In today's post, a couple of us are going to analyze a specific theme--longevity, using Ruiyong's career as a context.
An interview was conducted a couple years ago with Haile Gebrselassie and his wife. As everybody already knows, Haile is one of the greatest distance runners in the universe(not a hyperbole) and everybody recognizes the sheer precocity(or genius) of the words and ideas that spring from his heart and mouth! So let us get to what was gleaned from the interview. One of a couple journalists on a visiting trip to the capital of Ethiopia asked the both of them if they have any designs for all or any of their 4 children to one day be as great as Haile in the field of distance running? This was what was said, with lots of room for error in transcription and semantical translation:
His wife replied first:
"Both of us are very affirmatively united in the fact that for all four of our children, education come first. We do not say we are very against our children pursuing running as a career, but we would much prefer them to set their sights on getting a good education so that they may get a 'proper' job and be useful to society."
Haile corroborated:
"Yeah, you know being a professional runner is a very tough job and I am very thankful and blessed to be where I am and what I achieved but I was just very lucky that God chose to bless me in this way. His blessing isn't the same for everybody, otherwise any average runner will become like me. I and a few others like Bekele, Tergat, and El Guerrouj are one in a billion and the reality is it is very hard to succeed in distance running. You have to have no other choice, no education, no other means of surviving, and if you are feel very strongly for this you can bring your whole mind and body to focus on succeeding at running, but even this faith is very tough and I recognize that I am just lucky. It could have been anybody not named me(Haile)...."
"Running for health and fun is something I strongly recommend, and I have a strong connection with, because it has benefited both my mental and physical well-being. But running for a career is a different thing, and I would very much prefer if today's youths, if they have a chance and the resources, to stay in education and pursue a good one. That way they have a better chance of success and more stability, they also contribute more to society."
Barring transcriptional errors, one thing is pretty clear from the interview, Haile says: DON'T get into professional running, that should only be your last resort---that is you do not have any income and zero or negligible education, and you are very desperate perhaps in great poverty and you just want and have to make money to survive, and if you come from East Africa where genetic and environmental conditions naturally predispose you to likely have an infinitely better chance of success(read olympic medalling potential and world beater) than perhaps some young teen/youth from Singapore or Malaysia. Singaporean teens and youths: get yourself interested in your books and subjects and learn them well, even if they have little relevance to your career in the future. Because they do one very good thing for you---they train your mind to think critically, analytically and creatively so as to give you a very high probability of success in whichever area of work you want to specialize in the future! A good or educated brain/mind is infinitely easier to cultivate than a good set of biomechanical and biocellular parameters.
Do not get into professional distance running, the road is closed, says Haile Gebrselassie and therefore myself as well. Also by Haile, you can't be as useful to society as a professional distance runner as compared to perhaps some other professional jobs in the world. Your only usefulness as a professional distance runner is probably to inspire and encourage other average runners to be a professional runner by fawning over your relative celebrity-like status, but this is counter to what Haile recommends, and Haile is a man of great distance running experience! I respect him, you respect him, and we do the same with his opinions and ideas.
Bottomline: If you are a Singaporean distance runner in your youth, teens or early to mid twenties and dream or think of wanting to become a professional distance runner, YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT YOU ARE GETTING INTO!
There is an old proverb: BECAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH(DESIRE) FOR! The things you desire are often times based on a very biased set of world-view and beliefs filtered by your own ego and pride, and you continually and stubbornly grant yourself those world-views and beliefs without any external moderation or guidance from more experience human beings on earth such as Haile and some others. Ryan Hall, if I can recall in some interview last year 2015, also uncannily said the same thing:"Becareful what you wish(desire) for" and he was having some regrets about how he conducted his professional running career and getting into situations he wished or desired to have so much but encountering some accompanying roadblock that simply cannot and never will be avoided no matter how hard he tried to dodge because they come in a package, and that it threatened him and his career time and again which all led to his demise and downfall at the end of his retirement. This concept of 'becareful what you wish for' can also be applied to not only distance running or sport, but any part of your life as well.
As somebody with vast knowledge and experience with the sport of distance running, I can also guarantee one thing from statistical evidence. It is infinitely easier to train for and conquer Mount Everest, barring bad weather and avalanches, than it is for you to succeed(read as winning an olympic medal in any distance event) in distance running as a professional runner. This is not slighting all Everest adventurers and conquerors and their achievements, but statistics say so. You have disproportionately more Everest conquerors in every 4 year olympic cycle than you have medallists in the distance events. And to win only Olympic gold is even more rarefied.
But here's the thing: running as a hobby and passionate pastime is totally agreeably and pleasurable. And in our next post soon enough, we look at why the career of professional distance running is not all rosy and glamorous as it appears on the surface. We explain to you why it is better to run a 3hour marathon for the rest of your life and not look for improvements to that at all, than to keep trying to train harder and faster for better and better times, like perhaps to go from 3hours to 2:50, and then from 2:50 to 2:40, and then from 2:40 to 2:30.
We obviously will also explain to you why it is infinitely better for Ruiyong to remain running in the region from 2:26 to 2:40 for the next 20 years well into even his 40s and 50s, than running, by a miracle(and not by proper physical preparation because he has demonstrated none!), a 2:18 in London on an injured plantar foot that is GUARANTEED 100% not to be able to heal in time for London marathon on the 24th April, but have to be forced to retire early in say 2017 or 2018 because he had destroyed his body by causing disproportionate wear and tear by not being physically ready to handle 2:18.
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