(Published online: 27th December 2006)

You Run Life's Marathon, But Do You Run The Other One?(Three Reasons To Become - & Remain - Physically Fit)

Are you physically fit? Do you know that being physically fit can help you do almost EVERYTHING you do better?. How? To answer this question, I will tell you how it has helped - and helps - me in three specific ways:

a. Keeps Me In Control Of My Body: How many people do you know who can consciously make themselves wake up at a specific time of the night? We all have what is called a "body clock". For instance our body clock is what makes us "feel its time to sleep" as night falls. People who run night shifts have to RESIST their natural urge as humans, to sleep - if they wish to do their jobs well. If you find yourself often struggling to stay awake when you NEED to, you are either not in control of your body OR you have pushed it beyond its limits.

Many students find they NEED to study hard, and late, at times. But some complain that tiredness after classes stops them. Many working adults also struggle to wake/stay up to do other things they NEED to do after work often saying "I'm too tired". But let me ask you: "Are you really sure you are tired or is it YOUR BODY that's telling you that YOU are tired?". A physically fit person does not take orders from his/her body. S/he will have learnt to know when to take a rest and how far s/he can push her body. If you find you are always feeling too tired to do what you NEED to be doing, then - except you find medical causes for your condition or justifiable reasons not to - I strongly suggest you consider working to improve on your current level of physical fitness.

b. Makes Me Sharper Upstairs: Thinking for work purposes is hard work. Anyone involved in intellectually tasking work like creative writing, programming etc knows this. A person who is physically fit will experience fatigue SLOWER and LESS frequently over time, compared to someone who is not. The implication is s/he will be able to deliver qualitative intellectual output over longer periods, and consequently get better results.

c. Helps Me Excel Constantly: Back in paid employment, I was able to develop many spreadsheet solutions while doing my work on night shift duty. I was(and still am!) the kind of guy who could finish night shift at 7.00am; travel four hours by bus - grabbing some sleep during the journey - to Lagos state from Benin City to attend an 11.00am to 4.00pm seminar; and then return to Benin City by 9.00pm to resume night shift again! That's why when I was in paid employment(and up till this day), I got(and get) more done in 24 hours than many others could, in twice that length of time.

Because I stay fit, I find I am able to put in long and QUALITATIVE hours into writing programs, articles etc, in order to meet my set goals. Being physically fit enables you to push yourself to your limits and then go on to exceed them, thereby making you excel at whatever you do.

To summarise, if you find that often when doing something you consider important, your body tends to "tire" BEFORE you are done(especially at those crucial times when you need to meet a deadline!), then you need to check if your level of physical fitness does not need a review. Note that the level of physical fitness you need may be different from that I will need. Also, it could depend at any point in time, on the type of work you NEED to do, and the kind of results you aim to deliver. So, don't look around for someone to copy. Adapt a model of what others are doing in a way that it will work for you in achieving YOUR own set goals.

Preparing For The 2006 MTN 21Km International Half-Marathon

I now share with you details of my recent attempt to take my fitness level up a notch by entering the 2006 MTN 21Km International Half-Marathon. We all run life's marathon. But if we really want to run it well, we need to be at our best at all times. Doing so successfully, will depend - in part - on how fit we are. Running in some marathon - even if in our bedrooms - can help us stay fit enough to run life's marathon well and achieve a fulfilling existence.

1. Deciding To Enter For The Race: About the first week of November, the idea came to me - after watching one of the adverts for the then impending marathon - to enter for the race. When I told my wife she did not show surprise - having gotten used to my sudden unusual decision making.*

So, I stepped up the intensity of my exercise routines every other day. Instead of twenty sit-ups, I went for fifty, but only managed forty. I aimed for seventy push-ups, but dropped at sixty. Then I would run up and down the steep flight of stairs leading from the sitting room up to the bedrooms at first twenty times each way(up and down). By the end of the second week, I could do it 100 times each way. I would take 2 to 5 minute breaks between each round of exercises and then start all over again. I knew this was not enough but I could do no more because virtually the only free time I had was when I was not sitting behind the PC working on the Excel VB projects I had been paid for. The benefits of this approach compared to challenges of going out to jog along the roads out here also made it preferable.

*(I recall back in 1999 while still employed as a brewer, I would take her and my son with me to the Ogbe stadium in Benin City, Edo State where we lived then, so I could train with the Edo State Senior Handball team).

Wednesday 29th November 2006, between 12.30pm and 4.00pm: I stood in a "loooong" queue for over three and a half hours on one of the ramps at the National Stadium to eventually get my race number sticker(17604 - Click here to see the picture) in a bag containing a yellow race T-shirt and the Race Route Map.

