Wind Tunnel Simulations

The wind tunnel is an amazing engineering tool - with the right set up and sensors,  (close to) actual speed conditions can be simulated and drag and lift forces can be determined. For sports engineering, this means we could determine the drag and lift coefficient in sports wheelchairs and bicycles; estimate what's the optimum position for skiers and snow boarders when they are racing down the hills or doing a jump; and find out the aerodynamic drag of soccer and rugby balls. Although there are simulation software packages that could perform CFD (computational fluid dynamics) and save the trouble of going to the wind tunnel but due to limitations in the programs, certain conditions are impossible to simulate on the computer.

I have been very privileged over the past year to have done tests in the wind tunnel for different sports. Even found out recently that one of the ski athletes who did some tests in the wind tunnel won a gold medal in the Ski Cross World Cup! A first for Australia! Here are some snap shots:

Inside wind tunnel: aerodynamic flow
around a cylinder  

Rugby wheelchair on a force plate

Wheelchair on a hanging platform

Snow boarder adjusting his position

Even though the wind tunnel is really awesome and the one that I used could simulate wind speeds up to 150kph, there are still some limitations and constraints that we have to consider before running experiments. I was doing some tests at the wind tunnel the other day, and this professor walked in to pick up something; he had a look at the wind tunnel setup and started commenting about a couple of things and questioned if we did the proper calibrations and considered the accuracy of the laminar flow and so on. To be honest, it can be a little bit annoying when someone walks in and questions every little thing they see. Unfortunately, that's the way engineering or science simulations works; to get proper results for publishing, one needs to pay attention to details.

But at the same time, I reckon no matter how hard we try to simulate sports movements and high speed environments, it will always be falling short of the actual condition. For example when a ski jumper is going down a slope and preparing for a jump, there will be so much excitement and adrenaline in the athlete that can't be re-created in a wind tunnel environment (unless we could add in a 3D virtual goggles, that might come close and I hope I get to see that one day).

Believing in God is kinda like that. There is one true and living God in the world and there is simply no substitute and there is nothing: no other god or religion or hobby or whatever that could come close to Him. We could try to fill our lives with many things (family, friends, love, work, fun, holidays, etc) but we will never be truly satisfied unless we come to know God through Jesus Christ.

Here's a video that explains it a little more:-

   

Dealing with Disabilities II

Just to add on to the topic of dealing with disabilities, here's a couple of interesting videos by Aimee Mullins: a double amputee Paralympic record-breaker. She talks about the opportunities she had instead of her disability and how her legs give her 'superpowers':

Aimee Mullins on TED:

Dealing with Disabilities I

Wheelchair Rugby
My current sports engineering project involves working with wheelchair rugby athletes. The aim of my project is to develop a wireless sensor for measuring performance of the wheelchair athletes on the court. Wheelchair rugby is still a relatively unknown sport that originated from Canada that started in 1977. It became recognised as an international sport in 1993 and an official Paralympic sport with full medal status in the 2000 Sydney Summer Paralympic Games. The game is also known as Quad rugby or Murderball which is the original name of the game. It is similar to rugby in the sense that each side scores a point when they carry the ball across the opponent's goal; but instead of playing in a field, the game is played typically in an indoor basketball court. The players are quadriplegic mostly due to spinal cord injuries.

The first time I met some of the players from the Australian team was during a test session at the sports engineering lab in RMIT. They all drove themselves there, brought their own gear and stuff. They came with two wheelchairs each: the first one is their daily use wheelchair which they use to get around and the second one is their customised rugby wheelchair for training and competitions. On top of that, they brought spare wheels, someone brought a portable compressor, and their sports tape, gloves etc. I look at them and my impression of them is: they are elite athletes who are serious about what they are doing, just like any other professional athletes.

Though they have a disability, they don't let that stop themselves from being independent, being active and competitive and simply living their lives to the full potential. 'Abled' people really have a thing or two to learn from them.

