关于跑步 - About Running

Recently, finished reading a book in Chinese, 关于跑步, a runner friend lend me this book. In English translation - What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. The author wrote this book between summer 2005 to autumn 2006.

The book was written by an award winning Japanese author by the name 村上春树. Haruki Murakami, winner of the Yomiuri Prize for Literature. The original book was published in Japan by Bungei Shunju Ltd, Japan. The Chinese translation is in complex/traditional character only. No problem with that, although we are using simplified character in Singapore.

In the book, the author talks about running his first marathon in Athens following the route of Phidippides, qualifiying for the prestigious Boston Marathon, ran in the Japan ultramarathon of 100 km without walking within a cutoff time of 11 hrs plus, and marathons both in US & Japan. After a long running career, he took part in the Ironman. He mentioned about his training program, from running 6 days a week (1o km per session) to running 7 days a week. Progressive monthly increament, covering a total distance of 260 km, 310 km, 350 km per month. Also thoughts on distance running and the mental & phyiscal aspects of running long distances.

In the last sentence, the author talked about the pride of running a marathon without walking a single step, he achieved that in all the marathons he finished, not walking a single step no matter how painful it was, even in the 100 km race.

This is what he wish to have on his tombstone.

至少到最後都沒有用走的

At least, till the end I didn't walk.

For experienced runners, this can be a goal to achieve in the 26.2 miles race. No walking (maybe just during drinking) and running the full distance. I'm certain to use this as a motivation in the coming race in a few months time.

the book has this quote (not from the author):
Pain is inevitable; suffering is optional.


Earlier post:
Marathon Medals

Ironman China Champion 2010

Luke winning the Ironman in China 2010

Luke McKenzie finished first in the Ironman China 2010, Haikou on 14 March (Sunday) from a total of 259 participants. A new Ironman China course record.

Congratulations to Luke... A picture taken with the champ, after a training run in Singapore.

An earlier post on the run here:
Training run with Luke
posted on March 2, 2010

Luke's blog:
www.lukemckenzie.com/news.php

Training with Luke McKenzie last evening....

Last week, I received an email from K.Swiss, I replied to the email and got a place to join an evening run, they have places for around 60 runners.

Luke is currently in Singapore, training for the coming Ironman in China. A warm evening, the run starts at 7pm, it was a short run of 5.3km. The run was divided into 3 groups, the fast, middle and the last group. I just went for the fast group with a new friend.. the pace was pushing, it was too fast for me, I can't keep up with the pace in the last 1km or so. At the end of the run, I talked to a fellow runner and found that they are running at the pace of average 4 mins per km. It was a fun run anyway...

At the end of the run, was a phototaking session with fellow runners and Luke himself, a friendly and positive guy. Last night event was reported in today's newspaper.

I will probably use the given visor. Won 1 of the 3 lucky draw prizes...and got the red bag :P