Focus on what's important, work on what's urgent

In life, many people get caught up with the urgent and pressing issues which are present on a day-to-day basis. Paying bills,coming to work on time, ensuring the children are studying for their year end exams, making sure the job/quotation is finished on time and customer signs the delivery order, accepts the invoice and a thousand and one other things.

I have been taking stock these past few days as it is the financial year end and many things are requiring my attention and action. However, I am very mindful of the big picture as I approach the 50th birthday in 2 years time. Many people have 'no choice' but to work for a living, but the key questions to ask yourself :

a) are you impacting anyone positively with your life ?
b) are you achieving your life goals and as a result, happy achieving it ?
c) apart from work and family, do you have time for yourself to pursue your own
interests if any ?
d) are you doing anything to enrich your emotional and spiritual side ?
e) are you financially independent, and have or are working on regular revenue
streams to flow in your later years ?

You may have noticed I have only listed the last point about Money. However, money helps people to live a decent and comfortable life, but 'the love of money is the root of all evil', in my opinion, so one must not view monetary issues and pursuits as the be all and end of of everything. There must be more to life than just earning your first million and then the next million and so on.

Rather, one must like and be able to live within one's own means and earnings and find activities to enjoy when he / she has the good health and time to do it.
That is what life boils down to,a good balance between work, family, personal activities, community and religious giving back.

Many people are aware of it, but few actually objectivise it and even lesser go and do it. Stop and think deeply about your own life. Take a hard look and see whether you are happy with YOUR LIFE. If you are, then fine, if not, then assess the areas where you can grow and improve on and then go and do it with a fixed time to getting it done.

World Cup 2010 Official Theme Song

Jane Peng's 7 Day Run in Sahara - 250 km

Jane at the start of the 25 K / 50 K combined Run on 22nd May 2010

Jane Peng is a young friend of mine from our Karate class at Tanglin CC. A Cornell University (New York) Alumni in Hotel Management, she has recently returned to Singapore to work with Pan Pacific Hotels as a business analyst. Her study experience has taken her from China (home country) to Singapore (secondary and pre-university at Raffles Girls and Hwa Chong JC) to England (Oxford) and USA (Cornell University).

Most interesting is her "joie de vrie" (passion for life), whereby she has undertaken a 1,000 km bicycle ride along the Nile River in 2006 with Uni friends and also a photographic trip to the southernmost tip of the Earth, the Antartica in 2009 via Argentina. As a photographer,she has been selected as a finalist for the International Photographic competition organised by National Geographic in Australia last year. This year she trained and completed for her Shitoryu Karate Black Belt Shodan (Dan 1) from our Karate dojo (school) And (get this), she is only 24 YEARS OLD.

Recently she had expressed interest in running marathons and ultramarathons and I have been training with her in the past 3 -4 months in preparation for the Passion Card combined 50km duo run which took place on May 22nd May 2010.The last few weekends before the race were running up to 20 km and moderating our run strides,pacing and taking in electrolytes, power gels and Gatorade drinks. The running routes were mainly at Macritchie Reervoir (many), Nassim Road (once) and finally the East Coast Park (many times).

One thing I was impressed was by her goal setting, mental toughness and 'never say die' attitude, something which I wish my own children could adopt as a life focus.

The run itself on 22nd May was quite uninspiring, and she finished with a time of 2 hours 49 mins compared with my slower time of 3 hours 1 minute. However,she had then signed on for the next week 29th May for the Sundown Ultramarathon for
84 km. Yes 84 km without any serious training !She completed that in 12 hours 35 minutes or so and I am very impressed by her determination to finish this without any major physical damage to her system.

On her blogpost, see http://desertrace.weebly.com, she highlighted the usage of tempo (long,slow) runs and mental preparation of going through the route in her mind. Also, she mentioned correctly that there were cases of endurance athletes who trained less and visualised more, and achieved their run goals without ever running the full distance. A 25% training distance, with 75% mental visualisation of completion is highlighted.

In October, she will be attempting a 250 km 7 day footrun (read as 42km for 7 days or 7 marathon over 7 days) in the Sahara desert, with 40 - 50 deg weather and runing on SAND. Her blog (at the top left corner of mine) covers the details of her endeavour as well as what she is doing to prepare for it. It will be a fantastic achievement for her to conquer it as it shows that a person who dares to dream big will ultimately achieve it, no matter what. She has gotten in-principle funding (majority) of her US$ 9,000 run from her employer Pan Pacific Hotel and with the run itself she hopes to raise funds of US$ 40,000 for the World Vision Microfinance scheme,called Vision Fund to help small businesses in the 3rd world to operate.I am sure that she will achieve this objective which is a huge undertaking but she is up to the task I am sure.

I am very inspired to attempt this soon (next year ??). But in concluding this post to a very amazing lady,I have this to say "GO JANE GO !!"

June 6th 1944 - we should never forget how the world owes them so much

The landings at Normandy France, with 4 beachheads, Gold, Juno, Omaha, Utah

June 6th 1944, 66 years to the day. This was the day the Allied Forces comprising US,UK. French, Belgian, Dutch and many other battalions hit back at the Germans in a 1 million man assault on the European continent. A seminal book, by Cornelius Ryan called the The longest Day has been made into a successful movie some 30+ years ago. It is a classic movies starring then movie greats such as John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Robert Mitchum, Sean Connery, Sophia Loren and many other stars with a cast of thousands. I watched it recently to commemorate the D-Day landings as this was the turning point of the
second world war as seen by many historians.


The real heroes of the war, dead on the beach.

