Anne Curtis at the Tokyo Marathon. Images: Instagram/@annecurtissmith
Anne Curtis got emotional after completing the Tokyo marathon, which is done in support of child victims of abuse, violence, and exploitation.
Curtis shared that “every single kilometer” in the Tokyo marathon was worth it since it was done for a good cause on her personal Instagram page on Sunday, March 5. The actress is a celebrity ambassador of Unicef, an organization under the United Nations that provides humanitarian and developmental support for the world’s youth.
“Being a mother, now as well, I couldn’t help but get emotional when I crossed that finish line. It just hit a little differently this time around. Running with a purpose bigger than just receiving a medal kept me fueled,” she said in the caption.
The actress also revealed that she only trained for approximately eight weeks, with the help of sports scientist Gabb Rosario. She also thanked the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) Philippines and her loved ones for the support.
“Thank you to my coach, @gabbrosario, for taking on the impossible challenge of just 8 weeks to [prepare] me. The whole @unicefph team who helped me set the fundraiser up and educated me on the whole set up of telecpus in [barangays] all across the Philippines,” she added.
The “Baler” star also shared glimpses of her experience as a Tokyo Marathon participant, where she donned a light blue tracksuit inspired by the humanitarian agency.
Image: Instagram/@annecurtissmith
Image: Instagram/@annecurtissmith
Image: Instagram/@annecurtissmith
Curtis’ husband, Erwan Heussaff, posted a screenshot of what appeared to be a map of the actress’ progress at the marathon. “Done and dusted,” he wrote.
Image: Instagram/@erwan
Fellow celebrities Pia Wurtzbach, Vhong Navarro, Solenn Heussaff, Isabelle Daza, Luis Manzano, and Dingdong Dantes, as well as her sister Jasmine Curtis-Smith, journalist Edson Guido, and photographer BJ Pascual congratulated the actress’ recent milestone.
Image: Screengrab from Instagram/@annecurtissmith
Image: Screengrab from Instagram/@annecurtissmith
Preparing for the Tokyo Marathon
Rosario praised Curtis on her progress since she completed the Tokyo marathon within four hours and 50 minutes, as seen on his Instagram account. He also shared a rundown of how he helped the actress to prepare for the event.
“I trained @annecurtissmith for a total of [two] months coming from zero running from the past [three] years with a 5k pace of eight to nine-minute/km at zone 5 to having a zone 2 run of [seven minutes] per km to getting a PR with a pace of 6:43min/km (i yet to see the data from this to see how much effort she exerted in the race or maybe she could have pushed more),” he said.
According to Rosario, among Curtis’ training programs include specific heart rate zones training, energy system periodization, strength and conditioning work, cross training to other sports, and managing a prescribed diet.
“For the whole [two] months there were ZERO Injuries nor pain in every training session. The first 4 weeks consisted of a lot of easy aerobic work with a mix of easy speed play progressing to harder intervals and very specifically planned long runs that includes specific bpm ranges for every kilometer,” he added. EDV