The Joys of Running

‘Be running up that road. Be running up that hill. Be running up that building. Say if I only could.’ ~ Kate Bush

I have had extensive experience on running. I have run away from trouble. I have run away from responsibility. I have run away from work. Sounds familiar? Okay, I have yet to run away from the law.

I was attracted to running in secondary school. I never swam competitively as our school did not have a pool or an aggressive swim team. So, running was the natural way for me and my school churned out some fine cross-country runners. My form-teacher Mr Cheong Soon Kiat unleashed the runner in me with his encouragement. I appreciate his open-minded approach as my running is much better than my riding and swimming. Mr Cheong and his wife Suzanna are now serious triathletes.

My favourite book on running was ‘The Complete Book of Running’ by the late-Jim Fixx. A few years ago, I reviewed my running technique by attending a Chi Running workshop. I learnt to run lighter on my feet, with better alignment and smaller steps – and with almost child-like abandonment. Recently, advice from professional triathletes and my intuition led me to running with wider strides. I believe that I run faster now.

On Saturday, we hope that a professional triathlete will crack the 2 hour 40 minute marathon mark (in an Ironman race) set by Mark Allen almost two decades ago at Kona in the Ironman Triathlon World Championships. Steve Prefontaine defied his coach, Bill Bowerman (co-founder of Nike) by running ahead of the pack, and never behind. Steve could never be in the mix, nor trailed behind his competitors.

So, what has running got to do with leadership? Well, running can get you fit very quickly. The analogy of running has crept into our language. My triathlon friends include those who run businesses, run their families, and run large-scale operations.

Leadership Lessons: Do you run away from responsibility? Do you know when to run away from a bad opportunity? Have you ever run for your life? Have you considered running away from your fears?

Runner Logo designed by Tan Boon Fong.

Waiting for the Big Show in Kona

This Saturday, 10 October, in Kailua, Kona, Hawaii the Ironman Triathlon World Championships will be held. Almost 2,000 of the world’s best, long-distance triathletes will test their will and willpower in this historical race.

Born in 1978, through a conversation among aging endurance athletes the Ironman race was conceptualized. It started as a casual question: Who is fitter – swimmer, runner or cyclist? A trial race (comprising all three disciplines) was organized with less than 15 hopeful entrants, and 31 years later, the Ironman is a worldwide sporting phenomenon that continues to grow with uncanny conviction. What would possess tens of thousands of triathletes to attempt this insane endurance challenge? Some things in life are best left mysterious.

Last year, my 20-something, Melbourne-based friend Wilson Low raced in the 30^th Anniversary edition of Ironman World Championships. He described the experience as amazing, and he was happy as a mud lark for completing it, and in very good time. He also prepared himself mercilessly months before the race. Since it was the world championships, he decided that being thoroughly fit and mentally prepared for the challenging conditions (strong side winds and shearing heat) would ensure his personal success.

Wilson also followed that up closely with the Ironman 70.3 World Championships a month later in Clearwater, Florida. Five Singaporeans – Wilson, Grace Chan, Brian Tan and I – raced in the third edition of this race format. I will make my way again – with a larger coterie - to Clearwater on 14 November, to take a shot at a personal best performance. Of the Singaporeans, most notable are 60-year-old Joseph Ong and Kona-finisher Jeanette Wang.

Ironman China podium-winner for her age group, Shawn Ann Leong (of Crazy2Tri) will be competing for the first time in Kona. We wish her all the best in her attempt!

So, tune in to the event ‘live’ on IRONMANLIVE.COM to watch this amazing race. The commentators comprise ex-Ironman champions who provide enthusiastic and passionate narratives. There will be many human stories that may bring a tear to your eyes, or raise your hope for those struggling to complete it on time. Witness the best-of-the-best in action!

Leadership Lessons: Great ideas are born from seeds of curiosity or dissent. It takes initiative to test one’s theories. When was the last time you tested one of your theories? What would it take for you to find out the reality? When was the last time you tested yourself against the best in your field?

Photo-credit: Melina Chan

Are You Up to It?

