2008年2月28日

跑向我人生第一次的馬拉松 (三) - 英文版


近日,我工作的公司的 CEO 落了一指令給我,要我把參加馬拉松的故事和往績寫一篇故事,將會載錄在下一次集團的季報上。收到指令,但推不來,唯有我手寫我心,也借此同大家朋友分享,請多多指教! 很抱歉,這篇文章是以英文載錄。

My first marathon

Everyone has his/her reason why he/she starts the marathon running. The meaning of modern MARATHON is actually come from a Greek legend. Pheidippides, a Greek soldier at a town called Marathon was sent to Athens to announce that the Persians had been defeated in the Battle of Marathon. After his non-stopping running the whole distance and spread out the news, he burnt out and died. The distance is approximately 40Km. Nowadays, we normally use 42.195Km (26.22 miles) to be the full marathon race distance since its first official use at Olympics 1908 was happened in London.

At Hong Kong Standard Chartered Bank Marathon (HKSCBM) 2006, which was an international marathon running race, I was asked to take the photos at the Finished Point by my marathon friends. During a few hours of observation at the Starting Point and Finished Point, I was inspired by no. of marathon runners, especially those at their mid-age or even the elders. At that moment, I decided to try my first marathon.

Remember the time while I started my first jogging (can’t say it’s running), I felt extremely fast heart beating and hard breathing even just for three minutes. I even asked myself many many times and gave some excuses to quit. I wondered how come I set this tough goal for myself. Until one day, I watched a video at Youtube – Team Hoyt. I can’t find any more excuse myself to run away from my goal.

The video is talking about Dick Tout (67), a father and Rick (45), his son. They completed 78 half marathon, 64 full marathon in last 25 years (record till 2006). Rick was certified to be Persistent Vegetative State (PVS) since the moment he arrived at the earth. Doctors told Dick that Rick had to live at the wheel chair at his whole life….. If you want to know the whole story, you can access this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryCTIigaloQ

At HKSCBM 2007, I finished my first 10Km by 58 mins. At HKSCBM 2008, I finished my first half marathon (21.0975km) by 1 hour 50 mins. That’s my best time ever especially running cross several ups and downs the tunnel and flyovers. My result was placed at the 19th of my category. Before HKSCBM 2006, I had never thought I could train up to be a marathon runner in my life especially while I’m approaching to the mid-age. My running coach, LEE Kar Lun (52), always reminds us the meaning of marathon is to memorize the death of a Greek soldier but not to follow his result. For the Marathon, every runner has to start from zero every time and end up with his/her ultimate performance within the counted distance. How about HKSCB Full Maration 2009? I’ve to restart from the zero again and run for the Finished Point of my first full marathon. It won’t be ended up with the same as Pheidippides, for sure.

My running track record:
11/Feb/2007 Run for HK Diabetes 2007 10Km 0:56
4/Mar/2007 HKSCBM 2007 10Km 0:58
19/Apr/2007 1st running lesson with Coach
11/Nov/2007 NIKE 10Km Challenge 2007 10Km 0:52
2/Dec/2007 UNICEF Half Marathon 2007 21Km 1:56
6/Jan/2008 MUZUNO Half Marathon 2008 21Km 1:56
27/Jan/2008 Run for HK Diabetes 2008 10Km 0:50
17/Feb/2008 HKSCBM 2008 21Km 1:50
(Note: My Coach finished his 21Km by 1:18 and was the champion at his category)

… to be continued



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