The mountains don’t care about your profit and loss statement.
I learned this the hard way in 2025. This year was a study in extreme contrast—a chaotic, beautiful, and sometimes heartbreaking symphony of high performance and hard landing. Physically, I reached a peak I once thought was reserved for the elite. Community-wise, I tried to pour into others even when my own cup felt dangerously low. Professionally, I navigated a trough that tested every bit of my resolve.
It was a year of three 100K races, three cities of volunteering, and three years of financial losses. It was a year of learning that while you can out-run a mountain, you have to out-think a crisis.
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| Siksorogo Lawu Ultra 2025 |
January, I started the year in the mud of Bandung. Tahura Trail was a ten-hour reminder of what my legs could do, climbing sixteen hundred meters while the world was still waking up to 2025.
February took me to Yogyakarta for Kelas Inspirasi. Standing in SDN Baciro, I tried to explain the life of an "IT Consultant" to children whose eyes sparkled with a curiosity that had nothing to do with billable hours, a brief and grounding moment before I turned back to the trails for the eighty-one kilometers of CTC Ultra.
March was a month of silence on the trails but loud alarms in the boardroom.
I spent April balancing a quick ten-kilometer sprint at LebaRUN with the punishing verticality of the Semarang Mountain Race. Between those climbs, I went "Back to School" with Kelas Inspirasi Jakarta at SDN Menteng Atas 14, teaching kids that dreams, much like mountains, are conquered one step at a time.
In May, the training was quiet, disciplined, and solitary.
I went back to the asphalt in June for the Jakarta International Marathon. It was four hours of fighting the city’s thick heat and suffocating humidity, a different kind of endurance that demands road speed even when the air feels like soup.
A brief ten-kilometer dash at the Pocari Sweat Run in July kept the engine turning.
August was a whirlwind of logistics, sweat, and service. Between racing through the technical terrain of UI Trail, the mist of Dieng, and the coastal heat of Bali, I spent my "recovery" time as the recruitment team of Kelas Inspirasi Jakarta 2025 and facilitator for SDN Rawa Badak Utara 11. We also successfully held the Informatics Charity Run 2025—a virtual race that raised scholarship funds for the next generation—reminding me that being the Captain of CodeRunners is about much more than just pacing; it is about building a bridge for those coming after us.
I returned to Korea in October for the first time in over two years to run Trans Jeju. The volcanic trails were breathtaking, but I ran with a heavy heart, feeling the "founder's guilt" of being away while the office situation remained precarious and unstable.
In November, I completed the triple crown with the BTS Ultra, finishing my third hundred-kilometer race in eight weeks. I capped the month in Bandung at SD Cipta Karya for Kelas Inspirasi, telling a room full of wide-eyed kids what a "IT Consultant" actually does. I told them we build things out of nothing but logic and dreams, secretly hoping I could find enough of that same magic to rebuild the business back in Jakarta.
December, I closed the year at Siksorogo Lawu Ultra, eighty kilometers of high-altitude reflection. Lawu was a final, grueling climb that allowed me to leave the baggage of 2025 on the summit and look toward a leaner, sharper, and more profitable future.
The Paradox: When Grit is Not Enough
On a trail, "don't quit" is the only rule you need. In business, "don't quit" can be a trap.
As an ultra-runner, I am trained to endure pain. I am trained to keep moving when everything hurts. But I realized this year that I may have applied that runner’s grit to Suitmedia for too long. I tried to "out-run" the market shift. I tried to "endure" the losses instead of making the hard, surgical cuts we needed sooner.
September taught me the difference between a finisher and a leader. A finisher just wants to cross the line. A leader has to make sure there is still a track left for everyone else to run on.
Looking Toward 2026
I am reflective now. Suitmedia must be leaner. We must be more focused. We must bet big on the high-margin enterprise projects. The losses of the last three years are a brutal tuition fee, but the lesson is learned: You cannot out-work a structural problem. You have to be willing to prune the tree so it can grow again.
I survived 2025.
I am older, my knees are probably a little angrier, and my heart is a little more calloused from the hard conversations of the autumn. But I am grateful. I am appreciative of my team at Suitmedia who stayed to fight the next round, the kids in Jakarta, Bandung, and Yogyakarta who reminded me why we work so hard, and the mountains for showing me that I am stronger than I thought.
2026 isn't about running more kilometers. It’s about making every kilometer count.
To those of you who are in your own hardship, whether in your business, your health, or your personal life: Keep moving. But remember that sometimes the bravest thing you can do isn't to push harder—it's to stop, look at the map, and change your direction. Happy new year.
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