Ontario runner overcomes obstacles to secure six-star marathon medal

In 2018, Bill Huang became one of 50 teachers in North America to win an entry to the New York City Marathon, and it turned into the journey of a lifetime–to earn the coveted Six-Star Finisher medal at the Abbott World Marathon Majors. Huang’s journey went smoothly, with a sub-3 result at the London Marathon in 2019, a Boston-qualifying 3:03 at the Chicago Marathon the same year and the Boston Marathon in 2021. The Richmond Hill, Ont., runner ran his marathon personal best (2:41) at Berlin in 2024, on the race’s 50th anniversary.

A smooth and easy build-up for the Tokyo Marathon (the final “star” in his Six-Star journey) in March seemed like a foregone conclusion, but it turned out to be anything but. While training for Tokyo, Huang encountered setback after setback, at times almost losing hope that he’d be able to achieve it this year. But, having committed, he was determined to succeed–and he was not going to be content to just “dog it” on the course. He wanted a strong finish, and his experience proved to him that anything is possible.

Fitting training into family life

Huang’s first problem was being consistent with his training: “I didn’t have much time to train, as I needed to take care of my baby at home, and some days I just couldn’t run,” he says. It also meant his mileage was relatively low for an experienced (and relatively fast) marathoner. “I was fully occupied by my family duties and tutoring work, leaving little time to train during weekdays. In fact, I didn’t have a training plan, and I worked my training around my wife’s work schedules and the cold and nasty weather in southern Ontario.”

The joy of speedwork in winter

Like all Canadian runners, Huang was challenged by the winter weather. “It’s hard to do speedwork when it’s below -10 C, with a strong wind or heavy snowfall,” he says. To deal with it, instead of worrying about whether he’d be able to accomplish structured workouts, he decided to do long hill repeats once a week for a month; he also incorporated threshold intervals of 3 x 5 km or 2 x 10 km into his long runs; he also switched from marathon pace to threshold pace in the last 5 km of his long runs, to simulate the race experience.

But the challenges in training weren’t all he had to deal with. His family’s travel to Tokyo was plagued by flight delays and cancellations, and when they finally arrived, his wife and daughter both came down with the dreaded norovirus (which brings vomiting and diarrhea). Huang took care of his family–and did multiple loads of laundry to avoid getting sick himself.

More obstacles

The race itself was filled with challenges. Though the temperature was around 12 C and overcast at the start, the sun came out about an hour into the race, and conditions got steadily hotter. 

“The last 5K was torturing my body and soul,” Huang says. “Racing in 15 to 20 C after training in -15 and -20 C shocked my body to the very core.” Moreover, his watch malfunctioned, and wouldn’t connect to GPS. Around the 15K mark, Huang accidentally dropped two of his four gels, but didn’t notice until later. This left him two gels for the remainder of the race. What more could possibly go wrong?

Thankfully, nothing did. In fact, despite all of these setbacks, Huang managed to finish in 2:42–an extraordinary accomplishment, considering the obstacles.

How did he do it?

Huang told us that for every setback, he looked for a solution. When he realized his mileage was lower than usual, he found a way to make what little training time he had as efficient as possible, substituting simpler workouts for more complicated ones, incorporating speedwork into his long runs and combining running with stroller time with his daughter. During the race, when conditions were challenging, he drank the offered fluids and poured water on his neck and back at every aid station to stay cool, while trying to slow down as little as possible.

“At the most difficult moments, I needed enormous mental power to keep the wheels rolling, with lots of prayers and thinking of my wife and daughter cheering for me at the finish line,” Huang says.  “Honestly, I never put in so much mental energy into a race.

“I share my story to inspire other runners in our communities when life gets very hard, with so many different challenges and obstacles hitting us. We should not give up–until the very end.”