Tania Tan takes a selfie before taking on the 5000m event of the Portland Twilight at the Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon on Saturday.
Contributed photo
TANIA Tan, yet again, broke her personal best and set another NMI record in the 5000m, clocking 17:31.19 during the Portland Twilight at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, on Saturday.
For Tan, this is one of her more meaningful achievements. “I’ve been struggling to break 18 minutes in the 5000m for the past two years now, so this race meant a lot,” she told Variety.
She finished eighth among 22 runners in her heat.
“I never would’ve imagined running anything under 20 minutes in a 5k, let alone nearly almost breaking 17:30 in this race. So, I am really happy with how this race went and I feel like this is one of those breakthrough races for me in this distance,” Tan said.
“For the past two years,” she said, “I always had this thought in the back of my mind: Why am I not improving?”
“Well,” she added, “never giving up and showing up every day to try and get better helped me run the time I did at this race.”