The pictures are real and show the true meaning of war, in black and white with no glamour at all. The message is poignant, in that politicians with their vitriolic arguments and grand ambitions like Hitler and Hirohito, the final outcome is always death and wanton destruction of mankind. Additionally many millions are scarred emotionally and physically by the ravages of war. Yet wars are still staged by various countries to exercise and exhibit their dominance and influence
over other countries for economic and industrial gain.


Landing Craft unloading the marines onto Omaha Beach - nicknames 'Bloody Omaha'

The foot soldiers at Normandy had to carry out their orders and kill or be killed. Their sacrifice and unrelenting focus on winning back the territories taken over by the German 60 odd years and finally overcoming the German conquerers has left the world a very different place than had the Germans won the war. The real heroes are not the Generals and Politicians who motivated all the people to fight to the last, it was the ordinary soldiers who gave their lives to ensure that the world is what it is today.


A Marine swimming to shore in full battle order

This is a salute to the unsung soldiers who died and veterans who the world owes a major debt of gratitude to. You are the fallen heroes whom we should never forget.

Singapore Women's Table Tennis Team World Champions

Cheers to Feng Tian Wei,Wang Yue Gu, Sun Bei Bei;Li Jia Huei was reserve

Firstly, lets congratulate the Singapore Womens Table Tennis Team for the Greatest Achievement in winning the World Team Championship played in Moscow yesterday 30th May 2010. Its a great achievement and the pinnacle prize for a sport dominated by mighty China with a population of 1.3 billion, for the last 40 years.

The ladies have done us once again proud, and as a Singaporean, I can feel that a small nation of 5 million with a clear vision and plan,dedicated strategy and above all, excellent sportmen and women with national level backing and funds,can win at the world stage. Bravo !

The flipside is that, when I posted this article ( source :Channel News Asia) on Facebook, the responses were overwhelming as to the fact that all the paddlers (table tennis players) were born in China, and the coach and reserve were also from China. It raised the question again about the controversial 'foreign talent' policy of accepting foreign born people to our shores to represent Singapore in everything from Research and Development (read AStar researchers and Biopolis life sciencists)to sports ranging from table-tennis, soccer,athletics and swimming (Tao Li).

Were we not once a nation of foreigners too ? Our forefathers made their ways from China, India, Persia, and Europe to trade and seek out a better life. Times were tough and many did not make it, but the one who stayed and persevered and put in their honest days work and built up this country from a poor fishing village would have been very pleased with the result. A thiving metropolis with new talents and great infrastructure (2 casinos !) and a world class table tennis team.

True, our children will not have it easy, what with all these smart foreign talents in the local schools and excelling in academia, sports and culture but then again, I have this to say :

"When the going gets tough, the best will prevail". Lets take on these challenges together and make Singapore truly Our Singapore.

Running Tips and Tricks ; 50K team run

Stretch before, during and after the run

Last Saturday 22nd May,I took part in the Passion Card 50K combined team run where each team member runs 25Km and the combined time is added and totalled up. My friend from Karate Jane, was my running mate, and other friends, CH Teo and Tiffany Lai were also running. As my running hobby has spanned over 10 years, with 4 marathons and 10 half marathons, I can humbly say that I know some tricks and tips to maintain a decent speed during the run and possibly recovery from the run too. Here are some tips which a new runner can and should follow just prior to the race. I am assuming that the runner has been training religiously and regularly during the months running up for the big race.


Lace your shoes with the Championchip Properly

Firstly, read all the instructions in the handout for the race. This will include how to lace up the shoes, and some running etiquette (proper behaviour). They are as shown in the list below :

a) Keep to the left of the lane, if you are faster and want to overtake, then do so on the right.
b) Don't block people if you stop and walk, go to the left of the lane
c) Stop at water points, and drink just at the point or just after the point
d) Don't spit anywhere, do it in an appropriate manner and make sure there is no oncoming wind, else you or the person next
to you gets spit in their face !
e) Smile for the cameras, before the run and at the finish line.


Know the Route Well. This was at the East Coast Parkway starting from the Ski Center; Total Distance 25 Km

Preparations for the Race
a) Train, Train, Train. As much as 60 - 100km per week for around 3 months before the full marathon to achievere maximum
performance and fitness (this is a reminder to me as it is to the reader)

b) Know the route well, this is to help you VISUALISE how far you have left to go and you can mentally prepare for the full
distance - very important !

c) Bring energy gels (like GU and Powergels) ; these are complex carbohydrates and will not breakdown and give you the immediate spurt, rather it will give you continuous energy for up to 1 hour. Stategise when to take it (like every 10K) and ensure you drink LOTS OF FLUID so that it assimilates well into your system

d) Electrolyte tablets are another source of helping your muscles minimise the buildup of lactic acid . This is a great tip from
Jane Peng , my karate classmate. Take one every 20k with water. Very helpful.


Energy Gels and Electtrolyte Tablets

During the Race

a) Drink water at every water point, this is critical as runners need to be well hydrated and replenished. Additionally, 100plus has electolytes to help reduce the onset of cramps and muscle soreness

b) Take the pain spray. This is offered by the aides along the way, it is called Salonpas anti-pain spray and is a Godsend. It will
cool and thus take away the muscle ache at least for 15 minutes. Critical during the final stages of the run.

c) If cramp hits you, don't panic,stop, stretch, walk first and then run on the forefoot of your feet. This will alleviate the cramp on the hamstring portion. I guarantee it.

There, all the tips from an old 'warhorse'. Time to get ready for the Year end Marathon !! See you at the Startline !!

First Cut is the Deepest - Sheryl Crow