runningcoachsg

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Man Dies at Stanchart Marathon Race 2011 (Part 2)

Note:

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 M.Rameshon

Bsc (Hons) Degree in Physical Education, Loughborough University (1992-1994)

Masters in Education (University of Western Australia, 2005-2008)

Channel News Asia reported that the young man who collapsed and died after competing in the half-marathon in Singapore yesterday was an undergraduate by the name of Malcolm Sng, 22 years of age. He was previously from Nanyang Polytechnic, from The New Paper report and later was became a first-year student at Lee Kong Chian Business School. He was a logistics officer in SMU Symphonia and played the clarinet. on Sunday morning. The time returned by him was 1 hour, 53 minutes and 20 seconds. He was immediately attended to officials of Stanchart and subsequently sent to Singapore General Hospital. His family has been notified.

I remember a friend who did 2hr 24min and had a body temperature of 41 degrees centigrade. I am wondering on even after a run this could happen.

The time of Malcom Sng showed that there was some form of fitness in him. However, to what extent he pushed or what really happened is yet to be known. I had an experience with passing out and was admitted to Singapore General Hospital in the past. My students got worried and came to see me. I was not able to move my body due to severe dehydration. I think that it is important to really take precautions before we run a race, and most importantly we must pray before we run.

In another post, I will recount how I ran and finished a 10km men open race where I came in 10th position and passed out and landed in the hospital. From then on, I was very caring about this.

Police are still Investigating on Malcolm Sng's case.

This is part 1 of the story

http://rameshon-m.blogspot.com/2011/12/man-dies-in-singapore-standard.html

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.

Man Dies in Singapore Standard Chartered Marathon 2011

Note:

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)

21 Year Old Dies in SSCM 2011 Race.

Today, in the morning, I felt that the weather was fine. However, I could still feel that the humidity level today is quite high as I could feel a little uncomfortable. Between cold stress and heat stress, heat stress can make one very vulnerable to the weather. One should drink plenty of water at least 200ml of water hydration at every 1 hour between 7am and 7pm, one day before the race is imperative. One should drink fluid at every 4 to 5km marking. One friend that I know of had his temperature of the core body up (41degrees) and this can be dangerous. The following report was reported in Channel News Asia, reported by Tan Yo-Hinn, that a man died after running the Half-marathon during today's event.

I remember completing the London Marathon race in the year 2007 where a man died after crossing the finish point of the race. Dehydration was blamed as the reason. The temperature was 23 degrees centigrade before the start of the race.

In today's race, the man who died was 21-year-old and he died after completing the race this morning. It was found that he collapsed after completing the race at about 8:30am. He was immediately looked after and finally sent to the Singapore General Hospital. The news has it that the runner died at about 9:30am. The incident is such that the Organising Committee will assist the Police in its investigation.

Knowing your limits.

My advice after listening to my friend's, temperature going to 41 degrees centigrade.

During a race, if the core temperature goes to 42-43, the chances of getting ventricular fibrillation is greater and one could end in death if one is not careful of this. When one doesn't feel well, it is important to call it off and run again the next time around. One may go through a situation where one starts to get symptoms like double vision, blurred vision, not feeling extremely well, etc.

What is ventricular fibrillation - Fibrillation is an uncontrolled twitching or quivering of muscle fibres (fibrils). When it occurs in the lower chambers of the heart, it is called ventricular fibrillation. During ventricular fibrillation, blood is not removed from the heart. Sudden cardiac death results.

My deepest condolence to the family members

Kenyans Domination in Singapore Standard Chartered Marathon 2011 race.

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By Rameshon

Bsc (Hons) Degree in Physical Education, Loughborough University (1992-1994)

Masters in Education (University of Western Australia, 2005-2008)

Charles Mwai Kanyao is the champion of 2011 Singapore Standard Chartered Marathon

Kenya's distance runners came in first, second and third in this year's Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore. The champion for men was Charles Mwai Kanyao who finished with a time of 2 hours 14 minutes and 32.07 seconds. The second position went to Luke Kipkemoi Chelimo, in 2 hours 14 minutes and 37.35 seconds.

