Never Give Up - The Story Of RJ

Waddup guys!

I wanna share something here.This is truly incredible inspirational story!

Keep reading yaw!

As I copy from HooHa Asia :


Iran my first marathon last night - PUTRAJAYA NIGHT MARATHON...here is my account of the events that unfolded. But before that let me take you back a few months, or maybe a few years.


Last year, ORIGINAL BOOTCAMP came to our shores. Several years back I had read about it in a fitness magazine and wished there was something like it here so that I can join. I have always been active right up till 2004. I usually run 10k, and occasionally attempt 21 and in 2004 I did my first and so far only Olympic distance Triathlon - I finished, Alhamdulillah. Back then, I try to stay in shape with gymming and basketball, but after early 2005 I started to lose the "MO" (motivation) to go out and sweat it out. I can't figure it out but there was just no more fun to do it. Perhaps an increasing problem of a bad back and bursitis in the knee contributed to this. I gained 6 kg from inactivity and easily felt lethargic and even climbing stairs of my house was also a chore.

For as long as I can remember I had always wanted to run a marathon and I looked upon marathoners with great respect. Completing the TRI in 2004 was orgasmic but I have yet to do a marathon. With my fast depleting fitness I knew this goal is looking more and more impossible.

Then my son Danial stumbled upon OBC ad and screamed,"Dad!, Dad!..this is you!, You gonna sooo like this"...Danial was right...This was just what I was looking for, something new and fresh...without hesitation I signed up in July 2009, first batch in KL MERBOK.

I enjoyed every minute and every session of this first ever OBC in M'sia until the 7th session...the night before I played soccer and got elbowed in the ribs. Sakit macam nak mampus!, I could not even run let alone do the push-up or grunts!...I asked Sarge Sim to be excused for the rest of the month. I joined back in NOV after RAYA but this was about 2 months after my first outing so again fell into the trap of the lost "MO". I attended just 3 sessions...

In Dec 09, I forced myself to signed up after words of encouragement from many of you my OBC friends when I posted my trouble with losing MO. Many of OBC mates replied with words of encouragement and that helped me to rethink my objective.

Then, some time in early DEC I read that OBC Recruit Rose and Cik Nyna completed their Singapore marathon, wow!...SALUTEI...that's awesome... I want to grow up to be like them!..Rose gave good pointers so THANK YOU Rose! When the PNM registration invite come into mail. I thought...and thought...and thought...OKAY! lets do this! I asked Angelyn, a friend and a seasoned marathoner for some pointers too..and appreciate all her advise.


I didn't have proper planning to prep for this run, its just 2 solid months of OBC. There was no mileage build up run towards the event...just OBC and occasional legs workouts in KIARA gym!...WRONG WAY to prepare for a 42k! But the conditioning, stamina and endurance build up in OBC helped tremendously. Thanks to all the trainers.

When the big day came yesterday I simply set my mind to finish, no time targets...just BLARDY FINISH!...I was prepared to walk it alone till the end if the marshals want to go home. I don't care! This is my chance to do it and I WANT to finish. What happened yesterday was not what I had anticipated.


At 2am, the cut-off time for FULL M, I was in the back road only having covered 31km with 11km to go...I struggled with cramps, blisters, bad back, sore knee and hunger!..I swear I saw PIZZA HUT, McD and BURGER KING along the GOD forsaken route! I employed the run-walk-run-walk strategy but it soon became more and more difficult as the cramps plus the chaffing sores in the thighs started to bother. Then I heard, my kids, ZYRA, DANIAL and DZAUQI...ALE! ALE! ALE!...they drove by in the car with their friend JOHAN his sister Nana...pushing me on...they followed me for about 2 km and left as Danial has to work the next morning. Their shouts gave a shot of adrenalin in me and I pushed further on but soon without them I struggled again...then some where amongst the silence of the night I heard a voice in my head ...it was SARGE.."COME ON, RJ you can do this!...you are BOOTCAMP recruit and you are strong!"...more shouts rang from within me..from my OBC mates and of course from my wife Liza, who too was shouting in my head to GO ON FINISH IT!!!...As the noise in my head became louder and louder...I shouted back in the middle of no where..."OKOKOKOK!...SHADDUP already...I'll finish this!"

...to myself I'm thinking, they'd want me to finish...so go rahman! one step at a time!