2. How Running Up/Down Steep Stairs Helped: How could I have been so sure that running up an down a flight of stairs could prepare me for the race? Let me share with you what I learnt about keeping fit in non-ideal situations, that I learnt by getting close to some guys who even did it as professionals. One of them who I will call James, had actually played professional football for a club, before sustaining a serious knee injury that ended his career at that level. Despite this setback, his love for the game made him keep working hard to stay fit, and he still took every opportunity that came his way to train and play.

One day, I asked him how he managed to stay so fit to play the way he always did in the annual Brewery Manager's Football competition, what with the demands of the job he did. That was when he took me to a place where there was a rather steep flight of ten(10) stairs that went up about 3 floors. He told me that every time he was on night duty he would come with his training kit/shoes and while the machine he operated ran, he would run up and down that flight of stairs ten times each way. Compared to James' stairs, the ones I have in the house I live today are a joke - I assure you!

On James' stairs I would usually be ready to drop by the time I hit ten (up/down) runs. But believe me, after doing it for two weeks, your leg and stomach muscles would have a tone/conditioning that would keep you going till the end of any match duration. How do I know? Because I subsequently made a point of doing what James did every time I was on night shift especially when I needed to prepare for a competitive event, like the Brewery Manager's football competition which I started playing from the time I was a Graduate Trainee in the brewery.

Running up an incline - though painful - is one of the most effective ways to build stamina/endurance and strength in your legs/knees. If your legs/knees don't collapse under you, chances are high you'll be able to finish any running you have to do. It's one of the most effective ways I know a person can use to fast-track his/her efforts to get fit, especially if time is limited. Apart from that, you can add this slant to your training efforts to boost your efforts and give you an edge over those you have to compete against. Try it, and see - GENTLY at first please: Especially if you have not been doing any exercising before now.

3. How Sit-ups/Push-ups Further Helped: Developing your arm/stomach muscles through push ups/sit-ups also helps your running. When running, your stomach muscles become more active in helping the breathing process. Powerful abdominal muscles help make breathing faster during running because it then requires less effort on your part to take in and expel air from your lungs. The thick/hard wall of abdominal muscles you develop by doing sit-ups helps breathing occur much more easily - even when you are tiring. I know this because it is what helped me play many a handball match at my best without appearing to "pant" or tire - a fact that led to a campus article titled "Tayo Solagbade - STEROID MAN"(I still have a copy in my files) being written about me in my final year, after I captained the Independence Hall Handball Team to win the 1992 Inter-Halls Handball competition.

Interesting thing is that you can do exercises that help you achieve all of the things I just mentioned, even if you do not have access to the fancy equipment some people use. The stool in your living room, the dining table, walls and stairs in your house, are all very willing companions that you can engage, if you know how. I do not have a tread mill or other equipment, but my wife and kids see me using the items just mentioned to do my exercises. Sometimes my sons even join me! If you need details of how to go about this , send me an email and I'll make out time to send you pictures with notes showing how I do it(including having my three year old son, Stephen, ride on my back - and enjoying every minute of it! - while I do fifty or more push-ups).

Coming Up With A Race Plan

Of course since I knew I had not done enough to run the race competently, I had to come up with a very flexible race plan, to help me get to the end. In virtually every area of life, you need a plan. In business it's called a Business Plan. In web marketing, it's called a Web Marketing Strategy. You have to think through the steps you will follow to achieve your set goal. In putting together this plan, you would need to consider the possibility that some things may not happen according to your expectations, and therefore think up alternative courses of action you will follow. That's why even in warfare, soldiers have a plan A, which if found to be failing will make them switch to a plan B and so on. Here's what my plan was like:

My Objective: To start and finish the race even if I had to crawl to the end of the line. No matter what happened, if I started it, I made up my mind I would do whatever would be necessary to get to the finish line.

The Race Plan:

A. Study the map of the race route, and note landmarks, milestones especially the location of water points which I was convinced would be crucial to my being able to finish the race. Why? Because I knew - from experience - I would need to re-place fluids and cool off more frequently than would have been necessary if I had been fitter.

B. Run at an even pace, without worrying about any person(s) overtaking me. A pace I would be able to maintain for as long as possible.

C. If/when I felt too tired to keep running, I would drop to a fast trot and keep that up for as long as possible.

D. If/when the trot became too difficult to keep up, I would drop to a quick walk with long strides. I would never drop below this.

