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With input from Dr Tan Peh Khee
Health Benefits of Running
What better way to exercise than running? Human beings evolved to walk and run more than 4 million years ago when we rose from all fours. We were made to run — 10,000 years ago, hunter-gatherers like the Tarahumara Indians in Mexico, ran many miles a day on the hunt. In 490 b.c., Pheidippides, an ancient “day-runner” put running on the world map when he ran 149 miles to carry the news of the Persian landing at Marathon to Sparta in order to enlist help for the battle.
Running strengthens the heart by making it a more powerful pump. It lowers blood pressure, improves the level of good (HDL) cholesterols, reduces the level of the bad (LDL) cholesterols, and minimizes the risk of stroke and heart attack. Running maintains the elasticity of the arteries because they expand and contract three times as much as usual when a person runs. Running also improves lung function as 50 per cent of the normally unused lungs are utilized during running.
In addition, as running is a weight-bearing exercise, the stress it places on the skeletal system through pounding against the ground causes an increase in the bone mineral density. This minimizes the risk of osteoporosis and fractures.The psychomotor training that trail running provides also improves the muscular coordination of the body. This helps to minimize the risks of falls in the elderly and further contributes to the reduction of fractures sustained from falls.
Many people actually start running in order to stay slim or combat obesity. Studies have shown that approximately 60 per cent of runners start running to maintain their weight. Running is one of the top activities for burning fat. With the exception of cross-country skiing, running burns more calories per minute than any other cardiovascular exercise, due to the large muscle groups that are mobilized. The successful treatment of obesity has been shown to reduce the risk of type II diabetes mellitus, obstructive sleep apnoea, fatty liver, cancers (e.g. of the colon, breast, uterus, ovary, prostate), subfertility (decreased chances of getting pregnant), and varicose veins.
Running has even been purported to retard the aging process. It does this by slowing the muscle and bone loss that tend to occur with age. Running also promotes the release of human growth hormone, which is thought to maintain the general physical well-being of a person. Maximal aerobic capacity (a measure of the body’s ability to use and transport oxygen during exercise, also known as VO2 Max) is thought to decline by 10 per cent per decade, starting from the mid-20s. In my twenties, I had a maximal aerobic capacity of 56 ml/kg/min; now at the age of almost 42 years, my maximal aerobic capacity has increased to 70 ml/kg/min when it should have declined by 20 per cent. Thanks to running, I have managed to cheat time!
Running is not only good for our bodies, it is also good for our minds. “Running causes animals’ brains to produce markedly more brain cells in the hippocampus, the part of the brain involved in learning and memory,” says Dr Ho New Fei, a postdoctoral fellow with the Functional Brain Imaging Laboratory, National University of Singapore. She conducts research on exercise and brain function, and adds that, “Running also increases the capacity of brain cells to communicate with one another, and improves the animal’s performance in a spatial memory task. In humans, aerobic training is linked to a significant increase in brain volume and activity in the parts of the brain associated with executive functions, such as decisionmaking and problem-solving.”
We also know that running can relieve stress in a person’s life and bring about the runner’s euphoria through the release of natural endorphins, a hormone similar to morphine. Hence, most people feel and function better after a run than before it, prompting psychologists to prescribe running to combat mild depression. Long runs are great at affording space and time for a person to think through a problem. More importantly, running promotes positive thinking and builds confidence in a person. In a runner who is into serious training, running can also imbibe a sense of discipline which is applicable to other areas of life, be it work or academic pursuit.
The Challenge
So, we all know running is good for us, but why 42.195 km? There are races covering anything from a 100 m sprint to middle distance races to half marathons. The big difference is that, unless we train for it, we do not have enough energy stores to run continuously for 42 km. We tend to hit the wall from about 25 km onwards, when we run out of carbohydrates stores and have to slow down because our fat stores cannot be mobilized as quickly. If you are able to do a 10 km run, it is not much harder to do a 21 km run. But from 21 km to 42 km, it is a different story! The pain is not two-fold, but disproportionately more. Hence, the marathon is distinctly different from shorter distances because the distance extends beyond what we would usually have in our fuel tanks. It requires prolonged training and the biochemical adaptations that it induces, in order to complete the last 10 or so kilometers. It is precisely the difficulty of completing 42.195 km that makes the marathon the Everest for most runners.
Another draw of the marathon is the delayed gratification. We know it is not a race that one can simply grit his teeth and complete — it requires months of dedicated training. Not only do we have to train our musculoskeletal systems to tolerate the high impact and our cardiovascular systems to deliver adequate oxygen and fuel to our muscles, but we also have to teach our bodies to use the fuel efficiently in order to last the distance and finish in one piece.
In a marathon, you are racing against yourself. Unlike races of shorter distances, most people do not care if they come in 50th or 5,000th; it is more about achieving a person time target that you have set for yourself. There is great personal triumph and satisfaction in breaking that five, four or three hour barrier. To hit your target, not only must you be adequately prepared, but you also need a sound race plan and execute it to perfection.
Age is No Barrier
Left: Ronnie Wong (centre), together with
(behind, from left to right) Ben Tan, David
Tay, and Lua Choon Huat, after a Sunday
morning run. Right: Kor Hong Fatt.
 Ronnie Wong only started running at the age of 34 years, when he moved from Singapore to Bermuda in 1980. He was then working as a chef and regularly hung out at discos till 4 am. A friend bet him six shots of whiskey that he could not finish a 10 km race. He won his bet and got hooked on running — so hooked that he even ran a marathon in Bermuda the day after his wedding in 1988 and won, making headline news. Ronnie has since stopped drinking, realizing that it was neither helping his health nor his running. He does not have any of the medical problems that often plague those his age, and still leads a disease-free life. Now 63 years old and living in Maryland, USA, Ronnie continues to run in marathons and ultramarathons. Is age slowing Ronnie down? “Of course not I think I’m getting faster,” retorted the man who has been recording sub-3:30 marathon times in very recent years. In 2008, he completed his 200th marathon!
Kor Hong Fatt was 70 years old when he suffered a heart attack. Following that wake-up call, Hong Fatt started running regularly at the age of 71 years. “I had to be fit. I had to take care of myself, so that I can take care of her,” he says, referring to his wife, who suffered a stroke in 1994. “We can’t be a burden to our children,” added the father of two married sons. Hong Fatt finished his first marathon in 2003, and later set his personal best marathon time of 4:47:30. Now, at age 77, he has completed 10 marathons, and plans to continue running till he is 80. “It’s all about knowing your body well and listening to it,” replies Hong Fatt, when asked about how he manages to keep going.
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