All along the last stretch of 11km to go, the great and wonderful people of SKATELINE Volunteers kept me company in what would have been a lonely back road. The motor bike marshals and those in the car were starting to gather now and asked me if I'm okay..I told them, I don't mind if you guys want to go home but I am going to finish this...by the 7km-to-go mark, ALL the route marshals in cars and bikes plus and ambulance was behind me traveling ever so slowly behind this fast fading and stubborn Astakan...the RUN-WALK-RUN-WALK strategy was now reduced to walk-walk-stop..walk-walk-stop...did I want to quit? yes...many times, and I almost gave in...but in the midst of chokes in my throat I told myself, my kids needs to learn from this...I want them to know - In facing your troubles you are allowed to feel pain, you are allowed to feel disappointed, you are allowed to feel angry, you are allowed to cry (I choked several times) ..BUT...YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO GIVE UP!

By the next 2 km with 5km to go, these marshals where becoming noisy...they blared their horns and screamed encouragement to me..."Come on! You can do it!...We will wait for you!!!' ... now that just tugs my heart...my dream to ever completing a marathon is about to become reality, I have people behind me willng to wait past their time to see it happen...by this time it was 3:10am...way past the 2am mark...one marshal got off his car and in his slippers ran with me...pushing me!...cramps in between made me stop and go and stop again and go again!...they were there...ALL of them...they all wanted to see this victory!...its not a victory to be the first!...this is a victory to finish...i think this is just amazing...every corner and at every 100 meter mark, they blared their horns again and passed water to keep me hydrated...3:30am and I only have less than 1km to go...more marshals got off their cars and ran with me!...the boulevard was an air of carnival even with just a few people left and this lone old man who won't give in.


With the last 200meters to go...i dug-in all the energy I had left and just ran all the remaining way to the make shift finishing ribbon, a red and white constructions plastic tape but ti didn't matter to me...by this time the timers was down, the band has gone home, the crowd is already in bed but just a few people mostly the organizer and marshal and RED CROSS stayed on for my moment...I had tears in my eyes!


Crossing that line was just as good a winning the Olympic medal...I cannot describe it any more than just,>AWESOME! AWESOME! AWESOME!...I prostrated to ALLAH in gesture of KESYUKURAN...and just then the cramp bit my calf...OOOUCH!...I fell to the ground but was quickly attended to by RED CROSS...after a guick and short massage, I was pulled up to my feet again and there was VEGINATHAN, the CHIEF MARSHAL who immediately garland the finisher medal and handed me the FINISHER T-Shirt while the crowd was clapping and shouting WELL DONE!, WELL DONE!...I was in a new high , a new level of jubilation and ecstasy...unequaled and unparalleled to any.




In a recorded interview by the organizer, THE ORANGE MAN, I thank him and his team for waiting for me and apologized profusely for my tardiness!. He promised to upload the video of my finish in HOOHA Asia website soon.


I wish to record my sincere and warmest appreciation, a major THANK YOU to you. ORANGE MAN and also to every single soul that was there for me that night and those who pushed me on. I may not know you by name and I am sure I will not be able to remember the faces too but one thing that shined bright in the darkness of PUTRAJAYA night, was your luminous gesture of sacrifice and unselfishness to let a man complete his dream and his goal. While we mortals will one day be gone, but its our gestures that will be immortalized! On that night, your gestures were surely sealed in my memory and that of my family members.

5am...I walked gingerly back to my car...all alone now, pain starting to introduce itself...it was a slooow, serene drive back to SRI HARTAMAS...satisfaction of a goal reached and a mission accomplished.

Thank you to my lovely wife for supporting me to do this...love you mumsey!


RJ Rahman Mansor

Comments

NikeRunning KL

Korang tau tak sape co-founder Nike (dahulunya dikenali sebagai Blue Ribbon Sports) ? Hah mestilah tak kan.

Nama awesoma man ni adalah Bill Bowerman. Beliau coach Steve Prefontaine.


Okay gua nak cerita pasal Nike "We Run KL". FYI event tuh event first gua join tahun 2011.

Pukul 5.30,gua Roger,Mirul,Karin gerak dari UM. hajatnye nak sampai awal boleh buat warming dulu.

Dalam pukul 5.45 kitorang dah sampai kat Padang Merbok tuh.Lepas parking motor gua terus tukar baju.Mirul dah hilang entah kemana carik coach dia.