Testing on the wheelchair ergometer

Trying to capture some high speed footage

But of course, watching them do drills individually in the lab is nothing compared to watching them play an actual game. Not too long ago, I had the opportunity to take some measurements of them during an actual match - I mounted my iPhone on one of their wheelchairs in order to measure accelerations during the game. Once the game started, I saw them going all out, with full aggression, hitting each other harder than what you see on AFL or Rugby League; they don't seem too worried about sustaining any more injuries but I was praying hard that my iPhone will survive all those hard knocks.

Short clip of a wheelchair rugby game:

Workshop with Emma Gee
Recently I attended a workshop presented by Emma Gee. She is an occupational therapist and stroke survivor. At age 24, she discovered she had Arteriovenous malformation, went through an operation which gave her a stroke and became hemiplegic since then. While going through the rehabilitation process,  her perspective to many things changed and she became an inspirational speaker to share some of her insights, to help people get back on their feet and to be an advocate for disabled people.

During the workshop, she shared about an incident during one of her travels where she booked a hotel room one month prior and she specifically requested for a room with disability access. On arrival, the hotel attendant took her to the suite (apparently they 'upgraded' her) and she was shocked to find out the suite had two floors and the bedroom was upstairs. She turned to the attendant saying she can't handle stairs because of her disability but the attendant only apologised to say there were no other rooms available. I think that is just unacceptable! Obviously, her request was not communicated to the other hotel staff and they did nothing to make the situation better. In the end, she could only overcome the situation herself by crawling up the stairs to get to the bedroom.

There were other stories similar to this in which she emphasised the importance of communication, doing things meaningfully and purposefully (for engineers: designing things that are meaningful and useful, not just because we can), and putting yourself in other people's shoes.

So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. Matthew 7:12 (NIV)

She went through many other bad experiences where things were really tough and she saw that she could either curl up and wish life didn't exist or she could step up and inspire change. She chose the latter and because of that, me and a room of engineers could be inspired (in many ways) by her life. I'm not sure if she is a Christian or not; if she is, I believe God has a grand purpose for her life.

But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 1 Corinthians 1:27 (NIV)

I'm not saying we should all go ahead and get a disability but sometimes we can be so focused on our own strengths and abilities that we forget all about God. It's like when Jesus went up on a mountainside and thousands of people were following Him; He posed a challenge to Philip: where shall they buy bread for these people? Philip did a quick calculation and concluded that eight months wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite! Philip decided that it was impossible based on what he has. Then a boy comes along with only five loaves and two fish (which is definitely worth less than eight months wages) and Jesus used that to perform a miracle.  

Coaching experiences

There was a period when I was in Melbourne and I was jobless for a couple of months. I was hoping to find my ideal job - something that combined engineering and sports, or something technical but interesting like product design and development. I couldn't find any. It was around mid of spring and I noticed there were some job advertisements looking for sports coaches in various suburbs. I decided to apply for one since I did have some coaching experience. Within a couple of days, a guy called me to arrange for an interview and after the interview, I was hired!

So this guy (the boss) that hired me runs a company that organizes after-school sports programs for preps to year 4 (around 5 - 9 year olds)  and basically I get assigned a couple of schools where the sports programs are held and I run the program. The sports I have to 'coach' include basketball, cricket & soccer. But because the kids are so young, I couldn't make it too difficult. So I had to incorporate games half the time (actually it was 90% of the time) while teaching them some skills of playing the different sports.  

Now before I started on the job, the boss gave me and a few other new 'coaches' a training session on how to run a sports program. There was sort of a guideline as to how each session should start and end and it was important to lay down the ground rules for the kids before each session started. When I first learned about that, I was thinking: "do I really have to lay down the ground rules to the same kids EVERY session?".

Anyway, my first session was together with an experienced coach so I was more of an assistant or under-study. He gave instructions to the kids, split them into groups for different activities, taught them simple ball handling skills and organized games for them.The kids were a little chaotic and not following instructions at times (which is very normal) but he had the ultimate 'secret weapon' which brings things back to order - the coach's whistle. Once the whistle was blown, everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at the coach. It was really effective. But somehow at that point, I didn't feel that the whistle would be necessary, so I decided that I would do something different for my own sessions.