'Don't give up - 'cause you have friends. Don't give up - you're not beaten yet. Don't give up - I know you can make it good.’ ~ Kate Bush & Peter Gabriel, singers.

If it’s to be, it’s up to me.

Today’s preposition is ‘up’. We have heard of up-sizing at convenience food chains, although we don’t recommend this dietary practice frequently. You may have upped the ante in your private poker game; yet, come up short. My friend, Shade has a credo: Life’s a gamble, and I’m the risk. How risk-averse are you? Which kinds of risks would you take?

Taking up a challenge is about competing. More and more of my friends are taking up running, and even triathlons. It seems that they are taking up hobbies that are physical, and lifestyle-orientated. The active lifestyle can take you on a different pathway, towards discovering your personal potential and limits. Get up, and get moving!

Being optimistic allows us to look at the up side of things, rather than its down side. What goes up need not necessarily come down. We can defy gravity with our buoyant attitude and rising confidence in those around us. Give people a chance to shine instead of just giving up.

Karma has a way of boomeranging back to us. If we treat people badly, because we suspend our emotional intelligence, we may receive our comeuppance. If you desert your team, you may receive your just desserts for your evaluative sins of your past [part of a phrase attributed to Judith Crist].

How would you lead your team to come up with new ideas? How would you encourage the collective potential of each of your members? How would you wish to be remembered? It’s up to you.

Get Over It!

‘Get over it’ ~ Eagles single song (from ‘Hell Freezes Over’ album), released 14 years after the band’s break up.

What are prepositions? These are words introduced into grammar that introduces a prepositional phrase. A preposition indicates a relation between things; essentially based on a position. In English, the most used prepositions are "of", "to", "in", "for", "with" and "on".

Prepositions can also be described as ‘prep-positions’, or ‘pre-positions’. These are position of perspectives. Leaders influence from different directions, and points of entry.

Can you over-prepare? This involves practice, rehearsals and training. It involves preparing for the worst, and working on contingency plans. Better to be thorough than to have an over-sight and be considered careless.

In endurance sports such as marathons and triathlons, our coaches advise us to do ‘over-distance’. This is training over longer distance than the race dictates. Say you are training for the180km bike leg of the Ironman triathlon, over-distance involves doing prolonged mileage of 180km, 200km, 220km, and more.

There is a danger to over-distance training, and that is over-training. Over-training leads to fatigue, soreness, and compromised physical performance. We have to be careful about over-doing it, for it can annoy others as well as cause us discomfort. Perhaps, getting it over and done with can be the better choice, instead of prolonging the training session. Chores, paperwork and bills to be paid fall under the category of must-do things.

We can over-come the pitfalls of endurance training by being more focused on technique, checks and measures, and our plan. If a race does not go according to plan, get over it. There is always another day to race, or another race to match up to our expectation.

Over to you!

Blog Rolls and Bloggers of Repute

After 167 blog posts, with an average of one post per day, since May I am still 2.5 years from achieving Seth Godin’s blogging challenge. I’m still at it, with several good reasons to sustain this blog and create a community of practice based on personal and professional leadership. As I am passionate about endurance, multi-sports disciplines – these are my analogies for the science and art of leading people.

I have had the privilege and honour to meet an amazing community of bloggers, who share similar values and purpose: that of leadership. Some of these are fellow, seasoned bloggers on Guy Kawasaki’s AllTop Leadership. Get on Guy’s AllTop and choose your favourite topics on this virtual, magazine rack.

Find out more about Knowledge Management from my Australian friend, Keith De Larue. Or, learn about Eco-living through Mallika’s online magazine, Gaia Discovery. And, you can learn about leadership lessons by whispering to horses.

For marketing and branding, my money lays squarely on the shoulders of authors Paul Temporal, Guy Kawasaki, Seth Godin, and George Silverman (word-of-mouth marketing).

If you enjoy triathlon sports (be it participant or spectator), a couple of blogs worth your time: You, Me & Tesky; Training Diary of John Cooke; TRI-FAST Singapore (for its video documentary content).