Gua ngan Karin bajet cool je jalan jalan usha kalau ade awek cun boleh ajak lari skali.Huh

Tepat pukul 7 running start. Diorang ikut beat Sweden House Mafia - Save The World time nak lepas runner tuh.Memang rase nak pecah je telinga duk tepi speaker tuh.

Kilometer pertama gua dalam kelompok depan lagi sampai lah 3K. Gua rasa lain macam je ngan kaki nih. Rasa macam tak cukup strectching je.

Lepas 5K,gua rase boring pulak. Tetibe ade sorang awek lalu tepi gua. Nampak pace dia mantap macam body. Pehhh. Gua cuba menyaingi dia..Laju skit pastu slow balik..laju skit slow balik...pastu terus potong dia pastu tengok kiri....

Whaaaattt???

Patutla laje semacam.kah3


Serius dah gua serik nak usha awek time lari.Amik kau!

Kembang lobang idung!

 Gua ni jenis yang start slow tapi bila nak abis baru  nak speed. Mase nak naik bukit feveret gua. Rase bangga je bila tengok semua orang kene potong.Haha

1K last gua tekan nooze, Masuk2 je lane tuh nampak semua orang tengah bersorak gua lagi la semangat!

Pehh kalau gua mantain speed camni from start memang nangis la Kenya nak kejar!

Malangnya tidak.Sayang

Poster dia style!

Okay gua finish by placing 500++ out of 6K.Member gua UM Runner,Amirul Syazwan dapat no 3. Kabornya dia tu takdak jantung. Gua rase lebih kurang 10 Kenya dia tinggal.

Gua dengan Roger ,Karin,Ganso

Yang dua dari kiri tu nama dia Roger. Sory bro,gua dah buat yang termampu nak bagi gambar ni cerah tapi apakan daya lu lagi kontra. :(

Azwan Bunjing! Second fastest UM Runner so far.

 Gua dengan Azwan Bunjing. Amik Business kat UM

Tudiaaa Mirul dapat 3rd place.Belakang Kenya tuh!

Cuba korang first place brape mase dia buat. Epic.

Tu jela kot gua nak cerita.Chow!

The Legend of Foo Fighters

#nowlistening to Walk - Foo Fighters

My Favorite band since 1991.

Korang kenal tak band super duper awesome nih?

Okay sekarang gua nak start buka cerita pasal hidup gua lately. Er "lately" I mean for the first quarter of 2012 la.

 Back in Dec 2011,gua rasa ade something yang gua kene achieve dalam hidup gua. So far self achievement gua ape je. Setakat follow the flow je selama nih.

 

So gua decide nak aktif balik running. Gua tekad nak join all the running events kat Klang Valley nih if possible.

Ok,nanti gua sambing cerita pasal first running event gua time 2011 in the next post.Stay tune.

Kalau lu orang tak kenal jugak Foo Fighters nih gua rase baik lu orang jangan kencing berdiri la.

Download dulu full album Wasting Light baru kita cerita panjang.

Blogging via Blackberry

Okay.this my first post on my new blog..awkward.



RB if you awkward..zzzz

Taktau kat mana nak start. Ahhh persetan semua tu yang penting sekarang gua dah start menulis balik.

Entah dari mana datang idea nih..maybe sebab gua rase bak share skit pasal hidup gua yang makin awesome hari ke hari.

Mungkin pengaruh dari GP or Abu Ubaidah. Mungkin tidak,tapi thanks for them cause' inspire me.

Entah kenapa tangan gua menggigil time menulis blog nih. Mugkin gua akan menghasilkan karya hebat. Lejen mugkin.

Eh ini dah macam Thom Yorke. Serius gua baru tahu pasal dia time tengok cerita The Vow semalam.


Okay gua dah taktau nak tulis ape dah. Tak reti lah. Kah3

I Stop When I'm Done - David Goggins

David Goggins,The Toughest Athletes On Earth.

In 2005 Petty Officer First Class David Goggins’ life took a tragic turn. Several of his fellow U.S. Navy SEAL(s) were killed in a helicopter crash during a mission in Afghanistan. To honor them, Goggins vowed to raise money for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, which gives college scholarships and grants to the children of fallen special operations soldiers. Goggins rationalized that to raise money, he would have to do something extreme, something phenomenal— something incredibly painful.

