I wasn't born to run...

I started life on this planet as a very sickly child. Came to this world with Jaundice which required me to go through a full blood transplant. Suffered frequent Asthma attacks from age 1 till 11. Funnily, the Asthma disappeared when i was 11 but just as quickly as it left me, severe sinusitis followed. I would get attacks on average twice a week which would render me completely useless to doing anything fruitful.

At the age of 27, i finally found a cure for my sinusitis, a nasal spray called "Flixonase" Having lived through my growing up years with sinusitis, this cure was nothing short of a miracle for me. But... as soon as the sinusitis left me, i developed a perpetual cough which i am still suffering...

Besides these niggling illnesses that have plagued me, i suffered often from others as well, catching the flu at least once every 2 months, fought a battle with pneumonia that almost took my life cos it came together with an attack of German measles. At the age of 15, i was struck by Hand, Foot and Mouth disease.... a disease that normally inflicts young toddlers. Then there were the frequent sore throats and mouth ulcers which i would get a few times a month.

With all the above, wouldn't one's natural inclination be to just give up and acknowledge that i will walk this Earth with a health burden on my back? A curse i would have to live with for the rest of my life...

At the age of 31, I decided i wanted to try and change all these. I signed up for a gym membership and got a personal trainer to help improve my health and fitness. I practically started at Base Zero. I couldn't carry half the weights that my fitter friends were doing and i struggled to run even 500 metres on the threadmill. By the first week of my gym and personal training sessions, i was all zonked out... muscles were aching, ego was taking a beating at how weak i really was and my body felt beaten up, really beaten up...

But as the weeks passed, i realised that my running abilities were picking up very quickly. I was covering longer distances and at much improved speeds. Soon running was my drug and i was relying on it to give me an ego boost. But just as i was enjoying my runs, i developed severe knee pains. It first started with just a niggling sore at the sides of the knees and then i could no longer climb up and down stairs and i had to limp while walking. Went to see a specialist and was told that some part of the thigh muscles were rubbing onto the ligament when i run and that was causing the pain. Was told to avoid running as it causes serious strain on the body parts and that i should work on cardiovascular exercises that were less damaging.

I was devastated when i heard that. Finally i found a sports that i felt i could do decently and it would be robbed away from me so quickly. But for some reason, i decided i wasn't going to give up despite advice from friends that i should do biking instead. I bought myself knee bands that would help lessen the impact of the thigh muscles rubbing on the ligaments and i continued running albeit at a much reduced pace. There would be times when i would not have strapped the band at the right position or tight enough and the pain would come back. These pains would last at least a week and during this period, climbing the stairs would be a bitch and even normal walking would cause a lot of pain. But once the pain disappeared, i would go on the threadmill again and start running.

I persevered for the next 4 years despite all the pain and today i have completed three half marathons. I no longer rely on the knee bands as i found out that i just required a lot more warming up at slower speeds before going on those fast runs and my legs have also evolved to accomodate the pain that used to be there.

As you can see, everything was against me running. My health gave me problems, my knees gave me problems, doctors and friends told me i should not run anymore for fear of further damage but i perservered and i am in such a better position than i used to be. Friends who have not seen me for ages remark at how surprised they are with the distances that i run. They are even more surprised at my discipline with my running since they have all known me to be an ill disciplined person from a young age and couldn't fathom the idea of me waking up thrice a week at 5:30am to do my runs.

Looking back, i could not have achieved all these without a GOAL, DISCIPLINE and GOD. The goal was simple..... improve my health through running and to be able to run long and fast enough to complete a half marathon.

Discipline was a lot harder.... i tried to do runs after work but it was always too difficult to plan that in. After a long and hard day's work, the mind is just too tired to urge the body to make a trip to the gym or go for a run. But i always had the goal in mind, and i figured if i can't do it after work, then do it before work!

Up till today, waking up at 5:30am is a huge pain in the ass. And it doesn't help that i have never been disciplined my entire life and waking up at 5:30am to go running requires a huge load of discipline. And that discipline, i get from God.... endless prayers to heal my body, to provide me with strength to go the distance whenever i feel like stopping (which i always do) and to provide me with the discipline to wake up at the time i am suppose to wake up and bring myself to the gym on days that i am suppose to go to the gym.

On numerous mornings, the alarm would go off and i would just switch if off and doze back to sleep. But each time, i would receive this divine intervention, a little voice telling me in my head "Ok, time to get up" and then my body would just spring up from bed and make it's way to the bathroom. Some of you may attribute this to the body reacting to an action that has become a habit but for me, that's divine intervention!