The boss called me to follow up on my first session. I told him it was all good and I feel confident to take a session on my own. So the following week, I was assigned to coach 2 schools. I went with no whistle for the first week and I was totally owned by the kids. They were all over the place, balls were flying everywhere, random shouting and screaming, total chaos. I would teach them the rules of a game, give them the balls and they will follow my instructions for 30 seconds (or less) and then one kid will suggest doing something else with the ball, proceed with his own suggestion, another kid comes up with another great idea and within 10 seconds every kid is doing their own thing.

Well, subsequently I got myself a whistle and it became slightly better. The whistle definitely got the kids' attention. But there are a few things that don't change. Firstly, every kid's attention span is only 45 seconds, MAX; and after that, they are bored and want to do something else. Secondly, they like to counter my instructions with their 'better idea' which totally has no connection to the sport of the day. For e.g. I try to teach them how to pass a basketball by bouncing it off the floor and one kid will go:"I wanna play hide and seek!!"; and quite often instead of learning to practice passing the basketball, the kids will run off with the basketball and try to shoot into the hoop, or kick the ball like a soccer ball or worse, throw the ball at me. I spent half the time blowing the whistle and the other half picking up balls kicked far away. Ah the frustration.

As I think back of that experience, I realized that is probably how we are to God. We are like uncontrollable kids. God tells us what we have to do but we always want to do something else. We think that we have a better plan than what God has for us. We don't want to keep doing the same thing and we wanna try something different. We disobey God. Fortunately, God can be patient with us. Like how He was patient with the Israelites when He brought them out of Egypt, how He allowed Abraham to negotiate for ten righteous people to not destroy Sodom & Gomorrah and how He sent Jonah to Nineveh to proclaim His word and bring them to repentance. More importantly, He always keeps His word and He is patient with us today for a reason.

2 Peter 2:9 (NIV) says:
The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

God is giving more time to His own people - those who have not come to the knowledge of His saving grace to be converted and those of us who have come under His grace to continue in our faith and do what we have been called to do, bringing glory to God.

The real deal

2010 Oct 10, 6:30AM
I reached the MCG and the place was already packed with people. Everyone was kinda doing their last minute preparation before the run - going to the toilets, putting on sunscreen, having a quick snack, placing their bags at the bags collection area, stretching and taking a slow jog or walk to the starting line. Due to the long toilet queues and me getting a bit lost in the MCG (it was my first time in the G), I had to run to the starting line or should I say starting area because there were so many people.

7:00AM. The race commenced! The horn was blown and people started running. At least for those right at the front; for those of us who were at the middle or rear of the pack, we were walking for a few minutes before there was enough space to run. I noticed there were sweaters and jumpers hanging on trees and railings at the side and I found out that it was a tradition that marathon participants could leave whatever warm clothing there and volunteers would later collect them for Salvos.

8:00AM. I have done 10kms. The feeling is good. I thought I was pacing myself well although I was trying to look for the official marathon pacer for 4 1/2 hours but to no avail. I seem to be catching up with people in front of me and overtaking them.

8:55AM. Miraculously, I covered half the distance! Also, during the past hour or so, I managed to catch up with the 4 hours & 15 mins pacer, overtook the group and caught up with the 4 hours pacing group! I thought to myself: "hey, I might just be able to go ahead of this group..". So I did and I was feeling quite good about myself thinking that I could possibly run the marathon under four hours!

I thought wrong.

At around the 24km mark, my tummy was sending signals to my brain that I have to use the bathroom. It went on and off and it was bugging me. On one hand, I could go to the next available toilet and find relief; on the other hand, I could hold it in, finish the marathon (which I thought at that point it's ONLY 18km more to go... ya right) and I save 5 minutes. I actually struggled with that thought for the next 2km. Thank God that feeling went away shortly after.

Then at around 26km, I noticed my thighs feeling a bit tight so I slowed down a little. Even then, the tightness did not go away and after another 1 or 2 km, my calves joined in the fun. They were all protesting. But I thought to myself, they should be able to last, it was maybe 14 to 15 km more. I pressed on although I was slowing down steadily and part of me was reprimanding myself for signing up for the marathon instead of the half-marathon.

