Our President has been asking for my events story, and I have started writing twice, but it never got to our editor because I never finished writing it. Now that I am in Ipoh on a business project, after things have more or less settled down, I have found the time to write it down.

Our club reached 1,000 membership not too long ago, so huge that I was even asked at the PJ Half Marathon whether I was a Pacesetters member when I registered my son for the Kuantan Run. I have always enjoyed my runs even though I have not trained due to my work load. However, I am very disappointed, not at my performances, but the attitude of friends, members, even highly educated people on the issue about my son Barry, that he shouldn't run long distances. Some say that a child below the age of sixteen should not run more than 10 km and that it will affect his height, his joints, his future, his 'Chi' and his heart. These are all the unreasonable reasons that I cannot accept. To me, I agree that a child (anybody) should not even run 3 km if they are not trained. In my case I have never forced him to run. When he was 9 months old and still suckling a bottle in 1992, I carried him up a mountain where I met Gerald Pereira (Gasing Group Leader), an old friend whom I got to know years ago on that same mountain top. At that time I used to envy him, seeing him do the full marathon which I dared not attempt. To date, Barry has climbed Gunung Nuang five times and still loves doing it with a deep passion, and likewise the passion for running when he started after the age of eight. At the age of seven I took him to Tasik Permaisuri to run round the lake, but half way he complained of fatigue and walked back. I never asked him to run anymore until the day Rahman came to tell me about the Larian KL 2000 which had a category (3km run ) for children aged 8 to 10. I encouraged him to participate and his first question to me if there was any prize money? I told him yes, there was prize money and no, he would not win any, but assured him a medal if he started training right away for there was only two weeks to the race day. Just two days before 1st February, HUKM had a 7km run, I took this opportunity to teach him to start slow and pick up the speed towards the end, as this was a different type of race. At the sound of the horn, we were last in the group, and we overtook one runner after another, and 50m to the finishing line, he could not overtake two more boys and ended up with a 12th position. At the end of the race, the organizer extended five more prizes, Barry was lucky to win a medal and a hamper. On the race day, I told him this race was different this time; he had to run fast from the start and I would not be running with him because of my 10km run. After my race, I was shocked to see him without a medal around his neck. How come he was not in the top 30 positions? I asked him why and he drew a blank, so I took him to check with the officer. To my surprise, not only did he win a medal, he even won RM25.00 for the 7th placing.

Barry had proved me wrong. Since then, his interest grew; we went from one race to another covering distances from 3km to 10km, until Rahman advised me to discourage Barry to do long distance running, which was confirmed during one of the talks given by a doctor after the breakfast run. I have to thank Rahman, for without him Barry would not have started his passion for running.

My years of running experience has taught me a lot, plus all the advice from club members , books and magazines on long distance running. I am not saying that I know a lot about running, I am still learning, but one thing I know that years ago after long distance running, I used to ache all over my body. I have always monitored Barry for any pain but he has not had any, even after running 20 km.

I recalled after he did a 10 km race at Pasir Salak, he asked me permission to swim in the pool. Sometimes, it makes me wonder where he gets the energy to play after running that distance. He is my flesh and blood, I care for him more than anyone else. I ran with him in all his first attempts at 10km, half marathon, full marathon and triathlon.

In his first Seremban half marathon, he finished 2hr 45min, after the qualifying time of 2hr 30min due to stomach ache; he was more disappointed than me. To me, his finishing that distance was already a great achievement, but not for him and he wanted to do more, a full marathon! Songkhla Full Marathon. I disagreed, I told him that he was not ready yet and he needed to do at least 4 half marathons before he was ready to take on the 42.195km. He was determined and trained hard for it. So I scheduled all his training and race preparation programs for his 1st full marathon in Singapore. I still remembered how I suffered running my 1st full marathon with no proper training and guidance, so I will not let him make the same mistake that I made and I have guided him every step of the way to be sure that he will not suffer the way I did. But lightning did strike twice, and after 20 km he suffered a stomach ache again and had to go to the toilet before we continued and started to overtake at least 20 runners. Still, by the time we reached the end I was hoping that our president would be there to see him finish in 5 hrs 12 mins, and to witness that he was still fresh, but most of our members had already gone back. Bruce and us, we walked to the nearest MRT station to get back to our 'HOME'.

The good thing about this race was that there were no age and distance limits. It gave everybody a chance to try to go further and stop if you couldn't do 42km; you can stop at 30km, 20km, or 10km. But the sad part of it, was that you have to stop at almost all the traffic lights, was this a marathon? Maybe they should call it a stopperthon!! Like it or not, Barry can officially run with only a certificate to show and no medal after running all that distance!

To us runners, the medal is what we treasure the most especially a good, heavy, nice design medal like those that we got from a Thailand run. Talking about medals, when we came back from the Surat Thani Run, I met a Malaysian senior veteran who said that he went all the way there all because of the medal, as he normally couldn't get any from our local races.

You may have years of running experience but that doesn't necessarily give you the knowledge about what age to start or stop running. I hope I will still run a full marathon at the age of hundred or more.

Can anybody tell me where in the world it is stated that there is a starting age for running long distance? I am not trying to set a world record for Barry, we just love running long distance. By the way, the world record is held by a Japanese girl aged 8 years old with a timing of 4 hr plus.

Why stop someone from doing what he or she likes?
Why not stop people from smoking? I always do, encourage friends and customers to stop smoking and drinking alcohol, and to start jogging and join our club.
Tell me that long distance running is not good for him and I will tell you to read more before you say anymore.
Why is it that after every long run I measure his height he has grown taller?

On behalf of my son, "Thank You All", I know you mean well. We are all Pacesetters, we set good examples of sportsmanship. This is what I am always reminding him. Winning is not just getting to the rostrum; finishing is also winning, as long as you have fun! And be able to say "I DID IT'. To improve myself, I set my sights on a fellow runner who is better, and to target him as a pacer. Run for the love of health!

A word of wisdom : "If you can't Encourage, Don't Discourage"

David Lee
2nd VP 2002