He decided to race ultramarathons when he Googled the 10 most difficult feats in the world. First on the list was the Badwater Ultramarathon, a 135-mile footrace through Death Valley. He called the race organizers to inquire about entry.

Goggins had never participated in an ultramarathon before—he had never even run a regular marathon. However, the race organizers were sympathetic to his cause and said that if he completed a couple of ultras before Badwater, they would consider his race application.

Only four days after deciding to compete in Badwater, he was on the starting line of his first 100-miler. What happened to Goggins over the course of the next 100 miles might have been a life-changing event for many. For Goggins, it was simple affirmation. He broke nearly every bone in his feet and suffered kidney failure. His wife, who is a nurse, feared for his life and urged him to go to a hospital. He refused. He called in sick to work the day after the race. In truth, he couldn’t move. He began to wonder if he’d make it through the night.

“I thought I was dying,” he says, “but I thought to myself that if I did, I’d be OK with that, because I’d done something impossible.” He woke up the next morning happy to be alive, happy that he’d completed his first ultra, and even happier that he was closer to getting into Badwater. Two weeks later he ran in the Las Vegas marathon. He ran Badwater just six months after that—and finished fifth.

It was the start of a journey whose course no one could predict, not even Goggins.

He routinely makes the podium in some of the world’s most challenging ultra-endurance races, yet he only takes enough prize money to cover his travel expenses. He was named one of Runner’s World magazine’s 2008 Heroes of Running, even though none of his goals involved running. He says that he hates to swim, hates to bike, hates to run and still does them all on a daily basis—precisely because he hates to.

Over the past two years, Goggins has achieved numerous incredible feats of athleticism, confounding people who try to classify him. Is he an athlete? A stunt performer? A genetic phenomenon? A superhuman?

Goggins’ life is one of profound focus and determination. When he was 13 years old, he attended a speech from a pararescue jumper of the U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command. Goggins never forgot that man’s inspiring story of a parachuting accident that broke most of his bones and required a tracheotomy. Nonetheless, the airman pushed himself through rehab back onto active duty, and he was jumping again within a year. From that moment, Goggins understood what he wanted his life to be, as well as the resolve to not waste a moment in pursuing his goals.

After four years in the Air Force, and a few years of trying to make it as a professional football player, a 290-pound Goggins stood in a Navy recruiting center and proclaimed that he wanted to become a member of the SEAL(s). The recruiter told Goggins that a man of his stature would never make it through training. Two months of intense dieting and exercise later, Goggins stood in the same recruiting office at 190 pounds. Goggins was forced through the SEAL(s)’ infamous hell week twice, but finally achieved his goal in 1998. From there, Goggins continued to defy the odds. He’s the only member in the U.S. Armed Forces to complete SEAL(s) training, the U.S. Army Ranger School and Air Force tactical air controller training. He’s also faced combat in Iraq.

Only three months after completing Badwater in 2006, he competed in the Ultraman World Championships triathlon in Hawaii. He placed second in the three-day, 320-mile race, cycling 261 miles in two days on a rented bicycle. Before training for that race, he’d never ridden a bike competitively. Goggins returned to Badwater in 2007 to finish third. Over the next two years, he competed in another 14 ultra-endurance races, with top-five finishes in nine of them. He set a course record at the 48-hour national championships, beating the previous record by 20 miles with a whopping total distance traveled of 203.5 miles and earning himself a spot among the top 20 ultramarathoners in the world. He became the subject of a Runner’s World feature, and the Navy asked him to appear in a recruiting commercial. Notoriety, awards, medals, achievements.

Other than the money he’s raised for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, none of these matter to Goggins. He’s not trying to be number one in the world. He’s not interested in how many races he’s run. He doesn’t keep track of the miles he’s gone through. There’s no scoreboard; there’s no finish line.

At the beginning of our interview, Goggins said with fervent sincerity: “I’m nobody special.” It’s a mentality that’s evident in his keeping with the military convention of referring to himself in the third person by his last name only. He’s not the ultra-athlete David Goggins, or David Goggins or even Petty Officer Goggins. Just Goggins. Just another guy.

It’s not a contradiction of terms. He doesn’t live in denial of his accomplishments, but what he emphasizes—what is the essential fiber of Goggins—is that not a moment is wasted dwelling on them.

