'Sub-3' club still without a member as 'Fab 5' fall short
"It is far better to dare mighty things … than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much," goes the famous quote by Theodore Roosevelt. But as five brave athletes discovered this weekend, it does not hurt to make things a little easier on yourself, especially when you are attempting to do the near impossible.
Attempting to join the "Sub-3 squared Marathon Club", the five signed up to swim at least 10km of the Cold Standard ocean swim on Saturday (without a wetsuit) and the 42km marathon run yesterday in under three hours - the sole, but stringent membership requirements of the elite club that has no members.
Chris Molnar, Alexandre Reinert and Henry Wright from Hong Kong, together with Chad Bishop from Singapore and Tobias Frenz from Malaysia, took on the challenge. Only Wright, 26, and Reinert, 32, came close.
I thought, if it doesn't count in a wetsuit, I might as well do the whole thing ... But now I kind of wish I hadn't - the run was hard
Wright, a swim teacher, clocked two hours and 57 minutes on his GPS watch for 10 kilometres in the swim, but was five minutes over in the run. Reinert, a trader, just scraped in under three hours in the marathon (two hours, 59 minutes and 53 seconds) by his own timing, but was about 20 minutes over in the swim.
Wright's swimming efforts will not be recognised under the Sub 3 squared's requirements as he swam with a wetsuit to keep hypothermia at bay. "It makes about a five-minute-per-kilometre difference wearing a wetsuit," he said.
Admittedly, it did not have to be so hard. The challenge can be completed in flat, warmer and faster water. All the competitors completed the full 15 kilometres in the swim, tiring themselves for the run.
"But if you start something, you've got to finish it, right" said a determined Reinert.