E. Whenever I felt up to it, I would switch from D to C, or C to B etc as many times as I could manage it.

Running The Race

a. Getting To The Venue: 6.00am Saturday 2nd December 2006. I woke up and quickly took my bath. Did some quick stretching exercises, and got dressed. Two bus rides PLUS one bike ride later, and I had joined a growing crowd of intending runners at the Outer Marina start point on Lagos Island.

b. Starting The Race: After about 45 minutes of waiting, during which time I found myself "re-uniting" with one of the chaps with whom I had queued to get a race number at the National Stadium, the start gun was fired and the race began. As we ran I could hear people around me talking excitedly as they ran. Most were in it for the fun. At first most went sprinting off. By the end of Km 3(the first water point), many who had rushed in front slowed drown and gradually began to drop behind. It was funny to see how by running at a seemingly slower BUT constant pace, you could eventually catch up with and overtake others who had rushed off at blazing speed into the distance.

All through Awolowo road and up till Falomo(around Km. 4), I had found myself panting rather badly - and to my surprise. I began to wonder if I had been wrong about using the stairs. Still I kept going, but I was forced to maintain a fast trot(plan B) rather than run for those first 4-5 kms. By the time we got past Ozumba Mbadiwe(Km. 5), I felt a gradual loosening up in my chest, and my breathing became more evenly spaced and freer(sometimes the body needs to warm up a bit). That felt more like it - so I stepped up to running pace(plan A). The next two water points saw me snatching bottled water from the very dutiful personnel at Kms 6 and 9. My hands shook much less this time, so that most of the water I directed into my mouth as I continued running actually ended up in there! At km 3 I had poured the contents on my head and tossed the bottle away in frustration when I found I simply could not hold it steady enough to drink from it!

c. Paying The Price For Using Untested Shoes! I cannot recall for certain, but I think it was after the water point at Km 12, before we got to the Apongbon bridge, that I noticed growing pains as my big toes pressed against what felt like protrusions on the inside front end of my canvas. I instantly knew what the problem was. The shoes were only 48 hours old. I had not followed the health tip MTN had sent via text messages to mobile phones of registrants which said NOT to wear NEW shoes for the race and to make sure tried and tested ones were used instead - to avoid injury.

I was aware(from playing handball) of the dangers of not heeding this warning. Not only can bad shoes lead to peeled skin on your feet, I actually recalled losing a toe nail once because of bad playing shoes, and it was not funny. Yet I had chosen to go ahead because I was determined to run the race, and could not come up with any alternatives. As the pain increased in both feet, I settled for a quick walk(plan C) by the time time we got to the bridge at Costain area(Km. 17).

d. Getting(Or Should I Say "Dragging Myself") To The Finish Line: Looking at the MTN race map, I would say that I kept up the quick walk from the Carter Bridge/Costain roundabout area till I got to the finish line in the National Stadium. By the time I arrived in the stadium's main bowl, the popular comedian - Julius Agwu (it sounded like him) - was already treating people to his great jokes. I made a point of going round the track to get to the finish line. There were others like me in front and behind. Many however did not bother with this ritual. I did it because it was important to me. I learnt from the officials at the finish line that the race had been formally declared ended at 10.00am - two hours after it started(at 8.00am).

Upon checking I found out the time was about 10.15am. This meant if I had maintained a running pace, I could have made it in WELL before 10.00am! I promised myself that I would work towards doing just that in the next edition. The pain in my toes soon made me take off my canvas, to look - with horror - at my almost bloodless white and swollen big toes, especially the one on my left foot. Today, exactly three week afterwards, that left toe nail has a black patch across most of its underside. But it's gradually clearing up. I think I narrowly missed losing it. Of course next year, I'm going to ensure I get the right type of running shoes!

How My Son's Teasing Helped Me Finish The Race

On a lighter note, here's another reason I forced myself to finish the race. That morning as I got dressed, my first son Fela laughingly said: "Mummy don't mind my Daddy O. He will just run a bit and get tired, then just go and sit down somewhere O!". The naughty little rat got his siblings and my wife doubling over in laughter as I left the house. Showing mock anger I said, "I'll get you when I come back!".

But his words stayed with me the entire race. In a way, I felt I could continue the work I had done in getting them interested in competitive sports early in life by getting to the end, and THEN using the fact that I did to challenge them to finish anything they start as well. Suddenly I had another compelling reason to keep going. Every time I felt like I could not continue, I asked myself: "What will you say when Fela and the others ask you if you finished the race?". The answer I knew I wanted to be able to give them made me stay resolved to get to the end. And I did. Of course I could have lied, but I knew from past experience that lies always EVENTUALLY bring us the opposite of what we desire.

Summary

Considering that I did not decide to enter for(or begin preparing towards) this activity until less than four weeks to the time it took place, I feel great knowing that I was able to finish it. I got to the finish line, but I did not do it in style :-). If anything, I literally crawled to get to the end, BUT my mind was made up from the start of the race: No matter what happened, I was determined to get to the end. Achieving THAT goal - despite more than five years of not doing anything as physically challenging - has done wonders for me physically and psychologically. Ask anyone who ran the race and did not cut corners to get to the end, and I'm sure they'll tell you something similar to what I have said here.

