If you are keen and have queries, please contact Coach Rameshon at 9100 4369 or you can email him at m.rameshon@gmail.com or swift.rameshon@gmail.com. Please refer to website http://flexifitness.com.sg (for more information on him and his programmes)
By Rameshon
Bsc (Hons) Degree in Physical Education, Loughborough University (1992-1994)
Masters in Education (University of Western Australia, 2005-2008)
Sheryl Loh - One who believes that fun and competition should go together.
Picture 1 - Sheryl Loh (right), with Great Eastern race champion Vivian Tang
Picture 2 - Left to Right, Alexandria Wong (5th women junior), Rameshon and Sheryl Loh
Five months back, Sheryl Loh, the former Hwa Chong Institution (college) tennis player was apprehensive about taking up running. Her friend, another Hwa Chong alumni, Emelyne Teo Jia Wei, a former cross country captain of Hwa Chong Institution (college) recommended the former to join my training.
Picture 3 - Sheryl Loh taking a photo with the aerobics dancer in the background
At that time, I was not too keen on taking anybody and train. I did my best to deter her from joining me. However, because it was Emelyne who was recommending, I decided to give Sheryl a program to do her own run and to see me once a week.
Picture 4 - At the background, Sheryl will always remember this finish point, where she was able to achieve a massive personal best time of 41min 25sec.
To my experience, I realised that Sheryl was always meticulous about her training program. She also checked what I said and compared with overseas coaches on thoughts on coaching. Earlier on, she asked me essential questions which pertains to sports science. Over time, she showed signs of believing in my training program. This was a plus point for any coach. Over and above, she is a person who has appreciation and gratitude towards people who help her in anything. In my observation, these are the values a trainee should possess if one wants to succeed in training.
However, earlier on, I did not want to talk much with her. The reason is that I did not know whether Sheryl is serious about training or not. Hence, at the start, I drew a line, a kind of barrier, and wanted to see whether there is a commitment on her part when it comes to training.
Over a period of time, I also realised that her motivation in running was on the rise. She started asking me more challenging questions and I had to use past and current research in physiology to answer her questions. Some explanations came from things that I taught in Republic Polytechnic as an Adjunct Associate. With some good understanding of periodisation in training, Sheryl became even more interested and enthusiastic about running.
In my earlier blog, I have mentioned that Sheryl as a person who attained 8As for her GCE 'A' Levels. Hence, she is excellent in her studies. Not only that, but she was also humble about her achievement in academics. Currently, she is pursuing her studies in Medicine at Monash University, Australia from February 2011 onwards.
In the recent Great Eastern 10km race for women, with 5 months of progressive training, she came in overall fourth in the Women Open. She was the youngest to come in top four in the Great Eastern 10km Race, with a creditable time of 41min 25sec. The winner of the event was Vivian Tang, who came in with a time of 38min 32sec. About two weeks before this race, Sheryl did 45min 59sec in the women 10km race in the New Balance Real Run event. This effort of hers was found to be awesome. Her real intention was to improve the time of 45min 59sec. That was all she wanted to do and felt that if she achieves this she will be happy.
Right now, she has come to a realisation that her actual talent lies in running. I realised that she improved by a massive 4min 34sec in this Great Eastern race. After the race, while taking Sheryl's photos, I also took a photo of Vivian Tang. I decided to do an interview on Vivian Tang and then on Sheryl.
Since I have finished interviewing Vivian Tang, I decided to introduce the talented Sheryl Loh to people on her 5 months training to do 41min 25sec for the Great Eastern 10km run.
An Interview With Sheryl Loh Picture 5 - Sheryl must have felt that these are her lucky numbers for the day.
Can you share with us on your race today?
Today, I felt good at the start of the race. Later on, at the 1km, I felt demoralised to see 10 runners right in front of me. I was thinking that it will be difficult to come in top 10. However, I remembered what my coach said. Stick to the game plan! Hence, I decided to stick very closely to the game plan and not to lose my head and react according to false perception.
How are you going to train in the future as you will be doing medicine in February?
Definitely, I will have to train less for a start as I am not sure of the medicine course that I am going to go through. Hence, although I will be bringing my mileage down, I will still be maintaining my stamina. Also, I do have the desire to run distance races as compared to races that are short. A good example to follow to make one train is Mok Ying Ren. He is excelling in studies and training. I am just hoping that I can do something like that.
When are you reducing your training?
All the way to December, I am hoping to run some of the Singapore races and I will start to relax once it is January 2011. I will still run for fun but not compete from January onwards. I will start training when I am in overseas in February.
What did you learn from the Great Eastern Race?