Just before the 30km mark, the 4 hour pacing group overtook me and I had to let them because when I tried to keep up with their pace, my legs wouldn't let me. As I struggled on in the 'fastest' pace my legs would take me, I see more and more people starting to walk or stopping at the side of the road to stretch their legs.

Within the next 15 to 20 minutes, the 4 hour & 15 minutes group caught up and overtook me. This time, I did force myself to follow their pace; I lasted for maybe 3 minutes. As they ran ahead of me, I realised that my thighs were not just tight, they were in pain. It was probably around 34km that I stopped. I tried to do a standing quad stretch (pulling my foot to my butt) - bad idea, I felt a sharp pain. I massaged my thighs for a bit and decided to walk. Yet even walking was not pain free.

I alternated between walking and running (very slowly) for the next 4 to 5km. This was a tormenting 30-40mins of my life; didn't help that I was starting to feel hungry too. But I have to say the volunteers for the marathon were really a blessing from God. They were fantastic. They were not only giving the runners water and powerade at the aid stations, they were cheering everyone on and all; and I think it was at the 37.5km aid station (somewhere along the shrine of remembrance) where they were giving out jelly beans! I was never a fan of jelly beans or any lollies for that matter, but at that moment they were a lifesaver.

Also at some point when I was walking, an old gentleman with a head of white hair and beard ran past me and as he was running past me, he turned to me and shouted "come on don't give up!".  That motivated me to start running again. Then somewhere near the 40 km mark (near Fed square), as people who had completed the marathon (they had the finisher's medal around their neck) were walking to their cars or to flinders train station, they cheered the rest of the runners on: "come on, you are getting there!". Yeah, we were getting there.

Finally at 11:25AM, I completed my first marathon. The sign board for the last 500m spurred me to open up my strides, race into the MCG, go one round the stadium and cross the finish line. Yes I could finally stop. Even though I was in a daze, I could hear people were congratulating one another, I could see people giving each other the thumbs up and the pat on the backs, there were smiles everywhere. Everyone who crossed the finishing line kinda knew what the other person went through to get there.

My souvenirs from the marathon & the link to my timing.

Needless to say, it was an amazing experience. Few things that I take away from this marathon experience which I also parallel it to life as a christian: the marathon [life] is a seriously long run that requires patience (something I continue to learn over and over again) and perseverance (all the way from the first day I started training for the marathon) ; along the way when I was struggling (mostly brought upon by myself), there had been encouragements or motivations in different forms that God graciously put in place to keep me going - the good weather conditions, the jelly beans, the shouting and cheering from bystanders and the occasional 'nudge' from fellow runners; and last but not least every christian goes through pretty much the same struggles in life, we may not be able to see it from outward appearances, but we all face similar trials and this was something I learned again during the last church prayer meeting when everyone shared about their struggles and it was amazing how much were the similarities.

There are many verses in the Bible about trials and overcoming them, and I find there's this particular one that is most applicable for me now - Romans 8:28 - And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Anyway, that ends my "first marathon" journey.  =)

The marathon prequel run

My idea of a marathon prequel run was just to run close to half the distance of a marathon. I thought that by running half the distance, I would give myself the confidence that I could complete at least 21kms and so completing the actual marathon would be more imaginable.

So last sunday morning, I ran from my home to my pastor's home which was approximately 23kms. It was exhausting (although I only felt truly exhausted the next day). It was exhausting because firstly I did not hydrate myself properly before the run and by the time I reached about 10km, I could feel my throat drying up. For the next 13kms, I was swallowing my own saliva, praying for rain (it turned out to be a warm and sunny day), and thinking about the possible ways I could get water. Secondly, the route was hilly. Close to half the run had me going up-slope.

 (On hindsight, I could have prepared myself better by drinking more water the night before the run.)