I completed my third half marathon over the weekend with a timing of 2 hours 35 mins. It's in no way an impressive timing since real atheletes usualy complete it within 2 hours. I was in fact very disappointed with the timing as all my training had indicated that i should have chalked a timing of less than 2 hours 15 mins. But it's still an improvement from the 2 hours 40 mins i did in the last half marathon and a huge improvement from the 3 hours 10 mins i did in my first half marathon.

For a person who wasn't born to run.... i like to think i did mighty fine. And if i can do it with all the obstacles that i had to battle head on, you can definitely battle whatever battles you are preparing yourself for.

If - Rudyard Kipling

Rudyard Kipling's (1865-1936) inspirational poem 'If' first appeared in his collection 'Rewards and Fairies' in 1909. The poem 'If' is inspirational, motivational, and a set of rules for 'grown-up' living. Kipling's 'If' contains mottos and maxims for life, and the poem is also a blueprint for personal integrity, behaviour and self-development. 'If' is perhaps even more relevant today than when Kipling wrote it, as an ethos and a personal philosophy. Lines from Kipling's 'If' appear over the player's entrance to Wimbledon's Centre Court - a poignant reflection of the poem's timeless and inspiring quality.

Enjoy!

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream–and not make dreams your master,
If you can think–and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings–nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And–which is more–you’ll be a Man, my son!

– Rudyard Kipling

Interview with Arsenal Manager - Arsene Wenger

I got the below article from ESPN Soccernet, an interview with Arsenal's Manager, Arsene Wenger.

Few quick lessons to learn from the interview with this highly successful manager...

1) Always ensure you earn the trust of your subordinates or team members. Never run them down in front of others and never display immediate doubt until the situation has been fully clarified. The moment your subordinate or team member feels that you have not displayed support for them, they will hesitate to deliver the best performance for you.

2) Never abandon a project you initiated for alternative personal gains. An abandonment questions your integrity and loyalty and puts the organisation and people who trusted you in a fix.

3) Identify your passion in life and spend every minute living it. Passion does not have to be in the form of what you do as a career, it can be a hobby, community work, a belief, can even be your kids or your spouse! Find something that drives you on, do not let yourself "go with the flow" because if you do go with the flow, most times you would have wasted your life away not achieving anything worthwhile.

Enjoy the Interview article!

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Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger admits he has protected his players by claiming to not see incidents which he had seen to avoid publicly criticising any member of his team.

Wenger has revealed the sense of loyalty he feels to his players, and admitted it did sometimes stray into being dishonest if he felt it was in their best interests.

Asked if he had ever been economical with the truth, the Frenchman said: "Yes, because you are thinking, 'Why has he (a player) done that?' and you know you cannot explain it.

"At times I saw it, and I said I didn't to protect the player, because I could not find any rational explanation to defend him.

"This is a job where you have to have an optimistic view of human nature or you become paranoid. You always have to think that a guy wants to do well.

"A coach is there to help. He must think that if he helps in the correct way the players will respond. You cannot be suspicious.''

Wenger also spoke about his long-term project at Arsenal and admitted he would have been "betraying his beliefs'' if he had abandoned it to go and work for Real Madrid.

"I want to go to the end of my job here. I built this team, I want to deliver with this team and I feel that if I left I would in some way have betrayed my beliefs,'' he told The Times.

"It is nothing to do with what Real Madrid have done. I just couldn't see leaving this team at this stage of their development.''

Wenger stressed the main objective for him is to create a coherent team, rather than to try and build a side around a handful of key individuals.

"I believe in working in our job, creating connections between the players. I believe in what makes football great,'' Wenger said.

"It is a team sport, a collective sport. You can win because you are more a team, or because you have more individual talent. What is interesting for me is the team ethic. I love Davis Cup, but I am not a big fan of individual tennis. It is when sport is about the team that I like it. I like the Ryder Cup.''

The Frenchman also gave an insight into how football still dominates his life, and drew comparisons between his attitude to the game and the late Sir Bobby Robson, who died last month after a long fight against cancer.

"The worst is to have no target,'' Wenger added.

"Imagine you get up in the morning and you do nothing. You enjoy one minute. Then there is another minute. But what do you do next? Can you dedicate your whole life to this? Somewhere within us is the desire to feel that we are useful and that we have some quality.

"Sir Bobby Robson just died. Did you see the last game he watched (at St James' Park)? Just a charity game, but still he had that spark in his eye.

"He could have sat at home, yet he chose to go there. He had two, three days to live and that is where he wanted to be. Yet what would he have done at home - sat there and thought about dying, maybe terrified? The way to get through was to enjoy his passion.''