“Ultraman is nothing like Ironman,” he says. “There’s no huge crowd, or party or even an announcer. You hardly even notice the finish line. For people who do these races, it’s not about that. Watch the video of me crossing the finish line at Kona,” he says. “I’m not overwhelmed with the accomplishment. I’m looking down at my watch, and it’s not to check my finishing time. I’m looking to see what time it is and how much time I have left in the day for another workout. I’m already thinking about the next thing. As of that moment, Ironman is done. It’s time to move on.”

Nevertheless, he’s living the spirit of Ironman to the utmost, discovering just how much he can do. Every day, he’s up and running by 3 a.m. After a 20-mile run, he bikes 20 miles to work. He runs at lunch, if he can. Then it’s back home (on the bike, of course) to join his wife for weight training in the gym. He’s in bed no earlier than midnight most nights. Don’t bother re-reading to check your math: It really does add up to only three hours of sleep a night. When people ask if he uses supplements to help him train, he says that he takes a giant suck-it-up pill every morning and washes it down with a refreshing can of hard. This isn’t boasting. It’s military-speak for the hardest part of Goggins’ daily regimen: getting out of bed.

Goggins takes his suck-it-up pill every morning because no matter how unpleasant it is to swallow, he’s seen something that’s even more unpleasant to contemplate as the alternative. He’s seen “the look.”

It was during one of his SEAL(s) hell week experiences that Goggins saw it. Running on only 15 minutes of sleep in three days, having gone through multiple obstacle courses and other punishing training events, his class had just been let out of the freezing cold water of Southern California. There stood Goggins and his classmates, shivering on the beach, when one of the instructors barked the order to get back in the water. The man beside Goggins turned and looked at him with a hollow gaze. He didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to. “The look” said it all. The man turned and left the group. He quit.

Goggins views “the look” as a form of surrender, abandoning everything that he stands for. Surrender is never an option. “Running is running,” he says. “It hurts, but that’s all it does. The most difficult part of the training is training your mind. You build calluses on your feet to endure the road. You build calluses on your mind to endure the pain. There’s only one way to do that. You have to get out there and run.” Goggins stresses that he’s not selling himself as some kind of model for athletic success. “I don’t know if everyone should be doing this, definitely not the way I’ve done it,” he says.

“I don’t follow a training philosophy. If I’d gone at things slower and trained better, I’d probably be better now. But I just didn’t have time. I had three years of non-deployable time; that was it. But I knew I could take the pain, so that’s what I did. The body breaks, but it will heal back. It will adjust.” Goggins’ body has certainly made adjustments. The 290-pound powerlifter is gone, replaced with a lean 190-pound runner with 4 percent body fat.

Those adjustments didn’t come without work, though. In the beginning, Goggins and his wife were constantly finding creative ways to apply tape and cushioning to his feet and legs to keep him up and running.

He never took days off, and while the word “surrender” isn’t in his vocabulary, neither is “recovery workout,” so he spent a lot of time with his body held together with an array of wraps.

“We all have our own journey in life, I’m focusing on mine,” Goggins says. His journey is one about his own limits and recognizing that life is too short not to get out there and enjoy everything the world has to offer.

“I remember watching this guy on television climbing Mount Everest without oxygen,” he recalls. “Every movement just looked agonizing, but he made it. And I thought to myself, ‘That guy is really living without regrets.’ When I get to the end of the road, I don’t want to be thinking about the time I wasted or the things I could have done with that time. This world has so many challenges, I have to keep moving on.”

That spirit helped Goggins through one of the most difficult challenges of his life in May. During a routine checkup, his doctor discovered a birth defect known as artrial septum defect (ASD), or a hole in his heart, and it’s only able to function at about 75 percent capacity. In “normal” people, this would prevent them from doing activities such as scuba diving or anything at high altitude, because the excess of oxygenated blood that is unable to leave the heart can cause the muscle to bleed out.

Only a few days after learning of the condition, Goggins had surgery to repair his heart and is recovering well. So well, in fact, that he started doing light workouts only two weeks after surgery. It will likely take six months until he is fully recovered and able to compete in endurance events again.

Many people have described Goggins as “an animal” or “a machine.” He’ll likely remain in the history books as one of the greatest ultra-endurance runners and triathletes, and his temporary absence from the multisport community is truly a loss. He’ll still tell you he’s nobody special. But one thing is certain: He is human.

Given what he’s put himself through, for himself and for charity, for which he’s raised more than $300,000, and what he’s given to us through his own continuing voyage of self-discovery, he may be more human than the rest of us.