Somehow after the run, I could still go to church and help out with the usual stuff, participate during service, fellowship with people after service. Then after church, I went on to hang out with a few friends, had dinner then went home. It all seemed fine until the next day when I woke up and I realised that I was feeling completely flat out - physically and mentally kaput. Things that happened on Sunday became slightly blurry in my mind. It then occurred to me that probably shortly after the run, I was completely drained; but maybe  what kept me going was that bit of adrenalin from the run, a bit of euphoria from achieving my goal and mostly a force of habit.

The truth is, there are many things in my daily routine that I can do without much thinking - cooking, eating, going to the bathroom, driving to work or other regular places, making casual conversations.. etc. These are activities that I have done over and over again so much so it's like a reflex. I just do it. It gets scary when I reflect upon that and I realise that I sometimes pack my schedule with one thing after another, as a result more often than not I simply go through the motion. It could be work, going for meetings, calling up my parents every week, weekly bible studies, or even my daily devotions.

Coincidentally my pastor was preaching about the greatest commandment (Mark 12:29-31) on sunday. The greatest commandment is this: (v30) Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. I could not possibly do that if I was simply going through the motion. Therefore once in a while, I need to slow down or stop myself or even take a step back, instead of just doing it; otherwise I might miss the most important thing in the world.

New running gear!

It's just less than 2 weeks to the Melbourne marathon..

I am happy to say that I have been training quite consistently during the past month. What I need really need to do for the next 12 days is to make sure I don't get injured or fall sick. It will be an absolute bummer if I do.

During the past 6-7 weeks of intensive running (well intensive for me), I have had a couple of mishaps with my running gear. I have mentioned the problem I have with the iPhone armband being annoying. The next thing that bugged me was my running shoes.

I have a pair of Nike Free which is Nike's answer to barefoot running - it's supposed to give me the feeling that I am running barefoot. With less cushioning and more flexibility in the shoe, I should get a better feel of the ground and that should encourage better running posture. That is all good except I bought them at size 8.5 which fitted just right. That would still be good if I only ran for 20 minutes. But when I am running for an hour, my feet expands, the shoes become much tighter, I lose blood circulation and my toes start feeling numb. If I keep that up, my toes will be dead when I finish the marathon.  

The other problem I faced which is kinda embarrassing is nipple chafing. Running makes me sweat, the sweat makes my cotton shirt or singlet wet and heavier, and abrasion happens between the shirt and my nipple. There are guys who actually run till their nipples bleed (I am not kidding) and there are photos to prove it: traumatising photos. Thank God I haven't gone to that extreme but it still caused a bit of pain and discomfort.

So last weekend I decided I need to get some running gear to fix these problems.

Thank God my better half had some connections and she got me into the Nike employee store where everything was heavily discounted. If Nike had their design and R&D department in Melbourne, I will definitely want to work for them! Anyway I went away with a pair of shoes, a dri-fit compression shirt and a running waist pouch. My wife insisted I should get the pouch so that I can carry my phone, keys and a snickers bar when I run the marathon.

The next day I took all these for a test run and I am pleased to say that they worked a charm. To some extent there could be some psychological effect as with all athletes who try on new equipment, but whatever the case, it worked for me!

Nike Pegasus+27

This is for my nipple chafing problem

The pouch which actually fitted snugly and didn't move much when I was running

Born to run

I finished reading this book recently. It is an awesome read. It talks about the author's (Christopher McDougall) quest to find out all about the secrets of running; how the best runners in the world (the Tarahumaras) run insane distances wearing DIY sandals; how most modern running shoes are actually causing more injuries than we think; what motivated different people to push their boundaries to run not just incredibly long distances, but to run steep uneven and treacherous terrains at high altitudes. There are the ultra runners who run because of the adrenaline and the competition and there are the hippies who run because they enjoy it, it builds camaraderie and they can drink themselves silly at the after race parties.

In the book, Chris McDougall also wrote about his discovery (from three maverick scientists) that man was possibly designed to run long distances. One design of the human body that allows us to run long distances, is the fact that we have millions of sweat glands that provides the best cooling system. Although the cheetah is the fastest animal on land, it can only puff out heat from its mouth (which isn't very efficient) and once its temperature hits 105 degrees it would stop running; whereas for humans, we can keep running as long as we keep sweating. Based on that and a few other traits, men were able to hunt down an antelope simply by chasing after it. It's called persistence hunting.

