Ashley Liew - Unfazed by the numerous uphills and downhills in Hong Kong.
2009 and 2010 - Singapore Standard Chartered Marathon 2nd position (local)
Picture 1 - (Left to Right - Ruben Galen 3000m - 9min 40sec, Ashley Liew, Devathas Satianathan, Rameshon and Lim Thow Wee.
Ashley Liew has been told by SAA yesterday that he is given full subsidy for the Hong Kong Marathon 2011. He is just hoping that I could also follow him for the marathon. I told him that it is up to the SAA to support this. I have written an e-mail to SAA and have not received any response.
Picture 2 - This reminds me of my running in Hong Kong 2009.
He told me that since he is fully subsidised, what he needs is the coach to come down and give moral support to do a faster time. I told him that I will consider to this proposal. I have the National Schools' Cross-Country Championships coming soon and the team needs me here. However, S. Jeevanesh is also the training partner of Ashley, hence when Ashley improves Jeevanesh will improve. I told him that I like his invitation for me to come down to Hong Kong. Ashley looks like a person who will fully subsidise me if he has enough money. As for me, I will have to see everything if I can make it or not.
Ashley's training for the March, Aviva triathlon race and May Bintan Triathlon has been going on well. He feels strongly that a personal best time is possible in Hong Kong and he would like to say hello to all Hong Kong athletes people when he comes there to race. The race prediction for Hong Kong is between 2hr 45min and 2hr 48min, although he feels tha he can do between 2hr 40min and 2hr 42min in a flat surface. Adjustment is important to make here.
In year 2009, I was selected for the third time for the Asian Marathon Championships 2009 which was included in the Hong Kong Marathon itself. In the past, I had asked many people on the terrain and I was given a not too accurate picture on the race. To my experience, I had to run at least 10 highways of gradual and long uphills and downhills. Anyone going for the race must have concentric and eccentric loading training for the legs to take the impact of the run that can fatigue the whole body, especially the legs. After the 30km, not only the 'hitting the wall' will kill you but the downhills also. I had to negotiate the last steep hill and do 3hr 01min for the 2009 race. One of the top Philippines and African runner from Botswana (2hr 18min) were very depressed on running this race. I found that fhey had very good timing for personal best and the run here had affected the race as a whole, giving them a not too good a time. I had to console them.
In 1990, it was at Hong Kong where I did 2hr 31mins and came in 5th position, with the top runner from India coming in fourth. In first place was the runner from South Korea. The South Korean and top Indian runner came in first and second in the Singapore Open Track and Field 1990, that year, doing somewhere around 14m 46sec in a close fight. I did 15m 31sec and came in 4th, just in front of the Hong Kong runner, who had run 1500m and did 3min 55sec earlier.
Picture 3 - Most parts of the run looks like this, sometimes you have 1km of downhills and 1km of uphills which are gradual.
However, the weather in Hong Kong has always been good, ranging between 15 degrees to 18 degrees centigrade. It is good to go for a personal best time here and not for a big improvement. It is advisable to run with a conservative approach in Hong Kong because fo the numerous gradual uphills and downhills;.
The people there are fantastic people. The athletes I met in 1990 were 2hr 30min athletes and they even gave me a treat in Hong Kong, at that time. The organisation of the race is superb. I was able to get all my every 5km drinks during the run. I could not find any fault in the organisers part, except for the challenging current terrain. The organisation was one of the best in the world. That was a fact.
I have told Ashley to give us and interview. I have heard that Lim Thow Wee, 10th in Standard Chartered marathon, is also running here. Hence, i will be interviewing them soon and get more details. I hope that this will spur many people in Singapore to improve the time and do faster times. I believe, over time, in 2 -3 years time, or may be even earlier, Ashley is capable of doing sub 2hr 30min if everything goes well.
Picture 4 - Standard Chartered Bank, the sponsor of Hong Kong marathon 2011
0 Comments:
Post a Comment