A bystander by the name of Saranniya told Flexifitness that while Charles Mwai was leading, at about 100 to 120 metres to go, Luke made his move to overtake Charles. Subsequently, Charles did not cave in. Luke was overtaken by Charles at the last 70metres to 80metres stretch. Charles mustered up his courage to win not just Luke but former 2003 Standard Chartered Marathon Champion, and 4th position in 2004, by the name of John Kelai. John did 2hours and 15mins. However, John Kelai was way away from Charles and Luke.

Charles Mwai Kanyao told reporters "When I saw the finishing line, I said let me die. Because it's the first time I (have) won in (a) marathon. I used to run but did not win anywhere. It's my luck today."

In the race, last year's winner by the name of Kenneth Mburu Mungara, also from Kenya, pulled over to the side of the road after halfway mark of the race as he was not feeling well.

For women, Irene Jerotich Kosgei, (http://rameshon-m.blogspot.com/2010/10/irene-jerotich-kosgei-commonwealth.html) came in first with a time of 2 hours 36 minutes to defend her title. I saw her coming in a relaxed fashion for the race with nobody to contend with. Ethiopia's Roman Gebregessesse was the only one to upstage the Kenyan dominance for top 3, finishing second in 2 hours 37 minutes with Kenya's Magadelene Mukunzi finished third in 2 hours 38 minutes.

The first-placed runners of the men's and women's races Charles and Irene took home US$50,000 each, respectively.

The local champion is Mok Ying Ren, who clocked 2 hours 46 minutes to defend his title. Last year he did 2hr 38sec. His training partner Jason Lawrence was following Mok all the way until the last 400m where Jason was about 10metres in front of Mok. Anne Date did 3hours 6min to finish first with a time of 3 hours 6 minutes.

A record number of 65,000 runners took part in the event over different distances, with 20000 taking part in the full marathon solely.

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.

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Flexifitness Wishes To All Standard Chartered Marathon 2011 Participants

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By Rameshon

Bsc (Hons) Degree in Physical Education, Loughborough University (1992-1994)

Masters in Education (University of Western Australia, 2005-2008)

Flexifitness wishes all participants of Singapore Standard Chartered Marathon 2011 all the best! Even for 10km and half -marathon

I believe that many marathoners will be facing the glycogen depletion at the 32km mark. At that point, one has to muster up the courage to face the last 10km where predominantly the energy system is mainly from fats. Once this happens, the runners will naturally run much slower as compared to 32 and less. Here is where the mind will play with one by asking why they took part in the marathon. They may tell themselves that they could have been enjoying drinking coffee somewhere watching the marathon, instead of running. After the run, one would be happy to have experienced the ordeal and finally finish the race. The usual thought of completing is, "If I can do this, I can do anything". This makes one a real winner and have a sense of accomplishment and they may enjoy telling people that they have completed the marathon.

Tomorrow, the marathon race will start at Orchard Road and finish at Padang, near Connaught Drive. They will also run to East Coast and go through the Marina Barrage area and then go to the ECP and then run to the Esplanade.

Picture 2 - Ashley Liew will be remembering his mother more than his personal best. I hope that when we run, we dedicate a run to someone special and it should be selfless, it makes the run a worthwhile one.

www.runningcoachsg.com

Friday, December 2, 2011

Meeting Wilson Kipketer 01/12/2011

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By Rameshon

Bsc (Hons) Degree in Physical Education, Loughborough University (1992-1994)

Masters in Education (University of Western Australia, 2005-2008)

Wilson Kipketer - Believes that children are not a miniature adult

All Photographs (Courtesy of Ashley Liew)

Picture 1 - Wilson Kipketer gave his 100% to the kids on teaching them on many important exercises.

When Wilson Kipketer, the former World Record Holder for 800m, with a time of 1min 41.11sec met me, he told me that he was ready to meet the children who would be joining in the training session.

Wilson brought the children for a run around the track and gave them some movement skills warm-ups before the stretching and strengthening session. All the exercises that I saw were unique, although some have been followed by our group.