A persistence hunt usually includes a group of four to five hunters. Once the group spots an antelope, they start chasing it. They recognise the tracks of that particular antelope so that if it joins a herd, they can still identify which antelope they were chasing down and chase it out of the group. When the antelope goes into an acacia grove, one of the hunters will break from the group and drive it back into the sun. The objective is to chase the antelope till it goes into hyperthermia and collapse. A typical persistence hunt could last for three to five hours. That's roughly how long it takes to run a marathon!

The same scientists also published an article titled "Endurance running and the evolution of Homo" which further emphasised the point that the human body is designed for long distance running. But there's also the part about evolution.. and that part doesn't really convince me.

(link to article here: http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/krigbaum/proseminar/Bramble_Leib_2004_nature.pdf)

I haven't read much about evolution but I do know that one of the main case for evolution is natural selection 'through which traits that aid survival and reproduction become more common, while traits that hinder survival and reproduction become more rare' ( found on wikipedia). Another commonly known term is 'survival of the fittest' - where the strong will succeed and the weak will fail and be weeded out.

But according to the scriptures, God is committed to caring for the weak and defenseless, including the poor, the alien, the fatherless and the widow (Psalm 145:7-9). I believe that when God created the world, He made everything good but when sin entered the picture, men became self-centered and that probably brought about the concept of 'survival of the fittest'. God then sent Jesus to show us what really mattered and once again in James 1:27, it was written: Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. 

Pain vs God

During my last run, which was yesterday morning, I was reminded of something very fundamental in running and in life.

 This was what happened: Before setting off from home, I planned my route using the www.MapMyRun.com website. I started off at a slower pace to warm up, which can be between 6-12mins depending on the weather conditions (during winter it could take up to 20mins) and usually during my warm up periods I would feel my entire body 'telling me' not to run. For example, my arms will feel stiff and can't seem to swing in a natural way; my nose and my throat suddenly feels choked and I go into fits of coughs; my legs start to ache and my calves feel a bit tight. Anyway, all these would go away once I am warmed up and I will run fine. But this time, for some reason I felt some pain in my left heel even after 20mins and this was not normal. I tried to ignore it and hoped that it would go away but it was still there after 10mins. I got a bit worried thinking if I might have pushed myself too hard the past few days and gotten an injury. That would be the last thing I need - an injury. I prayed in my mind: God please make this pain go away. Within about 5-10mins, I realised that the pain was gone and I finished the rest of the run in a breeze! I would love to say that it was a miracle but there is a logical explanation to this. It was after the pain had went away, that I realised the pain in my heel was caused by me looking down during the first 35mins of my run instead of looking ahead where I was running. When I say I was looking down, it's more like I was looking 1m ahead of me; and because of the frequent pangs, I would take glances at my feet and try to rationalise how the pain came about. Obviously the looking and rationalising was not working well.

 Looking down gives poor form when running. My upper body would tend to be slouching when I look down, this causes my lungs to become compressed and I take in less oxygen; because I was not looking straight ahead, my feet position on the ground may have deviated from the straight line and possibly causing poor landing and therefore the pain; my shoulders become tensed and raised up which becomes less efficient, etc. There's probably more but these are a few I can think of.

 So looking ahead when running takes away all that. My body would be upright, shoulders relaxed and feet aligned. Looking straight ahead works for many other sports as well, including cycling and kayaking.

 Then I was reminded that in life, when we are faced with a problem or a 'pain', we can keep focusing on the 'pain' but thinking about it would never make it go away. In fact it could make matters worse. What we really need to do is to focus on Jesus who is the author and perfecter of our faith; He has come and showed us what it means to live; and as we focus on Him and His promises, the 'pain' will just fade away.

 Hebrews 12:1-2 (NIV) Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

So in the end, the final score - God: 1, Pain: 0.

Do I think I can run (or finish) the marathon?

