As promised in this post, we go on and discuss why, if you love the sport of distance running, you ABSOLUTELY MUST have the desire to protect your distance running health, and express outward evidence that you do indeed desire to protect this health all the way till you leave the face of this Earth! Otherwise, we question your 'love' for the sport, that you are perhaps deluded in some aspects of the love for distance running sport, and would need guidance to be brought back on the right path. And we think Ruiyong needs some real guidance on how to conduct his mindsets and attitudes towards distance running sport.
1) In distance running sport, the INDIVIDUAL comes first. Considerations for safety, health, integrity must always come first. This is a little selfishness but a good selfishness to have. A good ego to have as well. This is something that must be taught and glorified in all forms of sport education. THERE IS SO SUCH THING AS SACRIFICING YOUR SAFETY, HEALTH AND INTEGRITY for the greater good of say the country's pride, honor and reputation. This isn't an patriotic act, just in case you are tempted to think that way---it is in fact a perversion of the good sense of selfishness or ego.
2)Once considerations for the INDIVIDUAL have been taken care of, we may then discuss about how well he/she may serve in the various areas of his/her life or career. If he/she were a professional distance runner, he/she may then consider how he/she may make his/her country proud and bring honor to her by perhaps showing great sportsmanship and ethics/morals. If he/she were a professional lawyer, he/she may consider how he/she may conduct his/her profession in such a way where he/she does not defile both the morals and ethics society demands he/she should know, as well as expecting the same from his/her clients, and then also show masterful ability to balance the safety, health and integrity of himself/herself and those of his/her clients, whatever that means in the profession of law.
3)Let's say you find while doing your professional job that you have to sometimes, or, all the time trangress some safety, health and integrity, or society's ethics and morals(assuming you know what they are), or been asked by those of your clients to start trangressing ethics and morals in the name of perhaps more rewards such as money or gifts, and you give in to that temptation, THAT IS CORRUPTION OR PERVERSION OF THE GOOD SENSE OF EGO AND SELFISHNESS, as defined above. You now have a bad ego, and you are selfish in a bad sense as well! Similarly, if you a professional distance runner and find yourself having to make the decision during a race when you suddenly acquire a serious injury with clear and acute pain signals emitted, and you failed to stop the race and drop out immediately to protect your health, safety and integrity, which is the ethical and moral thing to do, YOU HAVE CORRUPTED YOUR OWN BODY PHYSICALLY, MENTALLY AND EMOTIONALLY, BECAUSE YOU GAVE IN TO TEMPTATION AND SELF DENIAL TO KEEP RACING!
As everybody already knows, our very own local athlete Ruiyong has failed to uphold the proper ethical and moral considerations of his sport, and failed to therefore protect the safety, health and integrity of his own mind, body and spirit. This is regretful but unsurprising concurrently. Seeing how clouded his mind in thinking he has the wheels and body to run a 2:18:xx marathon, we do not find it any surprising that he can be equally clouded in failing to protect his safety, health and integrity! If you are cloudy in one area of life, there is a sometimes high probability that you are also cloudy in another area. This cloudiness is another way of describing DELUSION.
You might then ask, can a professional distance runner continue improving his personal best times and and run better and faster without sacrificing his/her safety, health and integrity, or perversing his/her own good sense of the ego and selfishness? Absolutely yes! And the key is obviously to not deceive or delude yourself at any point in your life as a distance professional or amateur runner, which means to always be working within the bounds of reality and realistic targets, which also means working within the bounds of societal expectations. What do I mean by working within the bounds of societal expectations? If you are a mum with say 2 young kids, and also hold a full-time stressful day job, but then also want to become a professional distance runner, don't become a professional distance runner in the first place, but you may work towards just becoming a good HEALTHY(READ INJURY FREE AND HAPPY) distance runner who makes sure she leaves enough family time and energy for her young kids and romantic dinners with her hubby, as well as enough time and energy for her full-time professional day job, and if that only allows her to run 3:03 for the marathon in the best weather possible, she SHOULD BE content with that time. She mustn't steal time from family and her kids, reapportion time from her romantic dinners with hubby, or frequently go off early at her professional day job, just so that she can put in training to only run 3:02! NO, THAT IS IN FACT ALREADY DELUSION OR CORRUPTION of her mind and body, because she has perversed good ethics and morals and spoil the balance between what is only her hobby and family and career.
