Captains of popular local running community Fast and Free Run Club, Azaria Heng and Dadima Kimmex are back in New York City this November for a different purpose and eyeing their second marathon finishers' medal
The TCS New York City Marathon, held annually on the first Sunday of November, is one of the largest and most prestigious marathons in the world and part of the Abbott World Marathon Majors.
It offers a 42.195km or 26.2-mile long course with electrifying crowds, taking runners through all five boroughs of New York City: Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Manhattan finishing at Central Park.
Meet the six runners from Singapore who will be taking on the 2024 TCS New York City Marathon with New Balance in this five-part series with Sportplus.sg.
Founded as an inclusive running community by Azaria Heng and Dadima Kimmex with just a small group of friends from Barry's Singapore with the purpose of training for Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon, Fast and Free Running Club's (FFRC) growth two years on has been remarkable.
Celebrating their second anniversary last month in an event that drew about 360 runners, the club went on to complete the run club's biggest overseas adventure to date at the 2024 TCS Sydney Marathon, with over fifty run club members traveling to the capital of New South Wales, with many members successfully finishing their first marathons and overseas race experience.
It is undoubtedly the first of many more trips to come for the Toasties. In fact FFRC's captains need not even wait that long, with the two slated to run in the upcoming TCS New York City Marathon. It's just a little over a year since their last visit to the big apple, and a race that both captains are looking forward to with great anticipation.
1. Share with us what are your roles at Fast and Free Run Club?
Dadima: As a co-founder, I handle a range of responsibilities including social media management, partnerships, and collaborations. I also oversee the creative direction of the club, working closely with photographers and designers. As a captain, I lead the pace groups for both Toasted Thursday—ensuring we maintain the correct paces and complete the right sets—and Saturday Kaya Runs—making sure we follow the proper routes, as Azaria's routes can be quite complex.
Azaria: Founder and Captain of G3 of the club! I oversee the broad direction, plans and branding of the club. I also work closely alongside Dadima to be the check and balance required especially with our social media and collaboration endeavours by keeping it real, honest and painting the right story.
I am also the Captain of G3 where the focus is to pace for at or around 3:45 Marathon / 1:40-1:45 Half Marathon target for intervals and long runs on Thursday and Saturday respectively. On the overall, I am also responsible for drafting the training plan for our Toasties (Pacers), of which we will use those workouts to craft into the public’s run on Thursday and Saturday.
2. Name an iconic location that most represents you and your run club when you do your runs
Dadima: Believe it or not, we’re at Kaya Run #79 now, and Azaria has never repeated a route! He’s dedicated to keeping running exciting through exploration, which is reflected in the diverse routes we offer each week. We’ve even run from the CBD to Jurong and from CBD to Pasir Ris. It’s quite the adventure! If I had to choose an iconic location, I’d say the Benjamin Sheares Bridge—it's become the signature mark of FFRC’s routes.
Azaria: 18 Robinson! This is the start of our Saturday Kaya runs for all 79 editions of it so far. The club started out with a bunch of regulars at Barry’s Raffles wanting to do some long runs in preparation for the SCSM that year, hence the starting location at where Barry’s is located. It has continued to be our constant to explore routes starting from here and it is also what makes the club modern, central and accessible to all!
3. What are your personal goals and what are you looking to accomplish in NYC Marathon 2024?
Dadima: My main goal is to run my heart out! I’m all about racing and want to make sure I train as hard as I can. It’s not really about hitting a specific time for me; it’s more about knowing I gave it everything I’ve got when I cross that finish line. Plus, I’m so excited to soak up the incredible energy of the NYC Marathon. It’s always been a dream of mine, and getting to experience it with what people say is the best crowd in the world is an absolute honour.
Azaria: My personal goal is to run strong and run happy! At this point, I feel my preparation for Sydney hasn’t been the smoothest and a couple more months after that race, which is the NYC Marathon would be quite the ideal condition to race in. Mentally, I’m not the strongest when it comes to the Marathon distance but I certainly hope to harness my mind and come out stronger. Timing ambition wise, a Sub 3:30 attempt would be on the cards but that isn’t the main aim, what matters is to race physically and mentally happy and just to soak in everything that NYC has to give in one of the most prestigious majors in the world!