My answer to that question is: Yes and No.

I don't think that I can run the entire 26.2 miles (or 42.16481 km) because after reading all the training tips on running the marathon and how to prepare for a marathon, I have come to the realisation that 6-7 weeks of training would not be sufficient to condition one's body to complete a marathon. The recommended regime for someone planning to run the marathon is to increase his/her weekly mileage by 10 percent over a period of 16 to 18 weeks. So if I have ran a total of 20kms last week, I should do 22kms this week and 24.2kms next week. However, what I have done over the past 2-3 weeks was I ran 20kms on the first week, 26kms on the following week and 37kms just last week. Many experts are saying that ramming up the mileage too much over a short period will set one up for stress fractures and many other potential injuries!

On the other hand, I still believe I can complete the marathon based on the following reasons:
1. I consider myself quite an active person; I do some form of exercise every week - either going for a run, weights training or kayaking. They may not be very intensive but they still get my heart rate up to 120-130 bpm. This gives me a fairly 'ok' base conditioning.
2. I have been through training as a competitive athlete at an earlier part of my life, although only at a national level but it has taught me the mechanics of training hard, recovery methods and eating right. So I have a fairly good concept of training.
3. Lastly I believe I have the mental determination to go through the marathon including the next 5 and a half weeks of running.

Saying that, I still must add that if I were to attempt another marathon next year, I would definitely start training 16-18 weeks before the event instead of 6-8 weeks! Yes, I have to admit that my decision to run the marathon this year is somewhat last minute and impulsive. which is why I would be reminding myself quite often the above 3 reasons for a bit of reassurance that I can do it and of course pray for God's grace upon my knees.

Fortunately there is one thing in life that we would not be penalised for being late or for making a last minute decision - that is coming to know Christ and acknowledging Him as our personal saviour.

Jesus spoke about the parable of the workers in the vineyard in Matthew 20:1-6. To summarise, a landowner hired workers to work in his vineyard for a day; the workers started at different times of the day - some early in the morning, some mid-morning, some mid-day, some in the afternoon and some started close to the end of the day; but all these workers were paid the same wage!

In essence, God is the landowner and He extends His grace to everyone who is willing to come to repentance while living on this earth. In fact He invites us to receive His grace just like the landowner who approached the people standing around the market place without work, invites them to work for him and promises to pay whatever is right.

It probably wouldn't sound logical but that is God's grace for you and all I can say is this: don't think, believe.

Keeping track of each run

So I have embarked on serious scheduled training to prepare myself for the marathon. One way of knowing if I am improving in my running stamina is to time my runs. That's easy. My Timex digital watch does the trick since it comes with a chrono/stop-watch function. That was how I tracked my runs for the past umpteen years. 

Lately, with improvements in tracking technology, there has been a wave of high tech gadgets that not only keeps time, it does a whole lot of other stuff. Nike has this shoe sensor that estimates the number of strides you take and from there the distance you covered in your run; Garmin, Suunto, Timex have devices that uses GPS to track your location, calculate your speed, elevation, distance and it could display your heart rate if you are wearing a heart rate monitoring belt; Adidas came up with a device similar to Nike's but to top it off, it also has a MP3 player and an audio voice that tells you how fast you are going, how hard you are training (based on your heart rate) and motivates you like a coach; the iPhone 3GS has a built in program that can work with the Nike shoe sensor to store data about your run and because it also has a built-in GPS and tri-axial accelerometer, there has been many app (application) developers who came up with apps that incorporate those sensors to monitor activity of the iPhone user. 

One example of an iPhone app that tries to monitor activity is called ‘iMapMyRun’. As what the name says, it basically maps a person’s run when he/she is running outdoors, with the iPhone of course. I discovered this app one day when I was browsing through apps in the health and fitness category and decided to give it a go (since it was free!). But it was awkward to carry the iPhone when I run so I had to get an armband and with that I join the tribe of people who run with an electronic device strapped to the arm and has ear phones plugged into my ears, only I was also mapping my run! It was awesome for a while until I realized that the armband can get a bit annoying. If I strap the armband too tight, my arm gets a little uncomfortable mid-way during the run or if I strap it a little too loose, there’s excessive movement and I kinda need to adjust it every couple of minutes. So I decided to just stick to my trusty Timex watch with simply time keeping and if I really want to track how far I ran, I could just measure it on Google maps or the MapMyRun website which also uses Google maps. Occasionally I might pull out the armband just to add some ‘flavour’ to my run.