I realised that one should work with the coach on race strategy. One should have a good preparation for some months before the race. Train hard but train smart. Most importantly, I realised that it is vital to follow the race plan whenever one runs a race. Moreover, it is a must for one to believe in oneself in order to do well in anything. Also, in a race don't forget to smile. Be always cheerful. Today, the crowd at the finish made me smile towards the end by their enthusiastic cheer. I really would like to thank them for that.
How did you feel when you realised that you have done 41min 25sec?
I felt very happy and unbelievable. Of all the races, this race was one that I ran with fun and without any form of pain as compared to other races.
How was your parent's reaction when they heard that you came in fourth in the women open and the youngest top 4 runners?
They were very glad to hear about my achievement. I appreciated their support and hence have gratitude towards them for their kind encouragement.
Would you like to say anything that is appearing in your mind now?
I am very happy to have met my training mates like Mr Lim Thow Wee (10th local in 2008 Standard Chartered Marathon), Kang Yan, Dr Benny Goh (Best local in 84km Sundown marathon), Dr Benedict Tan (2hr 56min - 2008 Standard Chartered Marathon), Brendan Lee (3hr 05min - 2009 Standard Chartered Marathon) and Ashley Liew (2nd local in Standard Chartered Marathon 2009) during my workouts. I realised that they are very focused on people who are very interested and enthusiastic about running. I can see the real passion in them when I mingle with them. They have, one way or another, motivated me to stay focused on running. My training partners are good role models to follow. They have very good discipline. Meeting them keeps my enthusiasm up.
How was the organisation of the event and how do you find the route?
The organisation of the race was excellent. The route was very good. However, at some portion of the race sapped my energy whenever I was negotiating the u-turns. There were about 3 of those around. The hills, during the run, were gradual but manageable.
One aspect of the organisation that I found disappointing, however, was the fact that the organisers did not clearly convey the race categories to the participants before the race. On the event website, it was stated in the Categories and Fees section that there are 3 categories- Women's 10K Competitive, OCBC Fun Run 5K and Mother and Daughter 5K. There was no mention of the 10K competitive section as having 3 sub-categories- Open, Masters and Under 19. However, if one were to go to the FAQ section, it was mentioned that upon signing up for the 10K competitive run, the system would sort you into either Open, Masters or Under 19 category. It further specified that Under 19 meant 18 years and below as of 1st January 2010. Thus I was under the impression that I would be considered for the Under 19 category.
However, when the results were released after the race, I realised that I had been erroneously placed in the Women's Open category although I was U19 according to the criteria stipulated by the website. I went to the organiser's tent to make my appeal. The person-in-charge acknowledged that according to the race regulations I qualified for the Under 19 category. He said that one of two things could have happened: either I had entered my birthdate wrongly when I made my online registration, or the computer system had sorted me into the wrong race category. I showed him my confirmation slip to prove that I had entered my birthday correctly, and he assured me that they would look into giving me an appropriate compensation had a mistake been made, and asked for my contact details.
The next day, I received a call from the event director. Over the phone, he informed me that there had been an error in stating the terms of the Under 19 Category. Although Great Eastern intended to convey the idea that Under 19 meant 18 years old and below as of race day, they had wrongly stated that Under 19 meant 18 years and below as of 1st January 2010 instead! The justification they offered as to why I would not be offered compensation or considered 1st in Under 19 was that they had sorted all participants my age (born 1991), not just myself, into the Women's Open category. This was the standard protocol they followed in previous years as well.
While the event director I spoke to make my appeal was polite, I was not offered any apology about the mistake that was made on their part. Thus, when the event director made an offer to deliver my goodie bag and prize directly to my house, I politely declined. Although that is indeed a nice little gesture, I felt that the justification they offered was not satisfactory. It is just absurd for one to change the race regulations stipulated on the website only after the race. It is not fair to all the participants my age who had the impression that they were considered Under 19. To my mind, such a move is akin to your teacher telling you before an exam that you have an hour to complete your paper, then giving you only half an hour to complete it, and justifying her action by saying that all's fair since the rest of the class is being given half an hour too! Most people would feel cheated.
Furthermore, to my horror, when I checked the event website again, later on, they had changed the criteria for Under 19 to 18 years and below as of race day. This gave me the impression that they were trying to cover up their mistake. This is just my subjective opinion.
However, I do not wish to pursue the issue further because I feel that it will only distract me from focusing on my running and affect my performance. I just hope that the race organisers will be more careful in future to avoid similar miscommunications. I would suggest that they change the format of online registration such that participants can sign up for only ONE race category. From my limited experience in signing up for events, the New Balance Real Run is one event that enables participants to sign up under either the Junior or Open categories, so that there is no confusion as to which race category one is under. I feel that this is an excellent system that the Great Eastern organisers might like to adopt in future. I hope that they will seriously consider it.