4. What has been your biggest challenge when training for NYC Marathon?
Dadima: My biggest challenge has been dealing with my recent diagnosis of Graves' disease, which causes hyperthyroidism. It’s been a tough few months. I couldn’t share this with my runners right away, and they’ve been wondering why I haven’t been able to lead our runs. I miss running with them and felt embarrassed about not being able to be there. It’s hard to be a run captain who can’t run, and starting from scratch feels daunting.
I was in great shape after the Hong Kong Half, but then I wasn’t able to train for the Sydney block, which was really disheartening. Graves' disease can elevate your heart rate, making even easy runs challenging. I remember struggling with an 8/km pace while my heart rate spiked to 200 bpm, which was both scary and frustrating. My usual intervals used to be around 5:15/km, but suddenly I couldn’t even manage 8/km easy runs. Being diagnosed with a chronic autoimmune illness at 23 felt like my world was crashing, especially since running has always been such a huge part of my life. My doctor advised me not to run for several weeks, and it felt like running was being taken away from me.
But I’m hopeful for better days ahead and hope to share my experience with others going through something similar. Running will always be there for you; you just have to work towards it again.
Azaria: I would summarise it to sweat rate, nutrition and mentality. It's no secret to those who have trained and ran with me that I have an unusually high sweat rate especially in the already challenging conditions in Singapore. This meant a lot of adaptations that I have to make on a daily basis with my trainings, from simple things like keeping the hair length short, being picky about training gears, having almost 2 sets of outfits for each training session in order to keep myself fresh and crucially, learning to be patient with simulated paces and lactate spikes.
Nutrition struggles are also a product of that high sweat rate. I’m definitely burning through a higher % of carbs and calories through any training sessions that involve race paces as compared to my peers and that requires me to train the gut to be able to replenish that similar amount of food and drink. From increasing my glycogen storage to getting about 60g carbs/hour during the run and balancing intake frequency to prevent fluid sloshing in the stomach and even increase sodium levels by adding sea salt into drink mixes are part and parcel of my daily processes.
Mentality. I’ve always been a short course athlete when it comes to running in the past. Running long distances and long hours on foot has been a daunting thought and process. I’m nowhere near the range of 90-100 KM mileage a week but in order to simulate that stress, I try to mix things up with cycling which helps with my mentality going into every training session. I’ve also learned to take the positives from easy days by looking forward to podcasts on those runs.
5. Could you share with us a regular run route of yours for Marathon training?
Dadima: It’s definitely the bay area because we wake up at 3:30am and go do our sets before the public FFRC Kaya run starts at 6:30am!
Azaria: I like to call it the Gardens By The Bay (GBTB) loop. It's been a constant for the race crew in completing a lot of our pre-Kaya Run sets where we have to get the mileage in earlier in the morning before we receive the public at 6:30am to complete the remainder of our mileage.
As for the public Kaya Runs, there’s no real regular run route as I switch things up every single week to keep things exciting. But I would certainly say a couple of our staples are (1) Robertson Quay > Queensway Stadium > Rail Corridor > Town and (2) MBS > GBTB > Barrage > Bay Area > Benjamin Sheares > Town. These would be commonly featured as the starting bits of our routes.
6. Who do you usually train with (if any)?
Dadima: I usually do an interval and long run with my running club of course!
Azaria: Ironically, I am quite introverted when it comes to nailing down my training plans. So that naturally means I only do the Thursday intervals and Saturday long run with FFRC. But all other bits of it, I usually do it alone or with Dadima or friends who live near the far east (Pasir Ris) with me.
7. Share your journey into running with us, were they any major influences?
Dadima: I come from a background of competitive team sports—I played volleyball, soccer, and basketball throughout middle and high school—so transitioning to running was quite a change for me. For one, running was often used as punishment in those sports, since we all dreaded running laps. Our coaches made us run when someone was late, which was always a drag!
