is a huge help.
“If there’s something you’re good at, or you’re getting better at and it keeps you going, I’m all for that. And it’s healthy,” says Mui, 40, a partner at Lemonade, a creative services and event productions house he co-founded.
“We’re both trying to set a good example to our daughter. To show her that when you take up something, you take it seriously and do it properly … and enjoy it at the same time,” he says.
If there’s something you’re good at, or you’re getting better at and it keeps you going, I’m all for that. And it’s healthy
Tim Mui Chi-yan, Jenny’s husband
According to a 2015 study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, married couples often mirror each other’s fitness practises. Led by Laura Cobb at Johns Hopkins University, the study looked at the influence of a spouse on physical activity in 3,261 US couples aged 45 to 64 years. Researchers examined data that tracked participants for up to 25 years, with two medical visits around six years apart, and asked about the participants’ exercise practices.
On average, spouses’ activity levels matched. When a wife fulfilled exercise guidelines recommended by the American Heart Association (around 75 to 150 minutes of exercise per week), her other half was 70 per cent more likely to follow suit.
Chui met her husband in 2002 – when they partied, drank and smoked – and they started dating in 2005.

Most of their unhealthy habits have declined. They quit smoking in 2007 when they tried to start a family. Booze consumption also dropped. “We feel sleepy even after a beer,” Mui says.
Chui’s fitness routine involves running with a training group at Aberdeen Sports Ground. She also runs 10km routes around her Pok Fu Lam neighbourhood or goes for a 5km run during work lunch hours. Previously, she ran six days a week but with no major race ahead, it dropped to twice a week.
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Her pre-race routine is a seven-day diet involving a period of carb loading. At the start, she has a low-carb diet with vegetables so the husband serves up meat dishes accompanied with salads. “She lets me know what she needs, I prep,” he says.
On the fourth day and after, she revs up her carbohydrate intake.
Now the couple is focusing on Mui’s athletic dreams. As a cyclist and swimmer, he’s been taking part in short-distance triathlons in recent years but will up his game to attempt Iron Man 70.3 in Sydney (where participants run 21.1km, swim 1.9km and cycle 90km).


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Jenny Chui Pui Kwan juggles motherhood, a career and running marathons. She talks about motivation and how important support from friends and family has been. Photo: Edmond So

Jenny Mui Chui Pui Kwan, husband Tim Mui Chi-yan and daughter Mila Mui Ka-yin 2015.   Image was taken in April 4th 2015 at the Nike Women's 10km event at the Kai Tak cruise terminal.  Jenny's first running event after giving birth.  Mila is less than 2 months old in that picture04MAY19 [25JUNE2019 FEATURES HEALTH]

Jenny Mui Chui Pui Kwan, husband Tim Mui Chi-yan and daughter Mila Mui Ka-yin at Sun yet Sen Memorial Park, Hong Kong, May 04, 2019. 04MAY19 [25JUNE2019 FEATURES HEALTH] SCMP / Edmond SO

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Jenny Mui Chui Pui Kwan, husband Tim Mui Chi-yan, pregnant with daughter Mila Mui Ka-yin 2015.  Image was taken in end of December 2014, just one month shy of Mila's birth.  It was taken on the peak of High West where we do a hike to every end of the year.  Jenny is 8 months in. 04MAY19 [25JUNE2019 FEATURES HEALTH]

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Jenny Chui started training for marathons to lose weight after giving birth to her daughter Mila four years ago
She talks about her initial reluctance to train and how her husband’s support was a big help


Jenny Chui started training for marathons to lose weight after giving birth to her daughter Mila four years ago. She talks about her initial reluctance to train and how her husband’s support was a big help.


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