Wong Kang Yan - Health and Fitness As A Way Of Life (Part 1)

Wong Kang Yan - From Health and Fitness Club member to a marathon enthusiast

Picture 1 - (Left to Right) Wong Kang Yan, with Sheryl Loh and Ashley Liew

Besides being a cross-country and track and field (middle and long distance) teacher in-charge, I was also asked to be the teacher in-charge of Hwa Chong Institution (college) Health and Fitness Club in year 2007. Immediately, when I took over, I decided to teach on YOGA and Strength Training for the club members. I conducted accreditation courses and felt a sense of achievement taking the club, having a number of motivated students who like to exercise.

In Hwa Chong, I had a particular year 2 college student, in the past (2007/8), who was a member in the club by the name of Wong Kang Yan who was also a Scout leader at that time to the High School. He was inquisitive in finding out about the benefits of exercise and discussed with me in length on running. Over time, he decided to take up running and focus his attention on running a half-marathon. Once, I saw his family coming down to MacRithchie Reservoir to run.

After Army Half-marathon 2010, I saw him again. He told me that he would like to run the upcoming marathon. With very low mileage, he joined us for a once a week workout with some top runners who were also training with me  at that time.

Kang Yan 's aim was only to do a sub 4 hours. His previous best was 4 hours 20min. Kang Yan felt that it would be a big challenge doing this timing. He also went down for Penang Bridge Marathon to take part in the 10km race. He did a personal best time of 40min 39sec.That gave him the confidence. He used to stop during our weekly workouts. Eventually, he was ablt to continuously finish the workouts with no problem.

Picture 2 - 4hrs 20min overall time for 2009 SSCM 2009

From a 20km per week training, Kang Yan increased his mileage to 50km per week and eventually accomplished a sub 4 hours (3hrs 59min) and felt a sense of achievement obtaining his target. As for me, I felt a kind satisfaction seeing Kang Yan doing sub 4 hours as only few people were able to this kind of timing. As such, I felt that it is a great idea  to introduce Kang Yan, and not just only the top runners.  The resilience and courage shown to achieve a personal best time in marathon event by  an health and fitness enthusiast like Kang Yan will be motivational for many. Hence, I thought that it would be a good idea to motivate people by asking him some interview questions.

Picture 3 - Wong Kang Yan, happy with the finisher medal as it represents 3hr 59mins

An Interview With Kang Yan (Part 2) Will be posted tomorrow.

 Picture 4 - Kang Yan. at the right extreme of the photo after SSCM 2010