Fashion retailer Ruby Gan has been trading her high heels for running shoes to run for over 1,500 kilometers

By Romeo Moran | Photo by Pia Puno

Once upon a time, fashion maven and powerlifter-turned-marathon runner Ruby Gan felt like she was living a double life. “People in the fashion industry didn’t know about my powerlifting,” she reveals, smiling mischievously, “and my friends in the gym didn’t know I was in fashion!”

That’s the kind of person Gan is–always trying to find new ways to challenge herself and deviating from the norm while doing so. A lifter since 1993, Gan made the transition to running marathons after recuperating from a knee injury in 2012. She had already been running short distances–she was only allowed to run a maximum of 10 kilometers while she was an active powerlifter so as not to lose the muscle and strength she gained–when she felt that she was ready to rack up her mileage. So she ran the Bullrunner Dream Marathon that year with hardly any marathon-specific training, and finished better than she expected.

Since then, she’s completed six marathons and an ultramarathon–and she isn’t stopping anytime soon. In fact, she’s even expressed a desire to go into aquathlons. Something tells us that this isn’t the last we’ll see of Gan in multisport.

Stats

Best marathon time: 5:02:05

Races completed: 85

Total mileage covered: 1,442 kilometers

Longest distance run so far: 50 kilometers, Tagaytay to Nasugbu Run 2014

Total training hours in a week: Seven to nine hours

Lightest weight since she started running marathons: 125 lbs

Weekly mileage: 51 kilometers