If you are new to blogs and blogging, start writing! You may find the entire experience rejuvenating and energizing. Or, you can post your comments here. Right here, write now. Blog & roll!

Arming Yourself with Skills For Your Future

There is a Chinese saying: ‘Live till old. Learn till you are old.’

What the saying translates to is: that we are never too old to learn. Yet, learning is a choice. Nobody can force you to learn, including your employer, spouse or family. Without learning, we become stagnant, and stasis and inertia set in, eventually.

However, there is a universal belief that as one ages one’s ability to learn diminishes with disinterest and fear. My impromptu polls, with the mature working population, yield this impression: They wish to learn something useful for their future, yet do not know where to start.

Learning is an attitude. Either, you like to learn or not. Redundancy is the sure way to go if we refuse to change for the better, and learning is one way to stay relevant. Here are some ways to get you thinking if you have concerns about learning.

1) Age is not a disease; stop using age as an excuse to learn.

2) Explore and research which skills would be useful for your future.

3) If you enjoy your profession, identify how your skills can be upgraded and enhanced.

4) Move your mindset from abilities to capabilities: which skills will keep you employable in the future?

5) Which are your fears about learning and improving? Are you above learning?

6) Apply what you learn; otherwise, it is just textbook knowledge (or book-smart).

7) Review which of your skills can continue to add value to you. If it is important to your organization/industry, it has value.

8) When in doubt, ask; verify what you don’t know.

9) If you say you already know – then you still haven’t learnt. Knowing is intuitive, while skills are demonstrated and expressed with results.

10) Surround yourself with motivated, supportive and skillful people. Learn from them constantly.

When I meet weekend athletes and endurance athletes, who are in the forties to seventies, I am deeply impressed by their dedication to learning. Hobbies and sports give us an opportunity to learn new things, and thus arm us with new knowledge and skills. Age may just be a mindset, integrated into a sense of maturity and expectation.

Henry Ford said: ‘If you think you can, or cannot, you’re right.

Fears or Fierce?

Our fears make us alert. It is part of our instinct to fear the unknown, or over that which we have experienced as unpleasant. Think of a martinet of a manager, an emotionally unstable colleague, or moments before your performance appraisal interview. You get the picture…

It is natural to fear the physical laws when these work to our disadvantage. Gravity for one becomes more pronounced at the crest of a rollercoaster, or cycling up a steep hill. Some people have exaggerated perceptions of fear – these are termed phobias. Aqua-phobia, of fear of water is a crippling one, as it has prevented many potential triathletes to stay as biathletes (ride and run).

This morning, I swam alone in the Sentosa lagoon before my swim squad turned up. Therefore, I swam two lengths of the man-made salt-water pool, and it was quite an experience. I normally swim with a group, however I was early this morning so I swam by myself (as recommended by my swim-buddy, Matthew). I was somewhat anxious as I concerned over my personal safety, the presence of jellyfish and sea-parasites, and aggressive sea-creatures. Hey, since I watched Jaws I have been afraid to get back into the water alone.

Although we cannot predict our future with accuracy (and fractals have verified that, mathematically), we can foresee the consequences of our stupidity. What I did was refocus my fear into useful energies: I focused on my swim technique, breathing on both sides, my buoyancy, kicking and sighting. Like juggling, once you focus on the correct things you will earn the results you seek. With this system check, I became more confident as I stroked across my watery medium with more ease and elegance.

Matthew pointed out to me that I had swum alone before; when we swim, we are, effectively, swimming alone without any assistance. The swimming pack fragments itself naturally, and at many junctures we are indeed by ourselves.

Leadership Lessons: Fears can be re-channeled into a heightened sense of awareness of your surroundings. Our fears can dissuade any attempts of the unsafe and stupid. Refocus your fears into more useful energy. Recall that you might have done the task that your fear stops from doing. Feel assured that our fears are not meant to hold us back, all the time.

Leadership Stardom

Lim Leong (aka Reeves) wrote on his blog an interesting piece, Leveraging on Consumer Stardom. By the way, that’s a clever name for a blog.

It started me thinking about stardom. Click. Click. Whirr.

