Singaporean champion and world number eight tower runner Serene Cheong is a true inspiration and her achievements are nothing short of amazing. 
She broke her leg in 2015
After breaking her leg some years back, she refused to let the incident define her; rather, she chose to use it to redefine her future and her fate.
Explained Serene, “I broke my leg in November 2015 during a race. I was in a wheelchair for six months and crutches for three months. During this period of recovery, I did core workouts everyday such as legs lift and one leg plank.”
Fought back with courage and determination
But refusing to let this setback take her down, the strong-willed and determined lady fought back.
Serene said, “When I could walk on crutches, I went to learn swimming by finding a swim coach, hold my crutches to the swimming pool and put them aside. A friend suggested that since I couldn’t run, why not climb staircase to build strength in my legs. Ever since then, I walked up my HDB block everyday with crutches, and slowly it became a routine and until now, I’m still doing it.”
Climbing stairs to Serene nowadays is more than simply for fitness. It is something that she has become very good at. 
She is the world number eight
In fact now she is the undisputed Singaporean champion and one of the top tower runners in the world. She is currently the world number eight. 
Said Serene, “It was a blessing in disguise. I got faster and won my first race at the National Vertical Marathon in 2017. My first win gave me confidence to train harder for future vertical events as I found my strength here.”
A niche sport
Tower running is a niche sport where athletes run up tall buildings or skyscrapers via their internal staircases. 
Serene originally picked up the sport as a form of rehabilitation for her broken leg, but soon realised that she could be competitive in it. The rest is history.
Her successes
To date, Serene has completed 41 vertical marathons to date and in 24 races, she was crowned champion, with two course records. She has 11 second place finishes and two third-place finishes.
Some of her wins include KL Tower 2022, Times Square 2023, Sibu Tower Run 2023 where she also set a course record, as well as Australia 108 2023. Her accolades are truly inspirational.
Shanghai Tower climb
More recently, Serene has just come back from climbing Shanghai Tower, the second tallest building in the world with a height of 552m, 3398 steps and 119 floors. 
Said Serene, “This race is like one of the ‘world marathon majors’ that every tower runner should at least try once in their lifetime. But having said that, endurance training is also a must, otherwise it would be great suffering to compete against the top tower runners all over the world.”
The race comprises of a 100m run into the building followed by 119 floors where the finish line is at the top. 
Achieved her target
Serene achieved her target of sub 30 mins for her efforts. She said, “I paced myself and didn’t go fast at the beginning to conserve energy and trying to maintain my pace, but eventually still got tired after 80 floors and I began to slow down. Shanghai Tower is almost two times the height of KL Tower which makes the race more challenging in terms of elevation.”
She added, “Two runners overtook me. I got depressed but I just couldn’t speed up. My legs were really tired. I just wanted to finish. I knew as long as I kept moving, I’ll eventually reach the top.”
Serene achieved her target of sub 30 mins, finishing in 26 mins 33 seconds. She said, “No podium but I’m just happy to complete and ranked 14th.” 
Serene’s training
How does Serene train for all her events? She said, “We train at The Sail every Sunday. I am usually leading the team for a long climb followed by intervals.” 
Her training groups consist of both leisure and competitive stair athletes. So there is room for everybody. The leisure athletes do sessions such as three to five sets of 47 floors at their own pace.
These group sessions are once a week but besides these, Serene does her own sessions every day. She runs 10km in the morning followed by a stair climbing session during her lunch hour. 
Said Serene, “I do it every day. Even if it is raining, I will bring umbrella and take my slippers there so that I will have dry shoes. I do not miss a training.”
Saturdays are the only day where she will not do a climb session but she will still go for her daily 10km run.
She considers the Shanghai Tower training the worst training that she has ever experienced.
“The most I did was 4×40 storeys with 4 to 5 mins rest interval,” said Serene. She found the training very intense.
“For shorter climb like 4×10, I will take 3 minutes rest intervals,” she added.
She is good at running too
She is a strong runner as well as a stair athlete; Serene emerged as the Women’s Master champion at a recent 6km running race at the Pandan Reservoir Run 2023 organised by the Ayer Rajah Community Sports Network.
However she was shy and remained humble about this win. She laughed and said, “I am not a fast runner. There were not many people taking part. The elites were all training for the StanChart Marathon, so 6.2km is nothing to them.”
Her future goals and motivations
What are Serene’s future aspirations in tower running and her words of wisdom?
She said, “I wish I can do it as long as I can, because this is the only sport I can do well and I have found my strength.”
Continued Serene, “If you want success in a sport, you have to put in a lot of time, dedication and commitment. I never expected to get to where I am today because there are a lot of people who are still faster than me. So I just do my best and let the results speak.”
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