Ironman Inspiration!

I have been inspired to do an Ironman race ever since I took part in the 10Km Sheares Bridge marathon last year. Interestingly...even though I have been very active in sports since my primary school years. I swam competitively while I was in primary school, played
badminton and volleyball competitively to a pretty high level and also represented my school, college and faculty...Yet I have never thought that running 10km or more was an achievable target...and yet, after having been there and done that last year and reading Sunday's article on 'Ironman Kua Harn Wei', it really inspired me that nothing is impossible and the human body's endurance ability is truly amazing.

What is remarkable is that Kua has put Singapore on the pedestal to become the first Asian to have completed the Deca-Iron Triathlon World Challenge! What is most inspiring thing for such athletes who manage to complete such a feat is not so much the fact that they managed to complete the whole race, rather it is the process that the atheletes went through - the amount of discipline and effort that goes into training for this 'pushing the human body to and beyond event!, sacrificing their recreational/sleeping/meal hours just to train for this gruesome feat (which I believe NOT many of us can do it in our life time).

For that, I salute Kua Harn Wei. He is a great inspiration to all. When the going gets tough, the tough gets going.

Catch Kua here on his final lap to the finishing line - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILr3ieC6jGM&eurl=
Here is Kua's personal profile - http://www.bdg.nus.edu.sg/staff_bdgkuahw.htm


The Straits TimesNov 18, 2006
TRIATHLON Kua completes 10 Ironman races in 10 straight days
By Jeanette Wang


IMAGINE swimming lengthwise across Singapore, then cycling up to Chiang Mai and finally running back south to Bangkok.Impossible?AMAZING FEAT: Kua Harn Wei took a total of 156hr 48min 43sec to complete the Deca-Iron Triathlon World Challenge in Mexico.Singaporean Kua Harn Wei will tell you otherwise.The National University of Singapore lecturer, 35, covered that distance at the Deca-Iron Triathlon World Challenge in Monterrey, Mexico, last week.The event was organised by Multisport Andonie, a Mexican company specialising in ultra-distance events.Starting last Monday, Kua completed one Ironman triathlon - a 3.8km swim, 180km bike ride and 42.195km run - every day. He did it for 10 straight days.Competitors had to swim 76 laps in an indoor heated pool, cycle 93 laps of a paved circuit, and run 22 laps of that same circuit within 24 hours.Once completed, the remainder of the day was free. But each day at 9am, a new round would be flagged off.Of the 17 athletes who started, only nine - eight men and a woman - managed to finish all 10 races.Kua is the first Asian to complete the challenge.The 2006 Singapore Youth Award winner averaged 15hr 40min 12sec for each Ironman. He won the final leg in 13:16.33.His total time for the 10 races was 156hr 48min 43sec.The overall results were not available at press time.Kua, who took part in his first Olympic distance triathlon (1.5km swim, 40km ride, 10km run) in 1992, has also competed in the Ironman and Double Ironman distances.Last year, he was ninth at the Quintuple Ironman World Championships in Mexico.His latest feat has left Triathlon Association of Singapore president David Hoong in awe.'It's beyond the human body. I can't believe he did it,' he said.Parliamentary Secretary for Community Development, Youth and Sports Teo Ser Luck, a three-time Ironman, added: 'Singaporeans should take this as an example of someone who always sets the bar higher for himself.'Kua could not be contacted.