During the session, all the children were engaged. Wilson made sure that all parts of the body were stretched and loosened. The stretches were static to movement stretches and they were all dynamic exercises, where most parts of the body were strengthened.

Wilson told us that having an edge usually comes from the hands and not the legs and he showed us some very good running drills. His explanation was crystal clear and had a lot of common sense in it.

Wilson, in fact, came to me in the midst of giving some exercises to the children, by informing me to do light things on children and not to go hard on them. He gave me some structured programme to do to children such that they do not burn out when they are young. He said that too quick, if a person wants a result, would only burn out a child and the child may not take up the sport later on. He asked me to go easy on the kids.

How to do workouts were all told to our group of coaches. I, in fact, brought in some coaches to learn from Wilson to focus attention on coordination and not long intensity for children. It was an eye-opener to them.

Sebastian Coe, in the past, broke the world record to 1min 41.73sec. For that Sebastian Coe was called 'The Untouchable'. Over time, Wilson broke it by doing an unbelievable 1min 41.11sec. Later on, this timing was broken by David Rudisha and for that David got the Athlete of the Year Award 2010 for the feat.

All in all, the key message of Wilson is to give kids workouts that are feasible and short distance with slightly more repetition with time. We finally, ended the session with photo taking.

In conclusion, I found the day very fruitful and the kids really enjoyed the session with Wilson Kipketer.

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By Narayanan

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Practical Sharing Session By Wilson Kipketer

Wilson Kipketer's Achievements

It is known that Wilson Kipketer had been dominating the 800 m distance race, in the past, for a decade, remaining undefeated for a three-year period and running 8 of the 17 currently all-time fastest times ever.

He has won gold medals in three successive editions of the IAAF World Championships in Athletics. Even though Kipketer's 800 meters world record stood for almost 13 years, over time, it was surpassed on August 22, 2010, when David Rudisha broke it by 0.02 seconds, running 1:41:09 (and a week later 1:41.01).

Wilson's Sharing of Knowledge and Experience.

Today, 1^st December 2011, Wilson Kipketer, as an ambassador of IAAF, came to CCAB to show some running drills to students of Flexi- Fitness group of runners, who believe in health, fitness and performance in sports.

Not only he showed some of the drills and techniques, but he actually also gave some sound advice on how to train young children aged between 6-15.

He spoke to Mr Rameshon on some salient points in training children.

1. Give games to boost interest and improve strength and coordination.

2. Make training fun and let them play.

3. Do fun types of conditioning, a good example is again, simple stretchings which are effective to do. He showed some stretching that can move to the beat of the music.

4. His main message to us today was to design interesting programmes to let them ENJOY AND HAVE FUN!

Wilson also warned against some things, which may make the children lose interest. I would explain some of it.

-give long workouts to children

-give too intensive strengthening exercises.

-make them be competitive at a very young age.

He said to Mr Rameshon that doing all this can be a very BIG MISTAKE, as it could make the child lose interest in running, and even sports, once and for all. Wilson also demonstrated with the kids some running drills and stretches. The Vice President of SAA, head of training and selection, Mr Kunalan agrees with Wilson’s type of stretches that strengthens and develops some flexibility and finds that they are similar to yoga type of stretches, which Mr M.Rameshon, Head Coach of Flexi Fitness Consultancy has been implementing in his training recently. Mr Rameshon feels that some variations by Wilson making the stretches exciting and interesting. Wilson told him to do more of these. Mr Kunalan said that he had seen Mr Rameshon's stretching and said that there was a connection to what Kipketer is doing, with some variation.

In summary, the catchword is to give games, work on the fun type of stretching and conditioning, give games.

Note:

By Narayanan

Ben Tan - New York Marathon 2011 3min 10sec Interview

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By Rameshon

Bsc (Hons) Degree in Physical Education, Loughborough University (1992-1994)

Masters in Education (University of Western Australia, 2005-2008)

Dr Ben Tan - The president and a passionate person who believes that exercise is for life.

