Clients I coach online, their success stories and world records

September, October and November have often been my joyous months as an online coach, with most of my clients hitting their goals in the road running season.

Two of my clients registered massive PBs in different races, on the same day

What a weekend it was for me in November 2012 when I had a client at the 2021 New York City Marathon who improved his PB from 4:04:09 to 3:19:17!

That weekend, two of the runners that I coach online improved on their marathon personal best times; one from 4:04:09, down to 3:19:17, and another one from 3:32:11, a time he ran on the same race last year, to 3:14:05! The two races on the 7th of November, with the two runners running on two different continents. Faisal Shafi was running the Istanbul Marathon while Anthony Galsim was running the New York City Marathon.

I definitely had to write something down to remember that amazing weekend. The greatest joy comes when the runners I coach reap great results from their commitment and hard work. I have been having some great feedback from other runners I coach as they run new personal best times after another.

One of the runners even registered personal best times across distances from 10K, 15K, 20K, half marathon, 30K…. all the way to the Marathon in one single race!

My client ran a new Guinness World Record at the Sydney Marathon

At the recent 2025 Sydney Marathon, Shafi ran a new Guinness World record of 3:40:13, dressed in light military uniform.

I count 2019 as the year I first featured as a coach at the NYC Marathon. I had never raced at the New York City marathon before, but this was the closest I had ever been to the experience of running it, as I tracked another one of the running clients I coach online who was running it.

Duncan Nyasinga approached me in late August that year to help him prepare for the 2019 New York City Marathon. His aim was to better his personal best time on race day, which was just over three months away.

“I came across your name through the internet after being mentioned by my Canadian friend. I am currently in the NYC area and planning to stay and run the 2019 NYC marathon. My best time is 2:40:21 for the full marathon,” he had emailed me.

“I know I am capable and I believe there are no limits on humanity. I have a passion to run and have been following YouTube clips of Kipchoge as he prepared for the Nike under 2hr project and the current 1:59 project which helped me run the 2018 NYC time of 2:45:23,” he added.

Although he initially told me that he didn’t have money to pay upfront for a coach, I trusted him and agreed to begin giving him training programs in advance. After he began training with me, he actually paid for my services sooner than I had expected.

I could see his determination to improve his running, and it was very exciting to work with him in the 11 weeks that followed before his race on the 3rd of November 2019.

My clients often get to meet Eliud Kipchoge after their races

Interestingly, not only did he improve his time at the New York City marathon that year, but he miraculously got to meet and briefly chat with his role model, Eliud Kipchoge, himself, at the finish line! This also happened with my two running clients from Macau at the Sydney Marathon.

The evening before the race, he had given me his bib number so that I would track him during the race. He also called and we discussed the race strategy taking into account the topography and the nature of the New York marathon’s course. Our plan was to go out at a pace well ahead of his targeted time in the first half of the race, then try and balance that in the last half making sure he fought to remain inside the targeted time.

I kept checking his progress with the mobile application on my phone. The first half of the race went so well that I even got a little worried that he had overdone it, as he crossed it in 1hr 12 minutes. The projected finish time was 2:24, which was way faster than the time we were targeting. It would have been a tremendous achievement if he had maintained that.

However, as I had feared, the times started getting slower after he crossed the 25km point, and the projected finish time began changing. It was evident that he was beginning to suffer and struggle in the last few kilometers of the race when, for the first time, his pace was over four minutes per kilometer.

But, despite the tough course and the struggle towards the end of the race, Nyasinga was able to improve his personal best time for the marathon by seven minutes. He crossed the finish line in 2:33:27! I was so happy as his coach. It was an amazing experience and another learning opportunity to prepare better for the next race and another personal best time.