Also, in team sports, I relied heavily on my teammates, but running is more individualistic and can feel quite lonely—at least it did until I joined FFRC. Running with FFRC showed me that running doesn’t have to be solitary at all. In fact, our community makes it feel like we’re all in it together, training and pushing through the tough moments side by side. It’s a lot of fun and very supportive.
One of my running role models is Anya Culling. She went from running a 4- or 5-hour marathon to becoming a full-time Great Britain athlete aiming for a 2:30 marathon. Her journey is incredibly inspiring to me. She started from a modest fitness background and has achieved so much, proving that anyone can pursue running and excel. It’s amazing and motivating to see what she’s accomplished.
Azaria: I used to come from short course triathlon in polytechnic days, which revolved a lot around 5K specific work. Took a big break from that and only started to get my calling into the longer distance stuff during the covid period. Running tech had taken a big switcheroo and I was keen to find myself and explore the city (Nottingham, where I studied for university) again. I decided to aim for the Gold Coast Half Marathon as my first target, which gave me 6 full months to train up a base and half marathon specific work. One thing led to another, founded FFRC with friends and its been that ever since!
I draw huge motivation from youtube really. I would say key figures like Ben is Running, Seth James DeMoor, Kofuzi, SweatElite, Philly Bowden, ThatTriathlonLife, Jan Frodeno etc, have all been super influential.
8. Is NYC Marathon your first full marathon?
Dadima: It will actually be my second marathon! However, it will be the first one I can properly train for. I was only cleared by my coach to start doing intervals this week, but the Sydney Marathon is next Sunday—so I’m a bit behind, haha. But it’s all good; I’m taking it day by day!
Azaria: It will be my second too! Sydney Marathon being the first.
9. What made you sign-up for NYC Marathon with New Balance?
Dadima: It’s a World Major! Last year, I reposted an inspiring Instagram reel of the NYC Marathon and was amazed by the crowd and energy. I remember thinking, “Wow, I can’t wait to experience this one day.” When the opportunity to run it with New Balance came up, I couldn’t pass it up. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance to be part of something so incredible.
Azaria: Running the NYC Marathon with anyone is a dream come through to be honest! We were in NYC last year around 16 weeks out from the Marathon just visiting friends. It was such an experience to be immersed with run clubs who were starting their training towards the big race. I was already training in New Balance back then and to know NB is one of the title sponsors for the race makes it even crazier should I ever get the chance to race it with New Balance!
10. What does Run Your Way mean to you personally?
Dadima: To me, "Run Your Way" means giving it your all and truly enjoying the process. It’s about soaking in every moment and having fun, while still putting in the effort to prepare and make the most of the race experience.
Azaria: We have a saying in our club called #nevertooslow. It is similar to how I perceive ‘Run You Way’. Running is tough at a midpacker level, the pros make it look easy but the reality is that most normal people out here go through a lot more through the whole process of making it to the line. To me the term means to train, prepare and race it your way, no matter how fast or slow it might be. Everyone is different and everyone should run it their own way.
11. What's your running philosophy / attitude towards running?
Dadima: I see running as a reflection of life. It’s all about what you put in—your effort, commitment, and heart—and that’s what you’ll get out in return.
Azaria: I may not be the best but I am definitely not going to half ass it. Go all in, go one more, keep things honest and give it my best.
12. What are your personal goals and what are you looking to accomplish in NYC Marathon 2024?
Dadima: My goal is to run it non-stop, enjoy the route, and catch up with friends. Some of my childhood friends from the States are flying in to see me run, so I know it’ll be an emotional experience when I see them cheering along the course.
Azaria: The goal remains Sub 3:30. Use the energy from the crowd, dial in the nutrition and run the data points (stride length, cadence, even pacing) well. And ofcourse, if all else fails, push through low moments and to always have a good time out on the course. #TCSNYCMarathon #NewBalanceSG #NewBalance #NewBalanceRunning #RunYourWay
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