By Narayanan
He also has a Coaching group and he trains them on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 7pm at Botanic Gardens. Those interested can call him at 91004369 for coaching assistance, to improve performance. There is also personal training that he does for many in a week. You can e-mail him at swift.rameshon@gmail.com.
How was the organisation of the event and how do you find the route?
The organisation of the race was excellent. The route was very good. However, at some portion of the race sapped my energy whenever I was negotiating the u-turns. There were about 3 of those around. The hills, during the run, were gradual but manageable.
One aspect of the organisation that I found disappointing, however, was the fact that the organisers did not clearly convey the race categories to the participants before the race. On the event website, it was stated in the Categories and Fees section that there are 3 categories- Women's 10K Competitive, OCBC Fun Run 5K and Mother and Daughter 5K. There was no mention of the 10K competitive section as having 3 sub-categories- Open, Masters and Under 19. However, if one were to go to the FAQ section, it was mentioned that upon signing up for the 10K competitive run, the system would sort you into either Open, Masters or Under 19 category. It further specified that Under 19 meant 18 years and below as of 1st January 2010. Thus I was under the impression that I would be considered for the Under 19 category.
However, when the results were released after the race, I realised that I had been erroneously placed in the Women's Open category although I was U19 according to the criteria stipulated by the website. I went to the organiser's tent to make my appeal. The person-in-charge acknowledged that according to the race regulations I qualified for the Under 19 category. He said that one of two things could have happened: either I had entered my birthdate wrongly when I made my online registration, or the computer system had sorted me into the wrong race category. I showed him my confirmation slip to prove that I had entered my birthday correctly, and he assured me that they would look into giving me an appropriate compensation had a mistake been made, and asked for my contact details.
The next day, I received a call from the event director. Over the phone, he informed me that there had been an error in stating the terms of the Under 19 Category. Although Great Eastern intended to convey the idea that Under 19 meant 18 years old and below as of race day, they had wrongly stated that Under 19 meant 18 years and below as of 1st January 2010 instead! The justification they offered as to why I would not be offered compensation or considered 1st in Under 19 was that they had sorted all participants my age (born 1991), not just myself, into the Women's Open category. This was the standard protocol they followed in previous years as well.
While the event director I spoke to make my appeal was polite, I was not offered any apology about the mistake that was made on their part. Thus, when the event director made an offer to deliver my goodie bag and prize directly to my house, I politely declined. Although that is indeed a nice little gesture, I felt that the justification they offered was not satisfactory. It is just absurd for one to change the race regulations stipulated on the website only after the race. It is not fair to all the participants my age who had the impression that they were considered Under 19. To my mind, such a move is akin to your teacher telling you before an exam that you have an hour to complete your paper, then giving you only half an hour to complete it, and justifying her action by saying that all's fair since the rest of the class is being given half an hour too! Most people would feel cheated.
Furthermore, to my horror, when I checked the event website again, later on, they had changed the criteria for Under 19 to 18 years and below as of race day. This gave me the impression that they were trying to cover up their mistake. This is just my subjective opinion.
However, I do not wish to pursue the issue further because I feel that it will only distract me from focusing on my running and affect my performance. I just hope that the race organisers will be more careful in future to avoid similar miscommunications. I would suggest that they change the format of online registration such that participants can sign up for only ONE race category. From my limited experience in signing up for events, the New Balance Real Run is one event that enables participants to sign up under either the Junior or Open categories, so that there is no confusion as to which race category one is under. I feel that this is an excellent system that the Great Eastern organisers might like to adopt in future. I hope that they will seriously consider it.
Note:
By Narayanan
Rameshon has taught in Hwa Chong Institution, plus several schools, and Republic Polytechnic as well. He has won many accolades and he was awarded Merit Award for 1991 marathon performance in breaking the national record of Singapore, at that time. He has made 22 male athletes do a marathon in sub-3hrs. He has made 7 female runners do sub-4 hours for the marathon, as well. He was inducted to the ‘Roll of Honour’ by the then College of Physical Education, organised by Singapore Olympic Academy, in 1998, for breaking the National record repeatedly 4 times, till he did 2hr 24min 22sec).
He also has a Coaching group and he trains them on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 7pm at Botanic Gardens. Those interested can call him at 91004369 for coaching assistance, to improve performance. There is also personal training that he does for many in a week. You can e-mail him at swift.rameshon@gmail.com.