What about leveraging on leadership stardom? If you are well-liked by your staff, colleagues and peers (not just by your personality) for your ability to lead in teams, and you seem to be the default, leader-elect for other opportunities – then you may be a star. Stars sparkle. They may have that cheeky twinkle in their eyes, or their feet. Their energy is infectious, and their behaviors affective on others.

Dr Kua Harn Wei, an associate professor at the National University of Singapore is an internationally-ranked, Deca-Ironman triathlete. That’s 10 Ironman distance races, done back to back, over 10 days; or 38km swim, 1,800km ride, and 420km run done, consecutively. This endurance athlete is considered amazing and bonkers at the same time. He has star quality, by reputation of his achievements. He also volunteers his time with wheelchair athletes.

Top, local Olympic Distance triathlete and SEA Games gold medalist, Mok Ying Ren may be considered a leadership star. He was the Ambassador for the Tri-Factor triathlon series this year. Despite being a busy medical student, he continues to achieve personal bests in public runs and triathlons.

In the early days of this blog, we enjoyed interviews with leading triathletes, ultra-marathoners, celebrity-emcees, and Everest climbers. They included: Steve Novick, Dave Low, Craig Holland, Oz Perlman, Alan Geraldi and Whit Raymond.

Have you generated and garnered enough wisdom to offer advice, or your words of wisdom? Have you updated your beliefs, including contemporary versions of idioms, axioms and proverbs?

How do you leverage on your leadership stardom? Do people around you spread your reputation? Are you often quoted in conversations?

The great leader is the one who the people say: We did it ourselves!

Gaia Announcement

This posting comes from Gaia Discovery. My friend, Mallika is the editor of this future-orientated website that focuses on the ecological impact of our actions.

Join in the Angkor half marathon this 5-6 December 2009 and enjoy timeless Cambodian heritage.

Ho Chi Minh, 2 September 2009. A great success since 1996, the Angkor Wat International Half Marathon gathered 2,593 runners from 43 countries in 2008. This year the bar has been raised. Running for a good cause while discovering one of the most amazing UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Cambodia is the main attraction for the sporty traveller.

Part of the entry fees for the half marathon (10km, 5km or 3 km) and bike race will be donated to a charity fund used to produce artificial limbs for mine survivors in Cambodia, and to help in the prevention of HIV/AIDS among youths. In 2008, US$4,870 was raised - doubling 2007's achievements. We hope to raise even more funds this year.

Sports enthusiasts are sure to enjoy the Angkor half-marathon on 5-6 December 2009, in Siem Reap as Victoria Angkor Resort & Spa has created a special deal for participants and supporters.

Top-20 Triathlons To Do Before We Die

According to 220 Triathlon magazine (20 Anniversary Special Issue), these are the 20 triathlon events and locations to go before we shuffle off this mortal coil. These are:

20. London Triathlon (ExCel, Docklands, London)

19. Ironman 70.3 Monaco (Monaco)

18. Bala Middle Distance triathlon (Bala, Gwynedd, Wales)

17. Ironman Austria (Klagenfurt, Austria)*

16. National Club Relays (Holme Pierrepont, Nottingham, UK)

15. Ironman France (Nice, France)

14. Ironman 70.3 St Croix (US Virgin Islands)

13. Windsor Triathlon (Windsor, UK)

12. Norseman (Hardangerfjord, Norway)

11. Alpe d’Huez Triathlon (France)

10. Noose Festival (Noosa, Queensland, Australia)

9. Laguna Phuket Triathlon (Thailand)

8. Ironman Lanzarote (Lanzarote, Canaries)*

7. New York Triathlon (New York, USA)

6. Xterra World Championships (Maui, Hawaii)

5. Powerman Zofingen (Switzerland)

4. Wildflower Triathlon (San Antonio, California, USA)

3. Quelle Challenge Roth (Roth, Germany)

2. Escape from Alcatraz (San Francisco, USA)

1. Ironman World Championships (Kona, Hawaii)

Do you agree? Let us know if you have your favourite races?

*Race I have done