As his training partner in the year 2008, where both of us emerged top 3 in the Standard Chartered Marathon 2008, Dr Ben Tan showed that he is fearless and determined at all times. Running with him was a very good experience for me as I learnt a lot from him. I realised that with a lot of work and leadership in his work, he balances his life well with a great amount of exercise. Not only he runs races but his wife also runs races nowadays.

Not only Dr Ben Tan has the capability to steer Singapore in Sailing, but he also has this high level of fitness which just fits less than 0.01 percent of the top runners in Singapore. He is just one of the handful ones in Singapore who can replicate doing a near 3-hour run, nearly every year. I believe that he not only is an orthopaedic surgeon to many but he also, in a way, can save peoples' life by motivating people to run with no excuses, particularly the excuse called 'no time'.

It good for youngsters to learn, that at the age of 40 plus, Dr Ben is still running 10km to 20km per day. Simply amazing! As such, I realised that it is very good to spotlight his recent achievement in New York City 2011 in November so that the sub-3 hour runners in Standard Chartered Marathon 2011 can be motivated to go for a good time in the upcoming marathon race. I thought that it is good to get details of the marathon race.

An Interview With Dr Ben Tan

How long did it take to prepare for this race?

Ben: Nine months, divided into 3 training cycles. The first cycle culminated in the Gold Coast Marathon, and the New York Marathon was at the end of the third cycle.

Why did you take this race as opposed to running in 2011 Singapore Standard Chartered Marathon?

Ben: I intend to complete the five Marathon Majors. Having completed Boston, Berlin, and London, New York is the fourth and next year's Chicago Marathon will complete the five. As the Stanchart Marathon is only a month after New York, it had to be sacrificed as I only do two marathons a year (Gold Coast & New York for this year), and I spread them about 6 months apart.

What was your strategy for the race?

Ben: To keep an even pace. And if I feel very comfortable, to build up a 3-5 minute buffer in the first half and try to hold on to the buffer for the second half.

What were your split times for the race?

Ben: The first half went according to plan and I was quite comfortable and fresh at the 21 km mark. At the 25 km mark, I felt my legs were more tired than it normally is at that point. The bridges must have taken a toll on my legs, and I lost all that buffer and more in the second half. I underestimated the bridges and even the roads were undulating most of the way. It was only after the race that I read in the New York Times that the New York City Marathon is more hilly than the Boston Marathon. Next time, I'll look at the elevation chart more closely before the race.

Who did you go with for this race?

Ben: Quite a big group of Singaporeans. We sampled a few famous restaurants and went to Woodbury Commons to shop. Of course, my long time training partner, Benny was there too.

Is there anything special about the race?

Ben: The atmosphere is the most energetic I've seen of any marathon. The whole city is behind the New York City Marathon. They close major bridges (5 to be specific) and roads (including long stretches of 1st and 5th Avenues) just for the marathon, and New York Times dedicates a whole newspaper section (24 full pages) to the race and publishes the names and results of all those who broke 5 hours. The crowd support is incredible - you feel guilty if you slow down to a walk. There's so much to do in New York - after the race, my wife Alison and I even went ice skating in Bryant Park and watched Lion King in Broadway. We sampled the best steaks and desserts. As for the shopping, I'm especially happy with the snow skiing equipment that I've long wanted to buy (they had such a broad range to choose from), and just in time for the skiing season too.

What do you treasure most about this race during your stay here in New York?

Ben: Being part of the whole atmosphere.

Are you happy about your race?

Ben: Yes, I'm glad I've had the opportunity to soak up the NYC Marathon experience, which is one of its kind.

What is your next goal?

Ben: Chicago Marathon.

What is your long term goal?

Ben: After completing the Marathon Majors, I'll pick small marathons in quaint places that are off the beaten track. These are not fast courses, so the priority is to experience the course and location, rather than to record a fast time. I'll still keep my running fitness - we tend to enjoy the race and experience more if we are fit enough for the marathon to be a breeze.

www.runningcoachsg.com

Note:

By Narayanan