How Lululemon ultra-marathon helped Vriko Kwok find her pace as a runner, reshape ‘traumatic’ experience in sports
- 32-year-old Hongkonger recalls how childhood bullies made fun of her size when she exercised; those experiences kept her from exploring sports for years
- After trying jiu-jitsu in her 20s, Kwok – who had previously never run 1km continuously – took up a challenge to run 300km over six days
Of the 10 women joining the ultra-marathon, Vriko Kwok (left) was the only one who had no background as a runner. Hongkonger Vriko Kwok broke down in tears on her fourth day of Lululemon’s ultra-marathon, Further, where she was aiming to run 300km in six days. Every part of her body was screaming.
She sat in a rest station sobbing and trying to cope with the pain as she told her teammate that she felt “awful”. Seeing her distress, seven of the nine other women in the ultra-marathon dropped their daily goals to accompany Kwok as she worked to hit the 160km marker.
In the end, the 32-year-old ran 303.31km in the ultra-marathon, which was held in March in the US state of California. Just one year prior, she had not even been able to run 1km continuously.
“The ultra-marathon is like this ... when you’re at the highest high, you know that the lowest low is coming,” Kwok said. “And then you have to tell yourself that, OK, we just have to ride it out because once you’re at the lowest, the only way is going back up.”
Kwok had never imagined she would accomplish such a rigorous athletic feat; she always thought that the sport of running was not for her because she was “bigger”.
“There has always been a trauma that is associated with my relationship with running ... I felt like I don’t belong,” she said. “I never saw myself in the active women’s space because there’s just no bigger girls represented in sports.”
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How she became a runner
Kwok, who was born in Hong Kong and now lives here, grew up in many places, from Canada to Italy and Norway. In secondary school, Kwok explained that she was teased for her size and “bullied quite badly” when she exercised.
Because of these experiences, it wasn’t until her 20s that Kwok became more active. She took up jiu-jitsu at age 27 and now considers herself a “competitive” athlete in the sport.
Her introduction to running came when Lululemon – for which Kwok was already an ambassador, testing new products and representing the athletic apparel brand – asked her to participate in Further.
“I love challenges – it’s just very innate to me that I love a good challenge,” she said. “The thing is, if you always stay in something that you know ... you get bored.”
The ultra-marathon invited 10 female athletes from around the world and all walks of life to run their longest distance in order to highlight the needs of women in sports.
The women received professional training and custom-made gear as they prepared for the event. They wore heart rate and glucose monitors and did VO2 max tests, which measure how much oxygen is used during exercise.
Trainers used the data from these tests to improve the runners’ performance, and it was also published by a research team from the Canadian Sport Institute in an effort to better understand women’s health and exercise.
According to a study published in 2021 in the Women in Sport and Physical Activity Journal, only six per cent of sports science publications focused solely on women. Within all sports science studies, women only made up 34 per cent of participants. This means that much of the data on sports might not apply to women.
For Kwok, not only was this ultra-marathon a chance to challenge herself in a new sport, but she also wanted to promote female health and inclusion in sports science. Given the lack of research on this topic, Kwok urged young women to trust and listen to how their bodies feel.
Finding her pace
Of the 10 women in Further, Kwok was the only one without running experience. When she first met the rest of her team in April 2023 for an introductory session, Kwok remembered feeling like she “didn’t belong there”.
“They were all talking about what’s the furthest [they’ve] run ... I just felt like, why am I even here?” she said, adding that seven of the women had already completed marathons and one held a record in America.
Even amid her intense training, Kwok still struggled to identify as a runner.
“I still felt weird towards the end of last year to call myself a runner because I feel like I have to be in certain shape or have to run at a certain pace to earn my title as a runner,” she said.
Now, however, the Hongkonger understands that running and sports look different for everyone. Given the various tests she did with Lululemon, she determined that her “comfortable pace” for running is slow. Even if others would push to go faster, Kwok – who is currently training for the Chicago marathon in October – doesn’t care because a gentle speed “works for my body”.
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Despite all of her obstacles, Kwok exceeded her goal by 3km, and collectively, the women ran 4,635km.
Recalling the moment when she broke down on the fourth day of Further, Kwok remembered thinking: “The miles don’t matter now. I only care about my teammates.”
The athlete credits much of her success during the ultra-marathon to her teammates.
By the nature of the event, the women were not competing against one another but against themselves, each trying to set personal records. This made for an uplifting environment.
Having grown up with a “traumatic” relationship with exercise and running, Kwok urged young people to do what brings them joy, regardless of others’ comments.
“Do the opinions actually matter that much? Do they matter so much that you are going to change the course of your life just to stop doing what makes you happy?” she said, adding that she regretted delaying her sports career because of what others said.
“Look inward and ask yourself: why do you want to do something? And if that reason is enough for you, who cares what other people think?”