My Perfect Weekend with actor Shane Pow

WHO: Singaporean actor Shane Pow is part of the ensemble cast of Channel 8 drama Coded Love, in which he plays actress Tasha Low’s childhood pal and former boyfriend. The series about love, separation and loss also stars Richie Koh and Carrie Wong, and is showing on weekdays at 9pm. It is also available on mewatch.

The 34-year-old also recently starred in Channel 8 series Unforgivable, which addresses sex crimes. The M18 version of the Channel 8 show is on mewatch.

Pow, who is managed by LNX Global – the artiste management agency run by veteran local actor Li Nanxing – is currently working on a Chinese New Year-related drama that will premiere in January 2025.

The actor, who picked up running in July, is so hooked on the sport that he recently started a running group called Sunbaked Club, where strangers meet up on weekend mornings to run together. Pow now runs about five times a week, outside of the running club.

“I never used to enjoy running, as I found the exercise boring. I am quite hyperactive and love playing team sports like basketball.

But I now realise why people say running is therapeutic. Running helps me focus and there are no distractions from my mobile phone. As I run, I can think about what I need to do for the week and plan my tasks.

I started posting about my runs on social media. A friend saw the posts and suggested that we run together. He runs faster than me, which helps me with my pacing, and I noticed improvements in my speed too. I now run 8km to 10km in under an hour. 

Slowly, more people started asking if they could join us on our runs. I was initially a bit concerned about running with strangers, but I have discovered that there are many like-minded people who also enjoy running. It has been a great way to socialise too.

That was when I thought of starting a running club – to build a community and promote a healthy lifestyle through running.

I prefer exercising on weekend mornings to enjoy the early sun, thus I called the running group Sunbaked Club. It’s also good to get some vitamin D.

Sunbaked Club now has about 220 people on our Telegram chat group and more than 190 followers on Instagram.

We had our first run on Oct 19 with 20 people in the group, as it would be hard to manage if the group size is too big.

I’m also unsure how many people can congregate before it becomes an unlawful gathering, so I decided to cap the number of participants.

We started at 8am from the Marina Bay Sands area to Marina Barrage and then back. The run covered about 5km. I told the group members to take their own time, as there was no need to rush. However, the weather got a bit too hot by the time we finished the run.

Our second run on Oct 27 started at 7am, and we ran around the Boat Quay and Clarke Quay areas. I hope to organise group runs twice a month and would like more people to join the club.

Like all exercises, running is about maintaining consistency and not having a start-stop attitude. We do tend to get lazy, and committing to the club helps to keep me motivated and get me out the door. 

I also plan to produce a Sunbaked Club T-shirt soon. It is more for identification purposes so we don’t end up following the wrong group. There are so many people running around the Marina Bay promenade area.

Before taking up running seriously, my fitness level was like a yo-yo – I tried to fit in workout sessions whenever I was not filming.

I used to wonder why people would wake up early on weekends to participate in marathons. Now that I’m hooked on running, I hope to try out a half-marathon and then complete a full marathon one day.”