In life you will perodically have reasons to want to stop before reaching a set goal or target. This could happen due to one or more setbacks. The fact is if you do, you will never reach your full potential and will always wonder what could have been. My challenge to you today is to always give yourself a good reason to want to keep working to achieve that goal that you set for yourself. In the end you will accomplish it, and be rewarded with a greater knowledge of yourself and your ability to succeed. You will become a better person that you were before you did it.

Below: 17604 - My Race Number Sticker(Or What Was Left Of It Post-Washing!) For The 2006 MTN Half-Marathon

Possible Areas Of Improvement For MTN To Consider

Wednesday 29th November 2006. Between 12.30pm and 4.00pm. I stood/queued in the hot sun for over three and a half hours on one of the ramps at the National Stadium waiting to get my race number and goody bag. That was an educative experience on its own. Below, I have outlined a few worrying observations for serious consideration by organisers of this otherwise excellent event, towards making it meet the International Standard it is meant to have.

I doubt very much that what I have to say here will be news to the organisers. But say them I will, if only to impress upon those responsible, the need to get these issues addressed in the interest of future editions of what I consider a truly useful activity.

a. Better Handling Of Contestant Registration Entry Records Needed: The officials had printed lists of names, ages etc of those who had sent in text messages using their phones and also for those who had filled forms at designated centers. I marveled at the fact that each official had to run a finger through sometimes five pages of names, to find EACH person's name - and correspooding race number. And they had to do this from from morning till evening EACH day!

What a cumbersome process! And how could such a labour intensive approach prevent inadvertent errors from fatigue? Think about it. How long can a human being focus his/her eyes to scan through vertical listings of names to accurately find the one s/he is looking for EACH time. I saw quite a number of people who had to return home without being registered EVEN though their phones showed text messages from the MTN system confirming receipt of their text entries.

Who knows how many of these people simply lost out because the person who looked for their names mistakenly missed it due to eye-fatigue. A suggestion to MTN: Use MS Excel to collate ALL entries so that simple Data-Auto Filter drop menus can be used to query the resulting database table, to find ANY name(s) or even age groups within seconds. This is after all an international event.

The race registration process in my opinion could have taken MUCH LESS effort, time, manpower and other resources than it eventually did, if this approach had been used. And just before anyone says it would be difficult to get PCs set up on the ramps, I point out that Laptop or Notebook computers are a convenient alternative which would only require a power supply cable connection for battery charging.

b. Free-For-All Goody Bags: I was intrigued to see some women who looked like petty traders/market women, and others who were so advanced in years that you would be scared to have them jog a few seconds talk less of running a marathon, come in to pick up goody bags and of course race numbers that went with them. And that was not all. Quite a number collected MORE THAN one goody bag. In fact some left with as many as five! At a point, I could not help myself on seeing a particularly frail woman carrying bags off. I asked her "Madam, are you sure you intend to run this race?". She looked at me with a bemused expression on her face, and simply walked off. Many young boys also did the same thing - I mean, getting more than one bag. Truth is many of them just sent in multiple text entries using different phone lines, and then came in to claim the bags. But what would they do with it? I provide some answers I discovered below.

c: Goody Bags For Sale: Hey, does MTN know that their goody bags are just about as marketable as their sim packs? Before my very eyes, I saw guys who could not bear to wait over three hours like the rest of us did, readily buying goody bags/race numbers off those who had obtained multiple entries. Please note that I was not told. I WAS THERE, and I SAW IT. Prices ranged from N150.00 to N250.00. As usual, the rest of us talked about how absurd it was that those trying to sell such a thing could find buyers, and then we all shrugged our shoulders and looked away. So, that's ONE reason why some people collected many goody bags: to sell them. Another - crazy as it may sound - is so they can get many T-Shirts to use or give out as gifts.(I even saw some fellow runners take out time on Carter bridge to pack bottles of water collected from race water points into bags which they then took home -ending their participation in the marathon there).

d: Corner-Cutting Race Contestants: The level of monitoring/control along the race route definitely needs to be stepped up. I saw a number of contestants freely take various shortcut routes to get ahead of others especially in the early stages of the race. I cannot be sure, but it is possible that some that I saw taking Okada/motorcycle rides from about Km 3 probably ended up getting back in to the race closer to the end of the route! That would make nonsense of some of the final positions or placings wouldn't it?

But, It's Still A Great Event!

Notwithstanding the above, I honestly think the MTN marathon is a great event that has the potential to make people more interested in keeping fit. One positive direct benefit is that a larger part of the populace will become fitter over time, and it will reflect in the quality of work they do, and the active lives they live, to the ultimate benefit of the country.