Other life

TELL US ABOUT YOUR OTHER LIFE Email ibo@keymedia.com.au

Ha achieved her personal best time of three hours, 48 minutes at the London Marathon

9

Number of marathons Ha has run since 2016

4h19m

Ha’s time in her rst marathon in New York

10km

Distance she ran daily in July 2021 as a personal challenge

GOING THE DISTANCE

For business development manager Trang Ha, marathon running has a lot in common with writing long-tail insurance policies

TRANG HA, a business development manager at Agile Underwriting Services, was inspired to start running marathons after seeing an insurance industry colleague in her 50s complete the New York Marathon. “I love a challenge,” Ha says, “so if she could do it, I knew I could.”

Ha signed up for the 2016 New York Marathon and trained hard for six months, completing the 42.2km in a respectable four hours and 19 minutes and turning 40 two days later. She has since run the Gold Coast Marathon in 2017; Melbourne in 2018; London and Berlin in 2019; Antalya, Turkey, in 2020; plus a Sri Chimnoy Sydney trail marathon and two virtual marathons in 2021. Pandemic travel restrictions foiled her plans to complete the Tokyo and Chicago marathons in 2020, but Ha continues to train in anticipation of the borders reopening.

When she’s pounding the pavements, Ha uses the time to contemplate life and her professional goals – and she says running marathons is quite similar to writing longtail insurance policies. “You need to get it right from the start so you’ll get a good fi nish,” she says. “It’s not a sprint, but that’s what life is; you can’t take shortcuts.”

Ha also believes running marathons teaches patience and perseverance – essential qualities for a BDM. “Put in the hard yards and you’ll get the results,” she says.