Anyway, keeping track of my runs does two things for me: It lets me see how far I have come in my journey in training for the marathon and how much closer I am to the goal of running the marathon. 

I find that in life, there are also many other things that we need to keep track of. It may be our finances, our health (generally just the waistline), our schedule of work and other activities, etc. One important thing we should all keep track of is our blessings – how we have been blessed throughout the different stages of our lives, how we have got to where we are today and how we are moving closer to the goal/s that God has put in our lives. As we face the drudgeries of life each day, remembering our blessings and being thankful for them can really help us put things in the right perspective and let us move forward.

A hymnal by Johnson Oatman Jr and Edwin O. Excell, ‘Count your Blessings’ summarizes it very nicely:

When upon life's billows you are tempest tossed,

When you are discouraged thinking all is lost,

Count your many blessings, name them one by one,

And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

Are you ever burdened with a load of care?

Does the cross seem heavy you are called to bear?

Count your many blessings, every doubt will fly,

And you will be singing as the days go by.

So, amid the conflicts, whether great or small,

Do not be discouraged, God is over all;

Count your many blessings, angels will attend,

Help and comfort give you to your journey's end.

Signed up for the Melbourne Marathon

Running is something I have enjoyed doing for the past ten years of my life. It is the best way to keep fit, I feel better after a run, I breathe better, I think clearer and there's this sense of satisfaction. All I need is a pair of runners, comfortable clothes to run in, road to run and I would be off. 

But over the years, it has become harder and harder to get myself up for a run. There seems to be tons of other things that require my attention (housework, reading interesting stuff on the internet, lying on the couch..) so I push it to the next day or the next weekend. 

Back in my uni days, I was in the varsity sprint kayaking team; there was that extra motivation not just to run but to really train -  every run had to be better than the last run and there would always be someone in front that I could catch up with. But these days, I no longer feel motivated to run faster or further and I kinda miss that. 

So I have decided to set a goal for myself, give myself a bit of a challenge and signed up for the Melbourne Marathon! It is going to take place on the 10th of Oct 2010 (awesome date - 10.10.10) which means I have just over 6 weeks to train for the event. Yes it seems a bit short but I reckon it will be enough. Anyway my goal is just to complete the marathon in 6 hours. I believe it's doable.   

On a similar note on setting goals, I think everyone needs a goal in life. It makes life much more meaningful and purposeful. Some time back I watched a Ted talk given by Dan Buettner who talked about How to live to be 100+ and he brought up a Japanese word Ikigai which means "the reason for being" or "something important one lives for" and how this 100 year old fisherman from Okinawa continues to catch fish 3 times a week for his family because that is his Ikigai. Of course there are a lot of other factors that lead to longevity for that 100 year old fisherman other than knowing his Ikigai, but having that sense of purpose can make life so much more worth living. 

Two weeks ago a special speaker came to my church and he shared about how our sense our purpose should come from our source of life. If our source of life is God (meaning we rely on Him), our sense of purpose would come from Him. He knows exactly what is best for us so it makes perfect sense to follow Him, although we may not fully understand the purpose He has for us and it would not be easy to follow through. On the other hand, we could rely on ourselves and try to make up our own sense of purpose, it will be easier to follow through but it wouldn't make sense because we don't know the big picture like God does.

The apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 3:14 (NIV) -  I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. 

I also like this version in The Message - "but I've got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward-to Jesus. I'm off and running , and I'm not turning back."

I think there is nothing this world can offer that can beat what God can offer. So yes, one of my short term goals is to run the Melbourne Marathon but  I have decided that my ultimate goal in life is to go ahead and run after God like what Paul did.