The point I am getting at is this: you do not destroy the balance between the various aspects of your life so that you may run faster and better, because running faster and better isn't your professional job, and a case could be made against you that you are indeed egotistical and selfish if you insist on running faster than the balancing of the various aspects of your life would naturally allow. Let me explain further: if you are already achieving a perfect balance in family, career and running, perhaps your family is prospering and happy, you are also doing well in the office and people are happy with your productive output, and you have ran a fantastic marathon of 3:03 as a lady, STOP THERE! Dun look for any improvements IF IT COMES AT THE EXPENSE OF SPOILING THE BALANCE! If you have to neglect the school soccer matches or birthday parties your young kids want you to be present at, just so that you can get in supposedly more rest and recovery so that you may have a greater output at training so that you may run 3hours flat for the marathon as a lady, DON'T DO IT, THAT ISN'T NATURAL! The natural thing to do is to be with your kids and spouses, or be working at your professional job! Your running hobby would have become your obsession, which isn't natural. So do just enough running---train and race hard and whatever timings result from your efforts are what it is! If somebody runs faster than you, say an American lady your age runs 2:44, she is simply more physically gifted than you are, and you simply accept it. This isn't defeatist attitude! Do not attempt to usurp the delicate balance that is your life. How does it apply to Ruiyong specially?
As Ruiyong doesn't have a career or family(wife+kids) yet, we will be speaking of 'balance' in terms of his attitudes towards injury and national patriotism!
At the world half marathon championsips, Ruiyong made the bad decision to even start the race knowing his plantar has re-emerged in kenya, and then making another bad decision to continue racing despite sharp, severe and acute pain setting in. That is a double corruption to the safety, health and integrity of his own mind and body, and therefore a corruption of society's ethical and moral values. Ruiyong has also selfishly and egotistically manipulated the balance between national pride and his own health and safety. Ruiyong has conveniently, by his corrupted self and ego, overlooked his own safety and health in favor of national pride and honor, and this act then brings a bad name to those who truly do bring real national pride and honor to Singapore. He is a terrible example for the young teen and youth runner anywhere in the world.
There is no point in destroying the balance so that one may achieve better results. This is similar to the concept of 'win at all costs', and such a concept is deluded and corrupted, and we see many instances of this in our sport today, most recently Alberto Salaazar's scandal here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/athletics/2016/03/16/ethical-grounds-only-way-to-pursue-alberto-salazar/
It must be infinitely better for Ruiyong, to remain as a 2:26-2:40 runner well into his 50s, sensing how much he says he 'loves' the sport of distance running, while maintaining the balance in all aspects of his life! We cannot forsee(after considerations from the type of society we live in, the weather conditions, the amount of talent Ruiyong has, and many more factors) that, while maintaining this balance, he can actually become top ten olympics 2020 or be running 2:18:xx 2:17:xx or 2:16:xx, because many things are going to come along his way as he grows with more responsibilities and sensibilities to balance and manage, and it only gets more complicated to balance, rather than easier. Besides, he will age and he will slow down. This brings us to another point---examples of 30-something or 40-something runners who are still breaking marathon pbs are obviously heart-warming, but WHAT NOBODY TELLS ANY OF YOU IS THIS: THE PROBABILITY OF ANYBODY BREAKING THEIR MARATHON PB AFTER 35 YEARS OLD IS NOT HIGH, LIKE PERHAPS 10%, AND IN THIS 10%, MORE THAN HALF ARE PROBABLY PROFESSIONAL, and we have no idea if they are doing it ethically and morally. The chances are they are not!
At the end of the day, we just don't believe a SINGAPOREAN 3 hour male marathoner already training very hard and well, will one day run 2:30:00 or even 2:40:00 ethically and morally, a few years down the road. And we don't want ANYBODY to try to be so foolhardy to prove this statement wrong, because that is not the point of this post, and he/she could bring himself/herself untold physical and emotional hurt.
Feel free to provide some comments please.
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